Utah Jazz: The Kyle Korver Effect is real and it’s changing everything

The Utah Jazz may finally be turning a corner, winning five of their last eight games. Kyle Korver’s contributions have been a major key to the budding turnaround.

Even in a star-driven league like the NBA, a team can only go so far without the proper support in place behind its big guns. Case in point: the Utah Jazz. Despite entering the 2018-19 season with massive expectations and Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell leading the charge, the Jazz were clearly a card or two shy of a winning hand.

Sure, they were deep, but a dearth of legitimate floor-spacers was stymying the Jazz offense. Enter Kyle Korver.

I get that he’s just one player. And yeah, he was instantly the oldest guy on the team at 37. Moreover, he’s a bench guy that’s good for 16 or 17 minutes of jump shots a night and not much else; on either side of the ball. None of that changes the fact that Korver has completely changed Utah’s attack.

On November 28 — the day before the Jazz acquired Korver from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Alec Burks and picks — the team’s offense was a shambles. The Jazz ranked 27th in the league in offensive rating, putting up just 104.5 points per 100 possessions. Meanwhile, they were the third-worst 3-point shooting squad in the Association at just 31.9 percent.

Almost single-handedly, Korver flipped that script.

From the 29th on the Jazz have posted a massive net rating of 9.7, which is second only to Boston Celtics (who are in the midst of an eight-game win streak) over that span. They’ve done so by scoring over 114 points/100 poss. and drilling 40 percent of their triples.

Some of that is just Korver hitting shots. More than that, though, Utah’s “blender” has just worked more efficiently with the sharpshooter in the mix. Other players are suddenly hitting shots, too, and the ball movement is better than ever. The post-trade Jazz assist on five percent more of their field goals. And the team’s overall assist ratio with Korver on the floor (20.1) is better than that of any other player.

The space he creates for others and his own accuracy from deep combine to make an otherwise middling offense a great one.

All told, the Jazz still have some things working against them. The schedule has been a nightmare and, although progress is being made, they still haven’t scratched their potential defensively. Nevertheless, they’ve managed to win five of their last eight and Korver is a major reason for the turnaround.

Additional progressions and/or moves will need to be made before the team can max itself out, but there’s no denying this: the Korver effect is real and it’s changed everything offensively.