In the Atlanta Hawks' 107-99 victory in Chicago on Saturday night, the Bulls just couldn't figure out where Kyle Korver was. Or the Bulls' players knew where he was and figured they could recover from help defense to contest his jumper. The problem is they couldn't find him and they couldn't help off of him and recover without staring down the barrel of the most efficient shot in basketball right now: a Kyle Korver 3-point attempt.
Korver's shooting prowess is ridiculous this season. He's hitting 59.7 percent of his corner 3s and 53.6 percent on all 3-point attempts. He has an effective field goal percentage of 79.1 percent on 3-point attempts. He scores 1.6 points per possession when attempting a 3-point shot, which is just flat-out ridiculous in terms of efficiency. The Hawks score 111.7 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor and just 97.2 when he's on the bench.
So why do teams keep helping off of Korver? It's an instinct thing defensively. Put Korver on the weak side of the floor and everything you've ever been taught about team defense becomes a lie. In every proper defensive system ever designed, you're allowed to help off the weak side shooter because you should be able to help and recover to that shooter by the time they catch the pass. That's not a good enough philosophy when facing Korver because he doesn't need much space to hurt you with his quick release.
This chart is how often he shoots 3-pointers, the coverage he receives on the attempts, and the percentage he hits with each coverage. The best chance you have against him right now is tight coverage and he's still hitting 45.3 percent. If he only shot 3-pointers with "tight coverage," he'd still be fifth in the NBA in 3-point percentage. And yet, half of his shot attempts are 3-pointers with four feet of room or more because he's so good at moving without the ball and defenses are so bad at keeping track of him.
When they do keep track of him, it opens up everything else for guys like Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap, and Al Horford to do their own damage. There isn't much you can do right now, other than force them inside the arc, have someone there to keep shots away from the rim, and scramble to recover when they move the ball around away from the defense. The magnetism of Korver's shooting is one of the deadliest things in basketball right now.
Just stop leaving him open. It's one of the worst things you can do and you can't recover from it, no matter what you're conditioned into believing on defense.
