Korver vs. Bazemore: Perimeter defense has to become bigger priority

[hawks774]

Korver has been quiet offensively against the Wiz and only took 4 shots while logging 36 minutes. At this point, defending Beal,Pierce and even Otto Porter has to become a bigger priority. Bazemore is not Thabo but the Hawks need his defensive presence on the floor at least 25 to 28 minutes. Plus Bazemore has the ability to put the ball on the floor and attack the basket.

[hawkzlova123]

I feel next game korver should catch a little fire. Becquse of the pnetration we r getting now... I feel wizards r gonna play off a lil now. If korver hits 5-7 threes next game we win

[capstone21]

Korver does more then just score ... his presence on the floor has an impact as the Wizards can not leave him alone ... that automatically opens up the floor for us.  Even when he is not hitting he is still helping.

 

That being said he is one of our best passers especially inbounding, one of the better rebounders and he hustles his butt off on D and challenges everything.  Beal is scoring a lot but not efficiently but because he is taking a lot of shots.

[Diesel]

Korver has been quiet offensively against the Wiz and only took 4 shots while logging 36 minutes. At this point, defending Beal,Pierce and even Otto Porter has to become a bigger priority. Bazemore is not Thabo but the Hawks need his defensive presence on the floor at least 25 to 28 minutes. Plus Bazemore has the ability to put the ball on the floor and attack the basket.

 

You go with who brought you to the dance.  Period.  Korver is liable to come out of his funk at any time.    I like Baze.. a lot but offensively, he doesn't draw the same attention that Korver does.  Don't just look at how many he hits, look at how big of a distraction he is also.  Moreover, nobody seems to be putting too much pressure on Washington anyway.

[DrReality]

They each have their place in the rotation. Second that Korver does a lot of things that don't show up in the box scores

[EazyRoc]

Korver does more then just score ... his presence on the floor has an impact as the Wizards can not leave him alone ... that automatically opens up the floor for us. Even when he is not hitting he is still helping.

That being said he is one of our best passers especially inbounding, one of the better rebounders and he hustles his butt off on D and challenges everything. Beal is scoring a lot but not efficiently but because he is taking a lot of shots.

Beal was abusing us. 44% FG isnt terrible. It seemed like he was beating everyone off the dribble and the bigs rotated late. This also got Milsap into foul trouble and kept us in the penalty. Our gameplan has to change.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

As long as Horford, Teague, Sap, DMC, and Schröder keep being efficient and keep getting contributions from guys like Scott, Muscala, and Pero, Korver not scoring is okay. I'd rather see Beal or Pierce shut down on the other end than to see Korver score 20 and I really hate that this team seems to be so dependent on Korver. I want to see the Hawks to score no matter the player like we did in Game 4. I loved seeing those points in the paint and Gortat struggling.

[BackForThe2ndTime]

I'd have to disagree that Korver scoring is okay. If Korver isn't scoring and he's on the court, this team is hurting. Especially if he's guarding Beal. Korver's offensive game is not versatile enough and his D is not good enough against a more traditional offense like the Wizards. 

[capstone21]

I'd have to disagree that Korver scoring is okay. If Korver isn't scoring and he's on the court, this team is hurting. Especially if he's guarding Beal. Korver's offensive game is not versatile enough and his D is not good enough against a more traditional offense like the Wizards.

do u see our other guys getting doubled? Do u see Korver's man leaving him on d? That how important he is. He doesn't need to score to have a positive impact

[macdaddy]

do u see our other guys getting doubled? Do u see Korver's man leaving him on d? That how important he is. He doesn't need to score to have a positive impact

 

Which is why we gave him a 4 year deal.   The offense depends on him keeping his defender occupied.

[benhillboy]

I had to go look for pigs flying when Baze hit that three from the top of the key off the dribble.

The law of averages says Kyle will drop an efficient 20 before this series ends, that's a sure win.

Kyle is a great team defender, but of course man-on-man he can't be discussed in the same sentence with Baze. Baze may be as strong and a little quicker than DeMarre, just with less guile and craftiness. Surely he's healthier/fresher at this point, but neither of them have a broken fibula or anything...

I feel sorry for Kyle isolated out on the perimeter. It's like the squirrels who see your car coming but have no idea which way to run. Then you feel that little bump and say "RIP little fella".

Edited May 12, 2015 by benhillboy

[Diesel]

I'd have to disagree that Korver scoring is okay. If Korver isn't scoring and he's on the court, this team is hurting. Especially if he's guarding Beal. Korver's offensive game is not versatile enough and his D is not good enough against a more traditional offense like the Wizards. 

 

You really need to look at how Korver being on the court... Scoring or not.. .changes how other teams defend us.  We have big gaps on the inside because they cannot drop their man down to cover the lane.  Thanks Korver.  No worries...

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Korver has been quiet offensively against the Wiz and only took 4 shots while logging 36 minutes. At this point, defending Beal,Pierce and even Otto Porter has to become a bigger priority. Bazemore is not Thabo but the Hawks need his defensive presence on the floor at least 25 to 28 minutes. Plus Bazemore has the ability to put the ball on the floor and attack the basket.

Korver is being neutralized on both ends of the court. When defending Beal, not only can he not guard him in isolation, he's also being ran through a ton of screens trying to keep up with Beal. Combine that with the doubling the Hawks tend to do, it's really taking a lot out of Korver.

So now when he goes on offense, and has to exude all of that effort just to get open, it's affecting his shot.

Kyle is shooting 37% FG and 37% 3FG in this series. Most notably, he's only 6 - 19 FG in the 2nd half of games and 2 - 11 FG in the 4th quarter.

