Sharp-shooting Kyle Korver has been underestimated for most of his career. After spending the first 10 years of his NBA career bouncing around between four teams, the 33-year-old has settled into his role as the deadliest shooter in the league for the Atlanta Hawks.
While it may have taken teams a while to realize how valuable someone with Korver’s shooting touch could be, the New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets probably are kicking themselves the hardest for the trade they made that sent Korver away back on draft night in 2003. According to Grantland’s Zach Lowe, the team shipped Korver in a pretty terrible trade.
With none of their preferred choices on the board, the Nets brass selected Creighton forward Kyle Korver with the 51st pick — and immediately sold his draft rights to the Sixers for $125,000. That covered summer league. With the leftover cash, the Nets bought a new copy machine.
So the Nets traded the NBA’s most-feared three-point shooter to pay for a summer league roster of players unlikely to make an NBA impact and a copy machine. Yikes.
Safe to say, this is just one of many reasons the Nets have floundered for a decade. They definitely could have used a shooter like Korver on this year’s overpaid roster.
