Enes coming out of early season slump

[erudite23]

So I've been holding off on this, and I would hate to jinx it, but I think it warrants mentioning at this point. We all know how badly Enes played early in the year. We've all had to wade through posts from the trolls taunting us over it, and we've all been at least a little concerned at the unexpected dip in production. But I think its to the point where its safe to say that he's back on track. Looking at the last 3 weeks (9 games), we're seeing a distinct difference from the first month (13 games). Here are the numbers laid out per 36 minutes of play:

Code: Select all

Category                    First 13                    Last 9
FG                           5.1                          8.3
FGA                          9.6                         15.4
FG%                        53.1%                         53.7%
FT                           0.8                          3.2
FTA                          2.0                          4.6
FT%                          40%                          70%
ORB                          2.6                          6.0
DRB                          5.9                          4.6
TRB                          8.5                         10.5
AST                          1.0                          0.7
BLK                          1.4                          1.1
TOV                          4.1                          2.3
PTS                         11.0                         19.7


The biggest thing here is obviously the scoring. He's scoring with much much greater frequency, his FTs are starting to fall and he's not losing any of his FG efficiency. The TO numbers that were so startling early on are coming down as well. Also, he's gone to the offensive boards like he was last season and is dominating that area of the game like he used to--though we're still not seeing his defensive rebounding at the level we did last year.

Overall, we're seeing what we need to see from him. No one will say he was anything less than terrible to begin the year, but he seems to have recovered and is showing the gains we saw in pre season. All the disclaimers apply, but the numbers tell the story.

[Neon Black]

Nope, Enes sucks, I don't care what he does. He fails a very scientific and conclusive test...my personal "eye test". He's slow and fat and plays below the rim so he can never, ever be worth anything. He's had an entire lockout-shortened season plus a year on the bench in college to develop his game. If he's not Kevin Love or Dwight Howard by now, he never will be. Dude's getting really old and time's just running out for him.

[StocktonShorts]

Nope, Enes sucks, I don't care what he does. He fails a very scientific and conclusive test...my personal "eye test". He's slow and fat and plays below the rim so he can never, ever be worth anything. He's had an entire lockout-shortened season plus a year on the bench in college to develop his game. If he's not Kevin Love or Dwight Howard by now, he never will be. Dude's getting really old and time's just running out for him.

Why Utah coach no play Kanter?! Time for team to trade him to a better city than Utah!

[Ming Kong!]

Kanter is going to be just fine. He was in a tough situation, with one of the best centers in the league playing ahead of him, and he's been healthy. Kanter showed me in the summer that he was a changed man, ofcourse he didn't have the same impact at the start of the season, due to reduced minutes, and obviously he wasn't playing against 2nd and 3rd string centers like in the preseason. Anyways, he's doing great now and has shown he can do his moves against D.Howard, the Spurs, and other great defenses. This kid is going to be scary, and we have him locked down for another 60 games this year, 2 more after, then an extension or match whatever he gets. Oh yeah.

[reapaman]

Well of course he was gonna improve and not slump forever which is why it was way too early for a "bust" thread. On the other hand its still too earlier for this ala the "hayward out of his slump" thread last season only to be followed by another slump (towards the end of the season he broke the slump officially for that season anyway and excluding playoffs).

So lets wait til at least allstar break before these thread (no matter which way you lean) start popping up.

[Luigi]

How many minutes was he getting in the first set? In the second?

What's the record of the teams in the first set? In the second?

Those are probably the two most important factors to compare the two data sets provided in the OP. I hope they support the good news.

[falcon107]

Kanter is going to be just fine. He was in a tough situation, with one of the best centers in the league playing ahead of him,

Please tell me who is one of the best centers in the league? Jefferson?

I don't think so.

[babyjax13]

Kanter is going to be just fine. He was in a tough situation, with one of the best centers in the league playing ahead of him,

Please tell me who is one of the best centers in the league? Jefferson?

I don't think so.

How many centers are better? I can think of (IMHO):

Dwight
Lopez
Noah
Chandler
Cousins
Monroe

Outside of that, there aren't many and some of those are arguable. He's certainly top ten at worst. Although center is pretty weak as well...but I think he has played great this year, just needs to up that FG%.

