Kyle Korver’s December Slump Raises Questions

Sharpshooting Atlanta Hawks guard Kyle Korver was anything but sharp in December, hitting just 29.3 percent from deep for the month.

Kyle Korver has made a living for 13 years in the NBA primarily on his ability to knock down 3-point shots.

The Atlanta Hawks guard was a first-time All-Star in 2014-15 and came into this season a career 43.2 percent shooter from long range.

That was good for No. 6 on the NBA’s all-time career list behind only Steve Kerr, Hubert Davis, Stephen Curry, Drazen Petrovic and Jason Kapono.

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He had offseason surgery to remove “loose bodies” in his right (shooting) elbow, the third surgical procedure in a three-month span for the 34-year-old. He also had a broken nose repaired in March and had a procedure to repair ligament damage in his right ankle in early June before the elbow operation at the end of the same month.

So the simple narrative is that he’s having trouble coming back for medical reasons.

But that’s complicated by the fact Korver was right at his career levels to start the season, hitting 43.2 percent of his 3-pointers through the season’s first 20 games through the end of November (Korver was rested for two of those games, back ends of back-to-backs in the first two weeks of the season).

And he started December strong, hitting 3-of-5 from 3-point range in a loss to the Toronto Raptors on Dec. 2.

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But in 14 games for the month, he made just 29.3 percent and ended December on the worst stretch of his career, going 0-for-18 in back-to-back games against the Indiana Pacers and Houston Rockets on Monday and Tuesday.

Korver was 0-for-8 from deep against the Pacers in Indianapolis, setting a new career standard for futility (he had previously gone 0-for-7 from the arc twice in his career).

That mark lasted less than 24 hours, as Korver threw up an 0-for-11 clunker at Houston that included going 0-for-10 from 3-point land.

Since knocking down 6-of-8 from deep in a win over the Orlando Magic on Dec. 20, Korver is just 4-for-31 (12.9 percent) in Atlanta’s last five games and 2-for-27 (7.4 percent) in their last four.

For the season, Korver is at a career-worst 36.2 percent from long range—well off his NBA-leading 49.2 percent in 2014-15 and 37.2 percent in 2013-14, also the NBA’s best that season.

In 13 full seasons, he’s only failed to reach 40 percent accuracy from behind the arc three times—as a rookie with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2003-04 (39.1 percent), in 2007-08 with the 76ers and Utah Jazz (37.5 percent) and in 2008-09 in Utah (38.6 percent).

He followed that up with an NBA single-season record 53.6 percent mark in 2009-10 and hasn’t shot worse than 41.5 percent in a season since.

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In spite of Korver’s troubles over the last four games, Atlanta has gone 3-1 in that span and the Hawks have a net rating of plus-13.6 in Korver’s 79 minutes.

Even when he’s missing, Korver is still a shooter that has to be accounted for defensively and that is crucial to the Hawks’ spacing.

Coach Mike Budenholzer told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday that Korver’s job is to just keep pulling the trigger.

“There might have been one exception (Monday) that was kind of out of the rhythm of the offense and the rhythm of what his normal shots are,” Budenholzer said. “Everything else were good looks and things we want him taking as many of those as possible.”

Time will tell if this is a temporary hiccup or a disturbing downward trend for Korver, who turns 35 on St, Patrick’s Day.

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But it’s something to watch closely in the meantime.

Statistics from basketball-reference.com and NBA.com/stats.