The Hawks are on an insane run right now where the team has won an incredible 27 of its last 29 games. And you simply don’t put together something like that without some otherworldly performances.
While Atlanta has a legitimate case to get as many as four players into the All-Star game, it’s been Kyle Korver’s shooting that’s been the consistent backbreaker for Hawks opponents.
Korver has always been known as a great shooter. But this season he’s taken things to another level entirely, and with current averages of 51.5 percent from the field, 92.2 percent from the free throw line and 53.6 percent from three-point distance, he’s on pace to have the greatest single shooting season in NBA history.
From Zach Dillard of Fox Sports South (via HoopsHype):Among all players in NBA history to shoot 300 or more field goals in a single season, Kyle Korver’s current 72.6 true shooting percentage, a measure of a player’s overall shooting efficiency, would hold the No. 1 spot. It would be the top mark by a significant margin, too. The only player within four percentage points to hoist more than a couple 3-pointers -- many of the most efficient shooters on the list are frontcourt players that do most of their work around the basket, like Wilt Chamberlain, Artis Gilmore and Tyson Chandler -- was former Bullets sharpshooter Tim Legler in his own 1995-96 season.
So does that qualify Korver’s 2014-15 campaign for the aforementioned historical shooting title? It’s a complex question, one complicated in historical terms by the NBA’s hesitancy to adopt the “gimmick” 3-point line until 1979, but true shooting percentage is a fair starting point. At the very least, a 50-50-90 season while averaging 33 minutes a night would put him on the VIP list.
Steve Kerr finished in the 50-50-90 club in the 1996 season as a member of the Chicago Bulls, but while he played in all 82 regular season games, he averaged fewer attempts than Korver, playing in a reserve role for 23.4 minutes per contest.
We still have half a season to go. But if Korver continues to shoot beyond these statistical thresholds while playing a starter’s share of minutes, there won’t be any argument to be made that his current season will be the greatest ever for a shooter in league history.