The defending champions clearly have a few chinks in their armor in their pursuit of a title defense this season, the lack of a veteran back up point guard for Kyrie Irving, and more recently, a way to compensate for J.R. Smith’s production and catch-and-shoot ability with him slated to miss several months.
They found a solution to the latter problem Thursday night as they acquired quite possibly the best three-point shooter in the NBA over the last five years, Kyle Korver.
Sources: Cavs agree to deal for sharpshooter Kyle Korver. @WojVerticalNBA and @ShamsCharania report. https://t.co/ldcJDg0Kjv
— The Vertical (@TheVertical) January 6, 2017
Korver is shooting 40.9% from three-point range this season while averaging 9.5 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 27 minutes per game this season.
He is shooting 42.9% from three-point range for his career, not bad for 8th highest in NBA history and 3rd highest among active NBA players, and has had four seasons in which he has shot 45 percent or better from downtown.
The Cavaliers basically traded Mike Dunleavy and a future first round pick to acquire Korver, who is the perfect piece to place around two superstars who can get to the rim at will and create for others in LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.
The thought of a lineup featuring Irving-Korver-LeBron-Love-Frye is terrifying as here are the three-point shooting percentages of each player in said lineup:
Irving: 42%
Korver: 40.9%
LeBron: 37.5%
Love: 39.7%
Frye: 46.5%
This tweet sums up how dangerous the Cavaliers potential spot up shooter combination around their big three is:
Channing Frye is the second best spot up shooter in the league. 1.53 PPP.
Kyle Korver is 1st, at 1.55.
— FearTheSword (@FearTheSword) January 6, 2017
Korver is shooting 49 percent on open threes this season which he will get in abundance playing on the Cavaliers.
According to Brian Windhorst, LeBron has been wanting to play with Korver for quite some time:
Starting in about 2008 the Cavs started trying to get both Channing Frye and Kyle Korver to play with LeBron. Better late than never I guess
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) January 6, 2017
This is how Kyle Korver reportedly reacted when hearing of the trade…
Kyle korver on his way to Lebron and the cavs pic.twitter.com/zsRKEVVq9n
— Jonah (@JonahWindsor) January 6, 2017
In all seriousness, this is a great deal for the Cavaliers as they try to repeat as NBA champions. Now on to finding a veteran backup point guard, my money is on Jameer Nelson.
