Inside Kyle Korver's Playoff Slump [ESPN Insider/Haberstroh]

[BackForThe2ndTime]

Pretty Interesting read!! I tried to copy pictures but the site kept kicking me back to the main forum page after submitting the thread. Not sure how this will turn out.

 

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015/insider/story/_/id/12916333/why-kyle-korver-struggled-2015-playoffs-nba

 

Pop quiz: Who's the best player not named LeBron James in the Eastern Conference finals?

 

Tough call. But if you're consulting ESPN's real plus-minus metric (RPM) that estimates on-court impact on both ends of the floor, it's an easy pick: Kyle Korver. At plus-5.5 RPM, the sweet-shooting All-Star registered as the most valuable player on the Atlanta Hawks roster this season, even more valuable on balance than Kyrie Irving (plus-3.1), Kevin Love (plus-3.0) or any other Hawk.

 

That's hard to believe if all you've watched is this season's playoffs. Korver has been rather pedestrian thus far, averaging 11.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 35 percent shooting from downtown this postseason. Korver shooting 35 percent from deep is like Stephen Curry forgetting how to shoot free throws or James Harden losing his ability to draw contact. To wit, Korver shot 61 percent from 3-point range over a 12-game stretch earlier this season.

 

So, what's up with Korver? Is it just a cold streak or is something deeper going on? For the Hawks to punch their first Finals ticket in more than 50 years, they need the All-Star to play like an All-Star. Here's why he hasn't yet in the playoffs.

The gravity king

 

Let's back up a bit. Korver's numbers are way down this postseason, but he is still a master at keeping the defense honest. That's why even though he's not smoking defenses with 25-foot haymakers, the Hawks' offense is 6.5 points per 100 possessions better this postseason while he's on the floor.

 

Keeping defenses honest is an essential part of the job in today's NBA. This season, no one did it better than Korver, who possessed the highest respect rating in the NBA. What's respect rating? It's a composite metric that combines STATS LLC's gravity and distraction scores provided to ESPN Insider that quantifies how much a player pulls his defender toward him while he's off the ball. Using SportVU cameras in every arena, STATS LLC took a stab at figuring out who was the best at keeping defenses honest and Korver tops the list.

 

This season, Korver registered a 99.8 score, just passing Golden State's splash brothers Curry and Klay Thompson. The others near the top of the list includes some sharpshooters (Kevin Martin) and some ball-dominant lone stars (Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony). But no one stretched it quite like Korver.

'Respect Rating' Leaders, 2014-15 Regular Season PLAYER TEAM RATING K. Korver ATL 99.8 S. Curry GSW 99.6 K. Thompson GSW 99.4 J. Harden HOU 99.2 K. Martin MIN 98.8 K. Bryant LAL 98.6 Mo Williams CHA 98.3 D. Lillard POR 98.2 M. Ginobili SAS 98.0 C. Anthony NYK 97.7

 

This is where Korver makes his case for being one of the most impactful players in the game. But he's not camping out on the perimeter as much this postseason. Check out the activity heat maps provided to ESPN Insider from NBASavant.com.

 

 

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fgraphics%2F2015%2F0320%2Finsider_korverchart_md_576x324.jpg&w=570

 

The two maps look similar, but as you can see, Korver has spent more time on the elbows inside the arc rather than in the corners where he's most effective. This might be an indication that he's finding it more difficult to fight around screens in the postseason, but he should be behind the arc more. His average speed in the postseason (4.3 mph) is the same exact rate as in the regular season, so it's not true that he's idly standing around more these days.

 

However, he can't just be a spacer if he wants to win a championship. He needs to produce, especially in this Cleveland series. And he hasn't done that when a certain player has joined him on the court.

The Schröder effect

 

Here's another game for you. Guess these two players:

PLAYER PTS REB AST FG% 3FG% PER Player A 12.0 5.0 2.7 42.9 38.6 14.1 Player B 7.7 4.6 1.4 27.3 26.7 6.4

 

Pencils down. Any guesses? Trick question! It's the same player.

 

Both lines come from Korver's per-36-minutes averages this postseason except Player A is Korver playing without point guard Dennis Schröder and Player B is Korver playing with Schröder. Look at that disparity. Korver has morphed from a sharpshooter into a D-League player when Schröder is the one running the offense. And it's hurt the team. This postseason, the Hawks are plus-104 when Korver plays without Schröder and a minus-25 when he plays with the young point guard.

