What does the Kyle Korver trade mean for the Cavaliers and Hawks?
By Jeff Siegel
News broke Thursday evening that the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers had agreed in principle to a trade that will send Kyle Korver to Cleveland. While the details of the trade have not been finalized nor announced by the league, Korver didn’t play against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday and confirmed to reporters after the game that he was indeed moving to the reigning NBA champions.
What does this mean for Cleveland? Early reporting indicates that Mike Dunleavy will be traded away (either to Atlanta or a third team) to make room for their newest addition. Korver is a clear upgrade on Dunleavy, who hasn’t recovered from his offseason back surgery to be a consistent contributor to the Cavaliers’ title defense. No matter what you think of Korver’s defense or physical regression in the past two seasons, he’s still a knockdown 3-point shooter who will have more space than he’s ever had to rise and fire; he’s leading the league with 1.555 points per possession on spot-up opportunities. Second on that list? His new teammate, Channing Frye.
With J.R. Smith out with a broken thumb on his shooting hand, it was important for the Cavaliers to bring in another shooter. Korver won’t give them everything that Smith did, but the same plays they run to get Smith open will work for Korver, and he’ll be able to knock down his open 3s at a better clip. Come playoff time, Smith should be healthy and ahead of Korver in the rotation, but Korver will play quality minutes all the way through a potential title run. Additionally, Korver will slot in perfectly with the Kyrie Irving-LeBron James-Kevin Love-Frye foursome that shoots opponents out of the building.
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Everything the Cavs do affects one team more than any other: the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors just saw their chief rival for the championship get better and it remains to be seen whether or not the Warriors are going to upgrade their roster before the trade deadline. We saw in their Christmas Day matchup that the Cavaliers only have a few players they trust against Golden State (they only played eight guys in that game) and they’ve just picked up another one whom they can trust in short stints to make shots and execute a defensive scheme. While Korver is past his physical prime and probably will not be able to play against the best the Warriors have to offer, he offers the Cavaliers another option against the Warriors’ bench. In particular, Korver has the length to contend with Shaun Livingston defensively and can space him out on the other end.
For Atlanta, this is just the first of multiple trades to be executed between now and the February 23 trade deadline. Paul Millsap has been floated in trade rumors already and it would make sense for the Hawks to trade him and Thabo Sefolosha, who both become unrestricted free agents this summer. Reports have arisen that almost every team in the league is monitoring the Millsap situation; he’d be a fantastic addition to any team either pushing for the playoffs (Denver, Sacramento) or pushing for an upset title run (Toronto). The Hawks will have their pick of deals from across the league and it’s up to them to find the best deal for their most valuable asset before he disappears in free agency.
Sefolosha will have a market as well as a quality role player; Korver and Kent Bazemore are bigger names, but it’s Sefolosha who has emerged as the Hawks’ most dependable wing on both sides of the floor. Somebody will pick up Sefolosha for very cheap and find that he’s more than just a quality perimeter defender; he’s a solid secondary ball-handler who can adequately run pick-and-roll if given the opportunity. Don’t be surprised if he pops up in the conference finals as a surprise role player for a contender.
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On the floor, Atlanta will miss Korver’s shooting and spacing around Dennis Schröder’s pick-and-rolls and Millsap’s isolations, but it’s clear from this trade that the Hawks don’t fancy themselves as one of the best teams in the East and will look to rebuild around Schröder, who signed a four-year contract extension that kicks in next season.