Utah Jazz notes: Jazz still giddy over Korver trade

For years, Jazz fans couldn't stop smiling when thinking about a midseason trade the franchise made with Philadelphia that brought a much-needed sharpshooter and team player to Utah.

Deron Williams feels about the same when it comes to the Jazz's most-recent and eerily similar transaction with the 76ers.

But if getting Jeff Hornacek for Jeff Malone was considered one heck-of-a-deal for the Jazz in 1994, then getting Kyle Korver for Gordan Giricek might be considered a steal-of-a-deal now. At least Williams thinks so.

"I definitely like the trade," the point guard said.

Who's to blame him?

Korver, a sixth-year pro, leads Utah in scoring with 13 points per game and is shooting the preseason lights out.

Giricek, on the other hand, is currently playing pro ball in Turkey on a two-year contract after bouncing from Utah to Philly to Phoenix last season.

After working with Korver in his first training camp in Utah — and heading into his fourth preseason game tonight in Denver — Williams just thinks he's a better fit with the Jazz.

"I like Gira as a person, but he just never really clicked with this team, meshed with this team, meshed with coach," Williams said. "There was always problems there. It could be a little bit of a distraction at times, so I think having Kyle here has been great."

Williams loves the energy Korver brings off the bench as well as the shooter's dedication to improving on some subpar accuracy he suffered last year.

Though Korver was credited for helping the Jazz turn things around after last year's late-December swap, he hit just 47.4 percent of his shots overall and only 38.8 percent from 3-point range in 50 regular-season games with Utah. Things got a bit worse in the playoffs, when Korver's scoring average dipped two points to 7.8 ppg on 41.1 percent shooting.

Korver said he worked harder and smarter than ever before in the offseason, and it's paying off. He is shooting 55.6 percent overall and 66.7 percent from 3-point land this fall. Williams calls him the Jazz's only "dead-on shooter" and a zone-buster.

"I think that he feels that he didn't even play up to his level that he can play last year," Williams said. "He was really disappointed in his percentage shooting-wise and has worked on it a lot this summer and getting his confidence back, which is definitely going to help our team."

Williams also came to Korver's defense on, well, Korver's defense.

"I think he tries hard. He moves his feet. He's not the best defender, but he's definitely not a liability on defense," Williams said. "As long as you're trying hard, playing hard, coach is going to respect you. ...