 

Why is that? The obvious: Schröder is young and inexperienced. The German point guard often tabbed as "Baby Rondo" is just 21 years old and toeing the playoff waters for essentially the first time. Nonetheless, Atlanta coach Mike Budenholzer has trusted Schröder with about 20 minutes per game in the postseason, including some key crunch-time opportunities as starter Jeff Teaguelooks on from the bench.

 

A closer look shows how Schröder struggles to find Korver on the wing. Schröder is the most high-volume driver in the NBA, averaging 15.1 drives per 36 minutes here in the playoffs, per NBA.com player-tracking data. That can help suck the defense into the paint area, but he's often prone to putting his head down and forcing shots.

 

Other times Schröder just loses his cool in the open court. Take a look at this play from Game 1 against Washington. Schröder pushes the ball in the open court and forces a pass to DeMarre Carroll with Korver in the corner. After the ball sails away, you can see Korver giving Schröder the "calm down" motion.

 

 

And here's another. Instead of taking his time and handing the ball off to the trailing Korver for the transition 3, Schröder decides to make an almost impossible pass and throws the ball away. That transition 3 is Korver's bread-and-butter.

 

To see this in the data, consider that Korver and Schröder have played together for 149 minutes this postseason and Korver has made just four baskets off of Schröder passes, all coming behind the arc where he's shooting 26.7 percent on Schröder feeds.

 

Korver has found much better luck getting looks and knocking down shots from his other teammates. According to STATS LLC's tough shot score that factors in shot distance, defender distance, speed and other shot variables, the level of difficulty of Korver's shots has been higher when Schröder is his point guard (66.6 out of 100) compared to Teague (63.0 out of 100).

 

Simply put, life is easier for Korver and the Hawks when Schröder is on the bench. But Budenholzer has curiously upped Schröder's playing time next to Korver this postseason from 30 percent of the sharpshooter's minutes in the regular season to 33 percent now. Cleveland hopes that continues.

  Cleveland kryptonite?

 

Korver has struggled against Cleveland this season. He averaged just 7.8 points in four regular-season matchups, his worst output against an Eastern Conference team. The Hawks did just fine, however, winning three of the four games; the only loss came Nov. 15, way back when Anderson Varejao and Dion Waiters played big minutes for Cleveland.

 

To illustrate how different the Cleveland roster is now, consider that the Cavs player who has defended the most Korver shots this season is rookie Joe Harris -- who has been glued to their bench in the playoffs. J.R. Smith will likely get the assignment in this series, but it takes an entire village to account for Korver.

 

It's true that Korver hasn't gotten as many open looks this postseason. The average defender on his catch-and-shoots has stood just 4.4 feet away this postseason, compared to 5.5 feet in the regular season, per SportVU tracking. If he breaks free, the Hawks will have a much better shot at topping James and the Cavaliers.

 

But Smith might not be the Korver stopper anyway. So far this postseason, it's been his own teammate Schröder, who has kept the All-Star in check.

Edited May 20, 2015 by BackForThe2ndTime

[macdaddy]

That's cool stuff.   Take away the crazy prayers that Korver has thrown up there because he's frustrated from lack of shots and he is shooting a good percentage in the playoffs.  

[Guest]

A lot of Korver's shots were so rushed. He needs to just slow it down.

[ATLHawks3]

We need to see more plays ran for Korver. I didn't see that many against Washington. That play when the big sets a pick on Korver's man and Korver roams to the top of the key for a 3 is our bread and butter play. I want us to abuse Clevland with it.

[Dimesadozen]

I'm sure Bud has noticed. They will rebound in this series.

[Peoriabird]

We need less 2 point guard line ups period

[bobrathbun4pres]

He didn't have a bad Brooklyn series. Also his deep 3 was clutch with Al in the comeback in game 5. Personally I'm hoping his D stays like it did against the Wiz because we all know he won't shot as bad this series

Edited May 20, 2015 by bobrathbun4pres

[BackForThe2ndTime]

He didn't have a bad Brooklyn series. Also his deep 3 was clutch with Al in the comeback in game 5. Personally I'm hoping his D stays like it did against the Wiz because we all know he won't shot as bad this series

His D was pretty bad at times in the Wiz series. His better moments came toward the end of the series.

[Flight]

The Schröder part makes perfect sense, we really just need Kyle to get more opportunities for transition 3's to get him in rhythm. 

[DrReality]

He did hit his first shot tonight but is got waived. That should help his confidences

[DrReality]

Saps foul is bullshit. He gets NO CALLS

Edited May 21, 2015 by DrReality