With DeMarre shooting the way he has in these playoffs, the Hawks can afford to possibly reduce some of Korver's minutes, and give them to either Bazemore or Schröder. As long as Bazemore looks to slash FIRST and not jack up a 3, the Hawks could possibly get away with giving Korver a little more rest, so that he'll be fresher in the 4th quarter.

And for those of you who think that Kyle's offense isn't needed, think again. In this year's playoffs the Hawks are 4 - 0 when Kyle scores 17 or more points. When he scores 16 or less, we're 2 - 4.

And in the 2 games we won, we got a combined 32 points from DeMarre (22) and Bazemore (10) in Game 2 ... and 29 huge points from Teague on Monday night. So if Kyle isn't scoring, somebody better take up the slack. That doesn't happen often.

If he's having an off shooting night, it's probably in our best interest to put in other guys who can score, or put in a defender to limit their offensive production.

Edited May 13, 2015 by TheNorthCydeRises

[atlhawks1]

Korver has been quiet offensively against the Wiz and only took 4 shots while logging 36 minutes. At this point, defending Beal,Pierce and even Otto Porter has to become a bigger priority. Bazemore is not Thabo but the Hawks need his defensive presence on the floor at least 25 to 28 minutes. Plus Bazemore has the ability to put the ball on the floor and attack the basket.

 

I agree. Korver has been garbage every since he lost the allstar 3 point contest.........lol

 

Seriously though, dude needs to be benched, right along with Antić...........At this point, BOTH Mack and Moose should be taking minutes from Korver and Antić.........

[BackForThe2ndTime]

You really need to look at how Korver being on the court... Scoring or not.. .changes how other teams defend us.  We have big gaps on the inside because they cannot drop their man down to cover the lane.  Thanks Korver.  No worries...

 

The impact of Korver whether he is intent to score or not is nothing new. It has been well chronicled through out the season and it is a thing of beauty. My favorite play in particular is when Horford’s man helps too much at the top of the key as Korver receives a pass. Korver than quickly touch passes to Horford  as he pivots down the lane for an open layup/dunk. Similar plays see the ball not even making it to Korver when the D mistakenly gravitates to Korver very early.  There are a couple of reasons though (IMO) why this can not be viewed the same.

 

1.Stylistically and on a granular level, NBA offense hold very few secrets. In the reg season, players and coaches just have less time to gameplan for specific plays/themes. This is not true in the playoffs. As a result, it’s a little easier to take away certain aspects of a team’s game . Teams have more time to pinpoint on the creative ways we get Korver open without having to thing about another team a day later. Our pass-heavy offense arguably benefits from Korver more than anyone else. That’s a pass-happy style offense that is often dependent on jump shots, which are generally not as effective in the playoffs. Add that Korver may be the only one in our starting 5 not nicked up and him not driving the offense in the same fashion is harder to stomach. We only have 2 starters who can really create their own shot. With the aforementioned nicks, less Teague time and less effective Millsap ISOs are harder to come by. Fortunately for us, those guys looked familiar last game so hopefully we’ve turned a corner.

 

2.(Probably more important) The talent at the SG position isn’t what it used to be in the NBA. I’ve heard Korver called everything from horrible on D, to a “good team defender” to “an underrated defender. I’ve felt all three ways at some point in time. He has his moments. One things that can’t be denied, is that he’s often able to hide on D in this league. And even if we get a good SG, we can sometime send Carroll. With Pierce at SF and real size down low, it’s hard to be creative on D. Beal is having the best moments of his NBA career right now. With the Wall injury, the offense is coming through him at a much higher rate and we have our worst defender in the starting 5 guarding him a lot.

 

Look. I’m not pointing the finger at Korver. I don’t even think he is one of the biggest keys to win this series. In the context of this thread, I’m just saying you can’t value Korver’s non-scoring value on offense the same in this series. Mostly because of the defensive implications. These are just the cards we've been dealt in this series. He’s actually shooting fine. We just can’t get him enough shots. I don’t think we not start him at all, but the value isn’t the same and personnel changes have to be made to account for this. What those changes are and how minutes are allocated is the tough part. That’s why I’m not an NBA coach. More Bazemore sounds great to me but that is such a simple/incomplete solution on its face and the devil is in the details. BTW, All this points to why having Wall back with a healthier, aggressive Teague may not be the worst thing in the world. But that sounds crazy, right?

Edited May 13, 2015 by BackForThe2ndTime

[devilwentdown2GA]

Korver played one of his worst games Monday night and hasn't been great all postseason. IMO Baze's defense is crucial for us to win this series. We scored nearly 70 points in the first half of last game and barely won. We need to keep our defenders on the court against their attacking guards and shooting wings.

[DrReality]

Our offense runs its options and if he is doubled then they take that read and find the open man.

[MaceCase]

I believe that a lot of what makes Bazemore effective is his energy, you start extending his minutes and the intensity of his energy is likely to dip.  I'm also not in the "what have you done for me lately" camp to start utilizing it to determine on the spot strategy.  Just a week ago Bazemore hadn't hit a shot in close to 30 attempts and was part of a bench unit that almost solely put the Nets series in jeopardy.  I'm not promoting him and killing Kyle because he's happened to hit a couple shots and Beal had his first game scoring above 41% for the series.  Like Diesel said, you go with who brought you to the dance, you don't toss her aside because you think some other gal winked at you. 

[hawks774]

Korver is 0-3 at halftime and played 19 minutes here in Game 5. Bazemore played just 7 minutes. Wiz made second quarter run when Baze sits.

[FrankWhite]

I love Korver, but if he can't get open, you might as well put Bazemore in. He can at least guard Beal.