KO was pretty good on the boards in his last year of college and first year in the NBA
NBA and college is night and day. The best players most often play in high school, the best of those go to college often, the best of those make it to the NBA. Each level guys lose skills as the elite skills and athletic ability and size become more common and they seem less special.
Definitely a good point.
As to Olynyk, I think he's well suited to being a playmaking 4 -- he's like a taller (and worse) version of Kyle Korver, in that regard, particularly/only if he can start hitting from outside with any consistency.
He's nothing like Kyle Korver. Korver's a guy who runs off screens, looking to get a sliver of daylight to hoist up threes. He's one of the best pure shooters the game has ever seen, but he doesn't put the ball on the floor and drive to the hoop with any frequency.
Korver's a finisher, not a creator.
Kelly's not the shooter that Korver is. Nobody is, but he's a much more multi-dimensional offensive player.
that's you underselling Korver. The whole reason he flourished this season (as opposed to the million years he's been in the league) is because Atlanta's coaching staff used him as much more than just a great three point shooter.
Lowe did a great piece on this about a year ago, it's worth reading:
http://grantland.com/features/kyle-korver-nba-atlanta-hawks/
I think you missed my point. I don't believe I'm underselling Korver at all. I guess I should say that I have a ton of respect for Kyle Korver's game, I think he deserved to be an all star this year, and that at this point in their respective careers, Kyle Korver is a considerably more valuable player than Kelly Olynyk.
My comments were more about offensive styles than about comparative value. I only skimmed Lowe's article, but it doesn't seem to point out anything that refutes the points I made above.
Kyle Korver is very predominantly a catch and shoot player, though. That doesn't mean he doesn't score in a variety of ways. It doesn't mean he just stands in the corner and waits for the ball to come to him. He runs of screens, he curls, he even upfakes when defenders rush at him, takes a dribble, resets and drains threes.
What he doesn't do very often is put the ball on the floor and drive to the hoop.
According to NBA.COM's Player Tracking stats,
Kyle Korver scored 0.2 PPG on drives to the basket. On the other hand, he
led the league in Catch and Shoot PPG at 8.5.Kyle Korver's main source of scoring absolutely came from catching the ball off a pass and shooting it.
Kelly Olynyk, on the other hand, 2.5 PPG off drives to the basket and 3.3 PPG off the Catch and Shoot. The drive to the hoop is an important part of Kelly's game.
This is why I find Kyle Korver a poor comparison for Kelly Olynyk. They don't play the same way or do the same things on the court offensively.
It's not about over or underselling anyone.