The Players Tribue is one of the best sites out there, and DeMarre Carroll penned a piece thanking the Atlanta organization and fans. Couple of interesting tidbits from that post:
There was this one shooting drill we had in practice, and Kyle would just dominate everybody. It took me a while to even build up the courage to challenge him. I practiced for a couple of weeks and was hitting most of my shots, so I called Kyle over and said I was ready to take the throne. I told him I’m the Black Kyle Korver.
We each took turns putting up five threes, and when I made four out of five, he’d make five out of five. If I hit three out of five, he’d make four out of five. No matter how many times we played, Kyle always found a way to beat me by one if I missed a shot.
He told me to try again next year when I was ready. Well, I’m telling him now that Black Kyle Korver will get his revenge. It’s on.
Jokes aside, he does point to a very key ingredient in his and the team’s success last season:
The biggest reason why I was able to play my best basketball in Atlanta is because of the organization’s player development. All of the coaches worked hard to make every guy on this roster better, and they deserve a lot of credit for our team’s improvement this year.
Kenny Atkinson pushed me to take my game to another level. Darvin Ham shared the tricks he picked up during his long NBA career to help me develop my skills around the basket. And then there was Quin Snyder, who was the first coach who took me under his wing while he was an assistant here.
The big difference between regular NBA players and superstars isn’t just talent, but the way they train. Quin and I just kind of clicked right away when I came to the Hawks, and he began working with me to develop skills that I hadn’t really touched before. His belief in me built up my confidence so much.
This is really important because he’s been a fringe player who found the perfect situation which allowed him to flourish. He had the right system around him, the right friends, and the right coaching support. As he points out, it’s not that he’s some highly skilled player that you can transport from one situation to another and replicate production. It’s vital that Dwane Casey’s staff provide him the support that he clearly needs and expects for him and the team to do well.
We’ve talked about his assisted rate of 82.6%, and how the Raptors were third-last in assist rate last season, and how there’s a system development issue at play here. He’s also improved as a player as well and gotten a lot smarter. For example, he increased his three-point shooting from 28.6% in his final year in Utah to 39.5% last season with the Hawks, and during that same time span he reduced the amount of “long twos” he was taking from 31% to 6%. That speaks to a very specific change in his game that was orchestrated by the Atlanta coaching staff, who saw a problem in the player and corrected it.
The question is whether Dwane Casey’s staff is able to, not just find but, carve a role for him that sees him maintain, if not improve, his current standing.
