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SALT LAKE CITY — Following the Utah Jazz's home win over Miami last week, Kyle Korver was anxious to leave Vivint Smart Home Arena. He quickly dressed and after going through his obligatory media availability, he raced out of the Jazz locker room.
Why was Korver so eager? He had family in town.
Since the Jazz traded for Korver at the end of November, he hasn’t had a lot of time in Utah. The Jazz’s road-heavy schedule hasn’t just limited practice time, it’s also stalled the process of moving his wife and three children to their new home.
Korver joined the Jazz on an east-coast swing. He’s gone to Texas a couple times; heck, he even ended up in Mexico. There’s been more plane rides than practices, and more days on the road than in Salt Lake.
That’s made it hard for him to get settled — on and off the court.
“It’s been a bit of a challenge,” Korver said. “My mom always said, ‘Blessed are the flexible.’ So I’m trying to be flexible, trying to learn.”
The schedule has forced him to have to be flexible. Korver said he’s had maybe “four or five” full practices with the Jazz since being traded and that’s made it difficult to establish chemistry with his teammates and to get Jazz's systems down.
“A lot of times, on the road, when you play a lot of games and don’t have an opportunity to practice, you get slippage,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “For Kyle, it’s less slippage and more of an opportunity to know and understand. I’d like him to have some slippage right now cuz that would mean he’s more comfortable with what we are doing.”
Korver has seen good days and bad ones since being traded. He scored 15 points in his first game back in Salt Lake City but was just 1-for-8 night in a loss to the Orlando Magic in Mexico City. Those performances also represent the Jazz as a whole. They are either really on, or they are really off.
Utah is 4-5 since acquiring Korver. In those four wins, Korver is 11-for-17 (64.7 percent) from 3-point range; he’s 5-for-22 (22.7 percent) in the five losses.
“There hasn’t been much middle ground for us,” Korver said. “That’s part of being a good shooter — consistent. I haven’t done that since I’ve been here.”
Korver said that he feels like he’s been “pretty focused” even with the process of moving his family to a new state still ongoing. He doesn’t want to blame the timing of the trade for his inconsistencies over his first nine games in a Jazz uniform. But he's also human.
“The hardest part is getting my family here and getting all settled in,” Korver said. “It’s hard trying to be fully focused on what I'm doing and also having responsibilities with my family and trying to get them here and get set up. Trying to do what I can to make sure they are OK back in Cleveland.
“But we have a process going, we are all going to be here soon,” Korver continued. “All those things add up to being just a little bit unsettled. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I see it and it’s going to be good really soon.”
And that light isn’t just reserved for his family. He sees one for his team, too.
“Our record may not show it, but the last couple weeks, I feel like we are a better basketball team,” Korver said. “ We are a better basketball team now than when I came. … Eventually, this stretch is gonna change. We’ll have a lighter schedule, we’re gonna be home more and, hopefully, we can really kind of turn it on.”
