Kyle Korver wasn’t himself.
The fact that the Hawks’ sharpshooter did not perform to his lofty standard last season nagged at him. How long did the somewhat down year bother him? Only “all … summer … long” he said as he dragged out each word for emphasis.
The fix went so far as to involve the installation of a mirror in the garage of his offseason home.
Last summer, Korver spent his offseason recovering from two significant surgeries. His season ended in the Eastern Conference finals when he suffered ligament damage in his right ankle. A month later, he had loose bodies removed from his right elbow.
Instead of his rigorous workout regime, Korver spent his down time in recovery and rehabilitation.
New season. New Korver.
“I’m in a whole other place,” Korver told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. “I think with anything in life, when you feel prepared you are ready for it. Last year, I felt like I was working like crazy, but it was just to get back on the court in time for the season to start. We did. But I didn’t feel like me. I felt like I was thinking through things too much. Still trying to put things together even though I was healthy enough to be on the court.”
In 2014-15, Korver shot .492 (221-of-449) from 3-point range. It was the second consecutive season he led the NBA in 3-point percentage. Last season, he shot .398 (158-of-397) from long distance. Korver got better as the season progressed. His 3-point percentage went from .386 before to .423 after the All-Star break. Still, not the norm for the player with the eighth-best career 3-point percentage in NBA history.
“I got to work this summer,” Korver said. “I worked out two and three times a day all summer league. And I feel great. I feel ready and I feel prepared. I operated all summer with the mindset of my best basketball is in front of me. It wasn’t a couple of years ago. My best basketball is still to be played. Whether or not that happens, we’ll see.
“That’s why you play the games. That was my mindset going into the offseason. Fortunately, I had a wife that allowed me to be out of the house that much. I just feel prepared this year. I didn’t necessarily feel that way last year.”
Several Hawks assistants spent the beginning of the summer in California with Korver to set his path. His workouts involved five-day-a-week sessions at the P3 facility. He did six-day-a-week sessions on court with his personal skills coach. And then there was that mirror. Korver installed it to work on his ballhandling skills nearly every day.
“I’m not going to be (point guard) Dennis (Schroder) out there, but I feel a lot more confident about being able to expand my game a little bit and add a few more dribbles here and there,” Korver said.
Korver, who turns 36 this season, played in five of the Hawks’ seven exhibition games this preseason. He shot .586 (17-of-29) from the field and .500 (11-of-22) from 3-point range. He also made all six of his free-throw attempts.
Thabo Sefolosha also spent his last summer recovering from a broken right leg and ligament damage. He and Korver have shown this preseason what can be done in a healthy summer.
“It is amazing to think about how different these last three or four weeks have been for those two guys,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “There were times when they couldn’t do a quarter of a first practice. We were constantly monitoring them. I remember they weren’t playing back-to-backs. They are both hard workers and had great summers of training. You can see the fruits of the labor. It’s a big difference.”
Korver enters his 14th NBA season. He is determined to prove that last year was not the beginning of the end of his career and that even better days could be ahead.
“I set a standard for myself in a lot of ways,” Korver said. “It wasn’t a bad year. I feel like under the circumstances I did the best that I could. But it was not the way that I want to play, not the way I want to shoot. …
“With me, I know where my path can go if I work. I see what is still possible for me to incorporate into my game. I love evolving.”
