Mere hours after Dwyane Wade announced he'd miss the 2015 NBA All-Star Game due to injury, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver named his replacement on the Eastern Conference All-Star roster — Kyle Korver of the Atlanta Hawks. (Good thing he was going to be in New York for the weekend anyway.)
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It's the first All-Star nod for the 33-year-old Korver, who is averaging a career-best 12.9 points per game while shooting an NBA-leading 52.8 percent from 3-point land and 92 percent from the foul line, along with a career-high 51.6 percent mark from the field, for Mike Budenholzer's East-leading 43-10 Hawks. Considering only former marksman and current Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has ever put up 50/50/90 shooting splits over the course of a full season — and his work for the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls comes with the asterisk of insufficient amounts of field goals and free throws made to qualify for their respective leaderboards — there's a decent argument to be made that Korver's in the midst of not only the best year of his career, but the single best shooting campaign in league history.
While Korver's accuracy, and the attention to detail that produces it, is remarkable enough, it's the sheer threat of him getting clean looks that's made him such a lethal and influential part of Atlanta's offense this season. Defenders have to pay extra attention to him, knowing they can't stray more than a hair's breadth away from their marks to help on other Hawks lest they open up a better-than-a-coin-flip Korver triple try, which distorts coverages and creates room for his teammates to operate.
The Hawks have scored an average of 112 points per 100 possessions with Korver on the floor this season, and 98.2 points-per-100 when he hits the bench, according to NBA.com's stat tool. That's the difference between having the league's No. 1 offense and its third-worst unit, and the largest disparity on the Hawks' roster. And, perhaps as importantly, Atlanta's defense operates just about as well with Korver on the floor (100.4-per-100 allowed) as off it (100.3-per-100 given up), making him just about a pure upside play whenever he checks in. He's a difference-maker, plain and simple.
Korver's selection represents sour news for several other Eastern hopefuls, like Milwaukee Bucks point guard Brandon Knight, Orlando Magic center Nikola Vucevic and Cleveland Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love, all of whom had reasonable cases for inclusion. But there's a certain poetic justice in Korver getting recognition this year; in an era in which floor-spacing, perimeter shooting, ball movement, smart team defense and execution are perhaps more paramount than ever, Korver's crafted himself into something like the perfect perimeter role player, and that deserves to be celebrated.
Korver becomes the fourth Hawk named to the Eastern squad, after teammates Paul Millsap, Al Horford and Jeff Teague were voted in as reserves by NBA coaches. This marks the first time since 2011 that four teammates have appeared in the midseason exhibition; Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics suited up for the East that year.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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