Former Cavs’ sniper Kyle Korver reportedly signs with Bucks, and is quality addition

Former Cleveland Cavaliers’ perimeter sharpshooter Kyle Korver reportedly signed a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Bucks, and is a good addition for them as a veteran contributor.

Fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and I would assume everywhere he’s been in the NBA, will always have tremendous appreciation for Kyle Korver.

Korver spent only roughly one-and-a-half seasons with Cleveland, but really made his presence as an outstanding three-point shooter that spaced the floor for others.

Along with that, he seemed to be a player every team would love to have in their locker room as an easy-going and actually pretty funny dude.

In 124 games with the Cavs in the regular season, Korver had averages of 9.3 points per game on an amazing 64.1% effective field goal shooting clip (which included a three-point shooting clip of 45.4%, per Basketball Reference).

He was a quality contributor for Cleveland in 40 postseason games in 2017 and 2018, too, alongside LeBron James and Kevin Love, as evidenced by Korver shooting 40.4% from three-point land in those appearances, too (again, per Basketball Reference).

While it was previously reported that Korver was seemingly strongly considering retirement after his 2018-19 season ended with the Utah Jazz after a postseason first-round loss to the Houston Rockets, Korver’s NBA playing career won’t be done just yet.

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It was reported on Saturday by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (and h/t Amico Hoops’ Colton Jones) that Korver agreed to a one-year, $2.6 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks (and Wojnarowski noted that the agreement was told to ESPN by Korver’s agent, Jeff Schwartz).

This comes after Korver (among other pieces) was involved in a trade in which the Jazz reportedly dealt for the Memphis Grizzlies’ Mike Conley (per Wojnarowski), and following that, Korver was also a piece involved in a trade to the Phoenix Suns from the Memphis Grizzlies (again, per Wojnarowski) and given that Phoenix is rebuilding, was waived by the Suns earlier this month (per NBA.com’s transaction page).

Korver now is in a good spot with the Bucks (though it hurts Milwaukee that they no longer have nice young combo guard Malcolm Brogdon, who is now an Indiana Pacer via restricted free agency sign-and-trade, per Wojnarowski), who were the top seed in the Eastern Conference postseason in 2019, and the 38-year-old sharpshooter is back with his old head coach on the Atlanta Hawks in Mike Budenholzer.

According to Wojnarowski, Korver also saw the Philadelphia 76ers as a good fit, too.

Ultimately, though, Korver chose to go with familiarity and a good fit, anyway, in Milwaukee with Budenholzer.

When Korver was on the Hawks with Budenholzer, he was at his best playing in their share-the-wealth system predicated on man and ball movement and made the All-Star team in 2015, and playing alongside the 2018-19 NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo should enable Korver to get a number of quality kick-outs next year, too (as was often the case playing with James on the Cleveland Cavaliers).

Korver has shot 42.9% from three-point range for his career on 4.7 attempts per game, and has made the fourth-most three-pointers in NBA history (per Basketball Reference).

As a side note, Milwaukee also met with former Cav J.R. Smith on Thursday, who could seemingly provide value as a perimeter shooter like his former teammate in Korver, too (news reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium).

Again, with the way Korver always seemed to be a model teammate on the Cavaliers, and was a team-first veteran contributor, much like Channing Frye, for example, I’m really happy for Korver to be able to have a good shot at winning an NBA title.

He’s more than due, and with his extensive postseason experience, he should be a quality addition for a good Bucks team that appears to be right there.

I’d expect Korver to be a solid bench player and make an impact in about 18.0 or 19.0 minutes per game.