Cleveland Cavaliers acquire SG Kyle Korver in trade with Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks made the first major trade of the 2016-17 National Basketball Association season yesterday when they dealt sharpshooting swingman Kyle Korver to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The terms of the trade are still being decided, but it has been reported that the Cavs are parting with Mike Dunleavy and a 2019 first-round pick to make the deal happen.

Cleveland is in need of another outside shooting threat with J.R. Smith expected to be sidelined until the end of the regular season after undergoing surgery to fix a broken thumb.

Korver, 35, has led the National Basketball Association in 3-point shooting percentage three times during his 14-year National Basketball Association career.

Now in his fourth year in the league and his second with the Hawks, Hardaway is averaging 11.4 points in 22.1 minutes per game with a 44.4 field-goal percentage.

Korver has hit the fifth-most career 3-pointers among active players, above Stephen Curry (for now). “There’s definitely mixed emotions”, Korver said after Thursday night’s game regarding potentially leaving Atlanta.

Cavs coach Tyronn Lue called Korver one of the league’s three best shooters when coming off screens, ranking him alongside the Warriors’ Klay Thompson and Steph Curry.

After thriving for three quarters beyond the arc, the New Orleans Pelicans offense sputtered and eventually stagnated when the shots stopped falling revealing a lack of ball movement and, allowing the Atlanta Hawks to escape the Smoothie King Center with a 99-94 win. A lot of friendships, relationships. “From a basketball perspective, (Cleveland) is a great, great fit for me and I know that”, Korver continued, adding that it would be particularly hard to lose Millsap as a teammate. With opposing defenses having to focus so much on LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, you can bet that Korver is going to get many such looks. But there’s a lot of relationships that I care about here that I’m going to miss.

The Cavaliers are certainly set at the starting point guard spot, now manned by Kyrie Irving, who enters play on Friday averaging 23.9 points and 6.0 assists per game. He was held out of the game but did remain on the bench.

This is nothing short of a coup pulled off by Cleveland general manager David Griffin, who brings to his team one of the NBA’s great all-time 3-point shooters and frees up a roster spot to eventually acquire a backup point guard by trading the contract of Williams – who chose not to play for the Cavs this season.

In his first season with the Cavaliers, Dunleavy averaged just 4.6 points per game and converted only 35.1 percent of his three-point attempts, his lowest shooting percentage since the 2009-2010 season with the Indiana Pacers.

The next domino to fall in the Hawks’ scheme might just be Paul Millsap, who is due to be a free agent at the end of the season.

“We gotta get a point guard”, James said.