Duke star Khaman Maluach details how Hawks GM Kyle Korver helped him 'believe in himself' amid crucial season before 2025 NBA Draft
Duke basketball star and NBA prospect Khaman Maluach has been making buzz ahead of the 2025 draft for his length and ever-improving shooting abilities. Maluach, who stands at 7-foot-2, attributed his growth in the shooting facet to the confidence given to him by Atlanta Hawks’ assistant general manager Kyle Korver.
According to Maluach, the Hawks executive made him believe that he could shoot threes, helping him fix his shooting mechanics to make him more of a complete college prospect.
“This is the things that I do first like I shoot threes like they don’t expect…The whole summer I’ve been working on it with Kyle Korver. We worked on it for a long time. Kyle really helped me fix my shot,” Maluach said in an interview with ESPN.
“Kyle always tells me to focus and believe that I can shoot. When I started believing in myself, I started shooting more,” he said. "Kyle came to the academy in 2021 to visit and I got to know him from there. ..."
The Duke center has known Kyle Korver since 2021, even staying at the former Hawks star's house, where they trained for a few days. Korver has been serving as the Hawks’ assistant GM since January 2023 after spending 17 seasons as an NBA player, five of which were with the Hawks.
There are few better people to be getting shooting lessons from than Kyle Korver, who has been known to be one of the greatest shooters of his generation, tallying 2,450 three-pointers in his career, the eighth-most ever by a player. He finished his career shooting an impressive 42.9 percent from long range, which is the highest clip among the top 20 in the all-time three-point list.
Korver joined the Hawks front office in 2022 as the director of player affairs and development. Linking with the Hawks executive could help Maluach gauge his NBA potential if he decides to enter the draft in 2025. Currently, Maluach is averaging 7.8 points, and 5.0 rebounds, on 33.3 percent shooting from the three-point range and is tipped by many to potentially be an early lottery draft pick.
Kyle Korver is helping Hawks' guard Dyson Daniels improve his shooting game
Kyle Korver has been hands-on in his job with the Hawks. According to Atlanta guard Dyson Daniels, Korver has been a huge boost in his career, citing him as one of the reasons for his improved shooting.
“He’s teaching me about keeping my hips back rather than my knees folding in and then getting the ball to my right side and keeping it high," Daniels said in an interview with Lauren Williams of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"So just a few things that we’ve been repping out. And obviously, Kyle is one of the greatest shooters that ever played games. So it’s not many people you can work there with that are better than Kyle. So the more hours I can get in with Kyle … the better I’ll be shooting the ball."
Daniels has been a revelation for the Hawks since acquiring him in the offseason. He is averaging a career-best 13.0 points per game as the starting shooting guard for the Hawks. Atlanta is in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference standings with a 14-15 record.