[falcon107]

Jefferson is just a good center.

If we are talking about best centers, he is no way in my list.

Best centers make a difference for their team, I don't think that Jefferson makes that difference for Utah.

Outside of that, there aren't many and some of those are arguable. He's certainly top ten at worst. Although center is pretty weak as well...but I think he has played great this year, just needs to up that FG%.

Looking Utah's current position, I cannot understand how you think he has played great this year. Even this loss against Suns was because of Jefferson and his FG%

At the same time Jefferson is now a problem for Utah, for the minutes given to him can be better used for Favors and Kanter's development.

[beefers1]

Kanter is going to be just fine. He was in a tough situation, with one of the best centers in the league playing ahead of him,

Please tell me who is one of the best centers in the league? Jefferson?

I don't think so.

How is he not? IMO, the only ones you can make a case for as being better are Howard, Bynum (when healthy), Horford (though he's more of a PF), Marc Gasol, Hibbert and Bogut (when healthy). He's a better post scorer than all of them (maybe except Gasol), and is working on his defense and passing.

[StocktonShorts]

Kanter is going to be just fine. He was in a tough situation, with one of the best centers in the league playing ahead of him,

Please tell me who is one of the best centers in the league? Jefferson?

I don't think so.

How is he not? IMO, the only ones you can make a case for as being better are Howard, Bynum (when healthy), Horford (though he's more of a PF), Marc Gasol, Hibbert and Bogut (when healthy). He's a better post scorer than all of them (maybe except Gasol), and is working on his defense and passing.

I'd also pick Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah ahead of Al.

[erudite23]

Well of course he was gonna improve and not slump forever which is why it was way too early for a "bust" thread. On the other hand its still too earlier for this ala the "hayward out of his slump" thread last season only to be followed by another slump (towards the end of the season he broke the slump officially for that season anyway and excluding playoffs).

So lets wait til at least allstar break before these thread (no matter which way you lean) start popping up.

According to dictionary.com :

slump [sluhmp]:
noun. a period during which a person performs slowly, inefficiently, or ineffectively, especially a period during which an athlete or team fails to play or score as well as usual.

Your brain fascinates me. So, let's get this straight, then. A person can't get out of one slump, and then go into another one? You can only have one slump per season? Any time a person performs poorly, he is OF COURSE going to break out of the poor play and start playing better?

....wha???

Enes is out of the slump he was in to start the season. The numbers prove it. Will he slump again this season? There's a good chance. But he broke out of this one.

[reapaman]

Enes is out of the slump he was in to start the season. The numbers prove it. Will he slump again this season? There's a good chance. But he broke out of this one.

Thats exactly what I'm implying. He is out the slump and could or couldnt get back in another this season. But you should know by now (as with hayward last year) that when people saw the thread title they didn't see "Enes coming out of early season slump", they saw "Enes is proving the haters wrong". Indicated by the sarcastic comments (one of which was clearly directed towards me even tho I said he would not slump forever) and the open season on Big Al in which you didn't even mention his name even a spin off thread made about Big Al because of this thread.

I know what you were trying to say and I agree but I already knew where this thread was headed when you made it and its too early for it. I just rather wait until the off-season or at least post all-star breadk to go in on Kanter or apologize instead of a thread for the legnth of 10 games with "he sucks" then next ten games "he's back on track" then next 10 games " he sucks again" and so forth. That was annoying with Hayward.

[Luigi]

Still waiting on the minutes and the opponent records during those periods.

[erudite23]

I'm not sure what you're talking about with Hayward, maybe you could actually provide some factual evidence instead of your usual anecdotal or vague remembrances.

Hayward had a gradual improvement as the season wore on. He started terrible and slowly built towards a strong finish. Just like he did the year before.


Kanter is now in the midst of a stretch of games that shockingly dissimilar from his first 13 games. There is a clear shifting point, and a plain-as-day, passes-the-eye test distinction now from before. We're not talking about the usual up and down, 2 steps forward one step back type of stuff. Hayward never had a stretch where he played this good at any point early on last year. He was terrible with a sprinkling of good games here or there. What we are talking about here is 1/8th of the season sucking followed by another 1/8th of the season excelling. Right next to each other. Try not to cloud the picture with your nonsense.