Getty Images Kyle Korver takes a charge during his debut with the Jazz
The Cleveland Cavaliers have officially started their fire sale in the NBA. After losing LeBron James over the summer to the beautiful weather out in Los Angeles, things turned gloomy once again over in Cleveland. Just like that, without LeBron, the Cavaliers went from championship contenders to the bottom feeders of the Eastern Conference. Therefore, tanking time was initiated, and the Cavs moved their experienced shooter, Kyle Korver.
It’s quite evident that Cleveland was eventually going to start moving some of their older veterans for some future assets. While Korver has been on the trade block for pretty much the entire 2018 offseason into now, it was shocking to find out that the Cavs were going to send Korver to the Utah Jazz. Although the Jazz have a young rising star in Donovan Mitchell, who can do it all, it was clear that a veteran presence/sharpshooter could help the team out big time.
Korver is obviously no longer in his prime. But the 37-year-old shooter has 15 years of NBA experience under his belt and knows what it takes to win a championship in today’s game. The Jazz understands that they weren’t getting a starting player out of Korver, but his off-the-bench efforts allowed the Jazz to take over and defeat the Charlotte Hornets 119-111 on Friday night during the veteran’s debut with the team.
Check out Some of Korver’s Highlights
Kyle Korver tallies 14 PTS off the bench in his @utahjazz season debut! #TeamIsEverything
Korver played a total of 22 minutes on Friday night, and tallied 14 points, along with two rebounds. He flashed some of that beyond-the-arc shooting action as he buried four of his six attempted three-pointers. His performance was nothing over the top, but definitely not a bad showing for an early-season debut for the veteran.
The Jazz aren’t going to be looking for a whole lot out of Korver, but he played his role perfectly on Friday. Before being traded, Korver played 16 games with the Cavaliers. During that time, he averaged 6.8 points-per-game during 15.7 minutes-per-game. Utah expanded his playing time a bit during his debut, but it ended up paying off big time, as the Jazz took down the Hornets to advance their record to 11-12 on the year.