Both offensively and defensively, Kyle Korver has been the catalyst to postseason success for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
When the Cleveland Cavaliers signed 36-year-old Kyle Korver to a brand new three-year deal this offseason, I was skeptical, to say the least. However, this postseason, he’s proven his worth as the Cavaliers success have relied upon his consistency. With his style of play, there’s no reason to assume it couldn’t continue for two more seasons either.
As Merriam-Webster defines it, a catalyst is: “An agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.” Kyle Korver has done that for the Cleveland Cavaliers offense this postseason. The only reason Korver is the catalyst and not LeBron James is that Korver provokes the offense while the offense is absolutely nonexistent without James.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have played in ten games this postseason, and when Korver hits double figures, they’ve gone 5-0. That leaves them at just 2-3 when Korver fails to hit 10, two of those being blowout loses away against the Pacers in a tedious seven-game series, ending in the Cavs winning by four in Game 7.
During the five games in which Korver has hit double figures, the Cavs have scored six more points than the games he fails to hit that mark. However, it’s not just double figures that automatically make Korver the catalyst. It’s how his shot-making forces teams to cover him.
The Cavs have several designed players for Kyle Korver where he comes off screens an often times more than just one screen. With the speed and technique that he does so combined with his shot quickness, teams must react and switch. We saw this in the Cavs most recent game in which Korver sank four triples.
While this clip isn’t too recent, it does display how Korver can run off these screens to open himself up. If switches occur, then bigs like Kevin Love can get position and post up on the inside. In this player, Korver’s defender is hit with a screen blindsiding him and then another screen and he tries to catch up. Even with the best defenders, that ground virtually impossible to make up.
It isn’t just his pure stroke that puts Korver on another level, it’s how he does it over and over again. The other aspect of Korver’s game that makes him the ultimate catalyst to provoke this offense is his consistency.
The Cavs have several other sharpshooters on their team like JR Smith and Jeff Green who have both hit at least four triples in a game this postseason. However, neither of them have proven throughout the course of this season and their careers that they can consistently keep up raining from downtown, especially JR Smith, who seems to thrive off getting hot more than getting open.
Both of those players along with any other Cavalier also don’t possess the ability to put such pressure on the defense.
Korver has made the league’s 15th most threes per game this postseason, and at 43.3%, there are only seven players that shoot more accurately while shooting the volume that Korver does. That puts Korver in elite company, and without him, this series and this entire postseason might not have gone exactly how Cleveland had planned.
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All the glory goes to LeBron James, and rightfully so, but Kyle Korver has been the most effective player not named LeBron James on the offensive side of the ball for the Cavaliers.
He truly is the player that provokes this Cavaliers offense.