Advertisement - scroll for more content
Coach Quin Snyder, lured from a Costa Rican beach vacation to take over in early 2023, still has significant say (and the salary to prove it). The front office has other voices — such as Saleh, assistant GM Kyle Korver, adviser and former Cavs GM Chris Grant and agent-turned-adviser Chris Emens. And in addition to those I already named, seven other people in basketball operations have VP titles.
It ultimately died on the vine, but I started calling people — Joakim Noah, Kyle Korver, Billy Donovan, Kenny Atkinson, Mike Budenholzer — suspecting that they were all watching the Finals with more emotional investment than you’d expect, considering the distance between them and Al Horford. And they were all dying for him to finally win a championship. I mean, they were over the moon for him. Billy Donovan was texting me from Europe like, “Do you need a quote? Here’s one...” They just love that guy. Every stop on his career, all those people were watching the Finals thinking, this guy deserves to win a championship. And you just don’t see that as much anymore.
Even in a league full of 3-point marksmen and pull-up threats, Curry stands alone. Since 2012-13, when he got his ankle problems under control and first made the playoffs, he's made 4.4 3-pointers per game -- 34% more than second-place Klay Thompson's 3.3. It's not just that Curry takes more 3s than anyone else. He also makes them at a ridiculous rate. Out of 198 players with at least 2,500 career 3-point attempts, Curry ranks third in accuracy (42.4%, behind Kyle Korver and Steve Nash).
The trade has only aged better and better for Atlanta in the time since. Nance has become a key stabilizing vet presence, and Daniels has more than lived up to his “Great Barrier Thief” nickname, giving the Hawks a much-needed defensive menace while doubling his scoring output from last season. But most of all, the deal created clarity for and around Young. “Trae and Dejounte really were both trying to make it work, but it was more of, like, Should I do this or should you do this? and then, You do it and I will stay out of it, which meant neither could really be their full best self,” says Kyle Korver, one of the most prolific three-point shooters in NBA history and now the assistant general manager in Atlanta. “I think they were both trying to sacrifice and, ultimately, well, I was once given great marriage advice from my father-in-law. He said, If both of you are only compromising, you’re going to have a compromised marriage. There’s something to that with basketball, too.”
Following his latest 20-point winning effort from the bench by shooting 4/9 from beyond the arc against the Los Angeles Lakers, as the Atlanta Hawks won 134-132, Bogdan Bogdanovic has now reached 100 straight games in which he has scored at least one three-pointer. Only shooting legends of the game like Steph Curry – who’s both first and second on the list with respectively 268 and 157 consecutive games -, Damian Lillard (150), and Kyle Korver (127) are ahead of him in such a list. He recently overcame Jordan Clarkson at 5th.
Advertisement
Eurohoops: 😱🔥Lebron has now 2️⃣.4️⃣5️⃣1️⃣ three-pointers in his career! 👌He passes his old teammate and an elite 3-point shooter, Kyle Korver, to move into 7th on the all time list! pic.x.com/Jk3VaP2SkB
So, Korver can only imagine some of the emotions that James may have felt when he and Bronny simultaneously checked into the game with four minutes left in the first half. “He keeps the main thing, the main thing,” Korver said. “He cares a lot about being a great dad and to not just like being an example, but to empowering his sons and his daughter. He gives that a great deal of attention, more than other things. And so, to watch, his career, and the whatever time he has left, be able to do it with the son. “I just, as a dad myself, I can’t imagine, finally being able ... because, you know, so much of your career, your family’s home, and you’re away from that if you’re traveling and you have this guilt that, my family is come back home and after all these years to be like, ‘no, come with me, we going together. It’s incredible. And so just a testament to him, his work ethic, and again, the ability to do it again and again and again every day.”
Evan Sidery: Zaccharie Risacher, who will be under heavy consideration from the Hawks and Wizards atop the 2024 NBA Draft, put together a monster outing yesterday: 28 points in 29 minutes 5/7 on 3s Risacher has received comparisons from scouts to Michael Porter Jr. due to his perimeter shooting upside at 6-foot-10. Atlanta’s decision-makers — GM Landry Fields, Assistant GM Kyle Korver, HC Quin Snyder — flew out to watch Risacher this week in France.
Lauren L. Williams: Can confirm that the Hawks have brought Onsi Saleh aboard to work with the front office group. Doesn’t sound like there are any fundamental changes. Was told it’s an addition w/ no subtraction and Kyle Korver’s role remains the same.
Advertisement
BasketNews: Kyle Korver enjoying his time in France watching the Coupe de France 👀🇫🇷 📸 @sigstrasbourg
Kyle Korver enjoying his time in France watching the Coupe de France 👀🇫🇷
— BasketNews (@BasketNews_com) February 13, 2024
📸 @sigstrasbourg pic.twitter.com/oPhKIyE2VZ
There is no one stat that fully captures Sam Merrill’s new reality as one of basketball’s most valuable shooters, but this one comes close: He is attempting 17.7 3-pointers per 100 possessions this season, which is the highest mark of any player in history who has logged at least 300 minutes in a season. Merrill’s rate of attempts edges out Stephen Curry’s 2020-21 season as a plague-year Atlas (17.5) and James Harden’s 2018-19 attempt in Houston to break modern scoring and usage records (17.6)—all while he’s been shooting at a 43.2 percent clip. Or maybe it’s easier to think of Merrill as Double-Time Kyle Korver: He is attempting the same number of 3s per game as Korver did in 2014-15, his lone All-Star season, in nearly half the number of minutes. And while Korver hit some deep 3s in his career, he seldom ran into unconscionable 3s as he was pulling up from the edge of the center logo:
Atlanta Hawks PR: Bogdan Bogdanovic has buried at least one three-pointer in 44 straight games, the third-longest such streak in franchise history. Kyle Korver: 127 straight games Kyle Korver: 51 straight games Bogdan Bogdanovic: 44 straight games
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement