NBA's Best 3-Point Shooter Is Going to Shatter the Record Books

Kyle Korver is just unfair. Unfair enough that I can almost guarantee that the open corner three in the picture above swished through the net.

The 33-year-old small forward has honed his shooting stroke over his many years playing professional basketball, and now the Atlanta Hawks are reaping the benefits as they surge up near the top of the Eastern Conference.

Korver has been at the heart of the team's offensive prowess, raining in deep jumpers, drawing defensive attention and wearing down one member of the opposition after another with his constant off-ball movement.

"To be with Kyle on a daily basis and see how much attention he gets, it's something we feel," Atlanta head coach Mike Budenholzer told The Salt Lake Tribune's Aaron Falk earlier this season. "Hopefully we can use that to our advantage. Obviously, if we can get Kyle open and get him shots, that's great. But he creates a ton of shots and a ton of space for our other players to operate and do things. He's a big part of what we do." 

In previous years, he was just one of the league's best marksmen, but now he's completed the transformation into a full-fledged shooting god. 

Through his first 21 appearances, Korver has knocked down 64 triples while connecting on 56.1 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc. Both statistics pace the entire NBA, and the combination puts him in a realm of shooters occupied by, well, no one else. 

Take a look at the three-point percentages of the league's top 20 shooters, determined solely by how many threes they've buried in 2014-15: 

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It should already be abundantly clear that we can't compare his performance to anyone else during the current campaign. No one can come close to touching him, and he's leading the league in three-pointers made despite taking fewer attempts per game than so many other premier snipers. 

So let's turn to history. 

Right off the bat, it's worth noting that Korver will have to sustain his numbers throughout the season in order to have these comparisons hold up. That's asking a lot, but it's not as though he's incapable of such a monumental feat. He's been perfecting his shot for so long now, he's playing in the perfect system for his talents and he's led the league in three-point percentage twice before, including the 2009-10 season, when he hit a record 53.6 percent of his looks. 

With that caveat out of the way, let's take a peak at one simple ranking first. 

Throughout NBA history, only 11 individual seasons—including three from the current go-round—have been recorded in which a player qualifies for the three-point crown and hits at least half of his shots from beyond the arc. Let's stack up their shooting volume, sorting by three-point attempts per game: 

There's Korver right at the top of the pile, and it's not even close. (Do note that players with asterisks after their names put up their numbers during the years in which the NBA shortened the three-point arc. That will be a constant for the rest of this article, as their achievements are a bit manufactured.)

Rasual Butler will likely fall off his pace as the year progresses, but even if he doesn't, he's still nearly two attempts per game shy of the Atlanta stud. Tim Legler remains the top player on the list who's finished a season, and he did so by taking only 3.2 attempts per game in 1995-96 with the Washington Bullets. 

It's also notable that Korver leads that pack in three-point percentage as well, which you can see by clicking over to the "3P%" option on the above infographic. He's already the all-time leader in single-season three-point percentage thanks to an injury-shortened campaign in 2009-10, and he's poised to shatter that mark if he can keep up the current pace. 

On that note, let's look at his shooting through a percentage lens instead. 

Throughout NBA history, 365 qualified players—including those who make the list from the current season—have taken at least five attempts per game from beyond the arc. Now let's take a gander at the ones in that group who have connected with the most frequency:

No surprises here. Korver is in the top spot, and once more it's just not even close. 

Not a single player in the many years of the Association has finished a season taking at least five triples per game while making even 48 percent of them. Korver is on pace to break that mark by almost 10 percent. It's simply unfathomable. 

And here's one more fun little chart for you. Below, you can see which players have drained the most three-pointers in a single season (in red), as well as where the current standouts from 2014-15 are on pace to finish (in black): 

Korver is on pace for the No. 6 single-season total in NBA history, which is impressive in and of itself. But click over on that infographic and look at the shooting percentages of those who made the leaderboard. 

Holy Korver. 

He just blows everyone else out of the water. Stephen Curry is the No. 2 finisher, as he shot 45.3 percent when he set the single-season mark just two years ago. But that's still more than 10 percent below Korver's current percentage. 

Insane. Mind-blowing. Hard to comprehend. Pick your favorite synonym or similar phrase, and that's about the only way you can describe what the Creighton product is currently doing for the Hawks. 

Oh, and he's not just a sniper. 

"He's more of a 50-55-95 guy," Bleacher Report's Dan Favale recently wrote about Korver while analyzing some early-season-record paces. "Seriously. The Atlanta Hawks' gunner—who dabbles in sneaky-good passing and understated defense—is shooting 52.9 percent from the field overall, 56.1 percent from beyond the arc and 95.3 percent from the charity stripe."

The 50-40-90 club is normally discussed for shooters operating with incredible efficiency from all areas of the court, as it indicates the player in question made 50 percent of his shots from the field, 40 percent of his deep looks and 90 percent of his attempts at the charity stripe. But that's simply not good enough for Korver this year. As Favale noted, he's on a 50-55-95 pace, which really isn't supposed to be possible. 

Korver would be the only member of that club. Hell, Steve Kerr is the only player to gain entry to the 50-50-90 club, and he did so during one of those years in which the NBA shortened the three-point arc.

And 45-50-90? Malik Allen gains membership, but he did so during the 2007-08 campaign, one in which he made one of his two three-point attempts all season long. Though he did go 45-50-90, it's not as though he took enough attempts to qualify.

The NBA has simply never seen anything like this. Period. 

USA TODAY Sports

When Korver is given even the smallest window, he's going to knock down his look more often than not. When he's granted enough space to lean into his deep attempt, it's shocking if he even hits the rim, and that's not because he's air-balling some of his tries. 

The Hawks are currently playing great basketball, especially on the offensive end of the court. They're racking up one victory after another, taking advantage of an easy schedule and making a push for the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference.

(And as if that weren't reason enough to watch them play, Philips Arena now boasts one of the coolest spectacles in sports—the hologram player introductions that dance across the hardwood floor and leave jaws on the floor prior to the opening tip.) 

But right now, the top draw in Atlanta has to be Korver. He's making history every time he cocks back that right wrist of his and sends the ball spinning toward the bottom of the net. 

Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from Basketball-Reference.com and are current heading into Dec. 12's games.