Bulls value Kyle Korver as automatic 3-point weapon

• Reprints

Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

To opponents and teammates alike, Kyle Korver is the man with the magic touch.

“He never misses,’’ Taj Gibson said. “We’ll do an 80-shot drill, he probably makes 78 out of 80. He helps some of us work on jump-shooting after practice, critiques us on how to adjust our shot.’’

Derrick Rose appreciates the room Korver creates for him, because when Korver is on the perimeter, a defender has to stay with him. And that’s one fewer defender clogging up Rose’s driving lanes.

“You can’t help off of him,’’ Rose said. “He’s a knockdown shooter. Those [three-point] shots are layups to him. It’s just God’s gift, the way he shoots the ball. He works on his shot, of course. But he’s got a touch that nobody else has got.’’

Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel summed it up succinctly.

“I hate Kyle Korver,’’ Vogel said. “No, I say that jokingly. He’s a great guy. I coached him in Philadelphia. He’s just been a killer for us. We have to know where he is. We can’t leave him down the stretch.’’

That was before Game 3. After Indiana had taken a 70-65 lead, Korver scored two baskets on a 10-0 run. He added two more buckets down the stretch, for 10 fourth-quarter points, as the Bulls broke the Pacers’ backs 88-84 and went up 3-0 in the series.

“Korver killed us in the fourth,’’ Vogel said afterward. “He even killed us on the last play, when we couldn’t leave him to help, which allowed Rose to get to the bucket.’’

◆ ◆ ◆

All the cold-blooded-assassin talk brings a wry smile to Korver’s face.

For one thing, he wants you to know his stomach is churning at crunch time.

“Absolutely, there’s a nervous part,’’ he said. “Everyone gets nervous. It’s really easy to get caught up in the situation of the shot. When you do that, there’s a better chance you’re going to miss.”

What he does is visualize the shot, not the back-slapping and joy that come with making the shot.

“I’ve always tried to just think about the actual shot and see the shot coming before it gets to you,” he said. “If I’m ready before the shot gets there, I feel like I have a much better chance of making it.’’

That’s what he did in Game 1, when he drained the three that gave the Bulls their first lead at 102-99 in a 104-99 victory. And what he did in Game 2, when he knocked down a three that put the Bulls ahead 90-85 with 1:04 left in their 96-90 victory.

“I also was wide open on those two shots, which helps,’’ he said with a chuckle.

◆ ◆ ◆

Korver also is amused that people consider his shooting ability something that was handed down from a mountaintop.

No doubt, it helps to be 6-7 and reasonably coordinated. But just as sure as Rose took what God gave him and perfected it with endless forays to South Side playgrounds, Korver honed his shooting touch on rural hoops in Pella, Iowa.

As a youngster, Korver said, he wasn’t anything special.

“I shot a lot,’’ he said. “I was a decent shooter. I had Joakim’s [Noah] helicopter spin until my sophomore year in high school. I kind of side-winded it. My junior year is when I finally felt I could shoot pretty good. Physically, you mature enough and get strong enough until you can shoot the ball correctly. My form finally came around.’’

There was a lot of practice, too — thousands upon thousands of shots.

“You have to love to shoot,’’ he said. “You have to love to pretend. You have to have imagination. Otherwise, it gets boring because you take so many shots. I tried all the thousand-shot workouts — chart your shots; 10 this, 10 that; 10 here, 10 there; five pump-fake, one dribble left, five pump-fake, one dribble right; five pump-fake, two dribbles left, five pump-fake, two dribbles right.’’

And with all of that shooting going on, Korver said, “No one recruited me.’’

Not literally, of course. Northern Iowa set up a home visit but didn’t show up. Northern Arizona and Wisconsin-Green Bay offered scholarships, but he accepted his third and final offer, from Creighton, which was close to home and had a good basketball program.

Coming out of Creighton, he was a second-round pick who defied the odds by sticking with Philadelphia in 2003-04. He played there 41/2 years before being traded to Utah, then signed with the Bulls last summer after 21/2 seasons with the Jazz.

“I’ve lived on that edge,’’ Korver said. “When I was coming to the NBA, people said, ‘Can he guard, can he get a shot off?’ People said the same thing when I was in high school going to college. I’ve always had to prove people wrong, I guess.”

With 10,000 shots here and 10,000 shots there.

And now, everybody knows what he can do.