Enes Kanter?

[callmened]

Greetings from HARLEMworld, NY

- i just had a few questions regarding Enes Kanter. I'm just curious as an NBA fan and a Knick fan (with the cap space to acquire this young talent):

1. was dude always this good? he looks great on OKC. posting 20-15 games
2. was it an immaturity problem? case of a young kid placed in a losing environment so he dogs it
3. how bad was his defense? or was that overrated?
4. any regrets on giving up on Kanter? The Stifle tower is amazing though!

thanks!!!

PS: yo guys have a great future. I agree with the Zach Lowe article. let these western powers age out...then you guys will overtake them. just get some more 3&D guys. I believe in Snyder and most importantly i believe in Exum.

[red4hf]

1. Kanter is a terrific low post player, with great footwork and a variety of moves, he also has a decent jumper out to 18 feet, and can even make threes, although he's not shooting them at OKC...... He's also a very, very good rebounder, particularly on the offensive end.....
2. Don't know about this...... His comments about the Jazz were pretty stupid.....
3. His defense is atrocious, as OKC is finding out now...... He's not a shot blocker, and he's terrible at rotations, he's a decent low post defender, when he's guarding his own man, in my opinion...... To be honest, I never realized how bad it was until he got traded......
4. None, whatsoever......

[FJS]

Hi!
We had some Kanter threads and those resolve all your questions.
Still I'm going to make a resume:
1 He is good in offense and he is good rebounding. The fact he is playing alongside a pg who can pass better than Jazz pg is helping a lot to score more. The fact OKC have a faster pace give him more oportotunities to score and to rebound.
2 I'm sure it's an immaturity problem. Maybe he thought he was better than Favors or Gobert, maybe he was frustated by different factors (not having a good passing pg, being outplayed by Gobert in deffense for example)
3 Well, our deffense is much better wihtout him. We are the best team in opp ppg. At one point we were in the last positions. We have done that in only a few games. Still, we are pretty bad in offense, and we aren't better without him.
4 I think we don't have regrets. Favors give you points and deffense. Gobert give elite deffense and can score in rebounds and made a good % of FT being a C. We are thin in C-PF position, but if we get Tomic and he agrees to play limited min. the situation is good.

[kebutah]

Kanter is best at simple plays on offense, (pick & roll, offensive rebounds, or dump it inside). He is poor on rotations involving thinking on both offense and defense.

[StocktonShorts]

For what it's worth, his outside shooting is vastly overrated. I think one reason his offensive numbers have been more efficient in OKC is that he's taking fewer outside shots.

This year with the Jazz he shot 28% of his shots from 16 feet or further out and only 45% from 0-3 feet.

In 19 games with OKC he's taken only 13% of his shots from 16+ feet and a staggering 62% from 0-3 feet. I'm guessing that he's getting more assisted buckets as well courtesy of Westbrook.

Part of this was the Jazz trying to develop this aspect of his game so he could be a floor spacer. While it wasn't paying immediate dividends it could still have paid off in the long run. But as of right now it would be misleading to say Kanter has an outside shot that is an efficient in-game weapon.

It sounds to me from comments made by beat writers that he wasn't a great worker and he wasn't coachable. If accurate, I wouldn't expect him to improve significantly in any of the areas where he is currently deficient.

But anyway, the Knicks should definitely offer him a max deal this summer.

[MHSL82]

Greetings from HARLEMworld, NY

- i just had a few questions regarding Enes Kanter. I'm just curious as an NBA fan and a Knick fan (with the cap space to acquire this young talent):

1. was dude always this good? he looks great on OKC. posting 20-15 games
2. was it an immaturity problem? case of a young kid placed in a losing environment so he dogs it
3. how bad was his defense? or was that overrated?
4. any regrets on giving up on Kanter? The Stifle tower is amazing though!

thanks!!!

PS: yo guys have a great future. I agree with the Zach Lowe article. let these western powers age out...then you guys will overtake them. just get some more 3&D guys. I believe in Snyder and most importantly i believe in Exum.

1. He is the same guy there as he was here, just with an offense better suited for him, with the main targets on his team injured. He isn't "this good" or at least he wouldn't have been here unless we tailored our offense to him and he decided to put in the effort like he is now. Our offense is just different, more complex. He didn't like it and wasn't as good at it, so this question is a bit off for me. It wasn't our goal to make him this good, but rather to make the team the best they could be. If Kanter were accepting of a bench role (not blaming him for not), we could have made it work efficiently (do what he's doing in OKC but pro-rated for fewer minutes).
2. Yes, immaturity - but it wasn't for being in a losing environment, but rather one that wasn't focused on maximizing his stats. We could have done a better job, but it's not to the degree he thinks we should. We were building a team, not him. He could have done more to develop to our team game, but it would have taken longer in Snyder's offense. Can't blame Snyder for Corbin.
3. Bad, like league-wide bad. But I will defer to stat-geeks who know more than I do for that stuff.
4. I would only have regretted it if he had said (genuinely) he didn't want to be traded, would have accepted whatever role, appreciated the fans and would miss them, felt we were building something, etc. Much of that would have been PR bull ****, but enough that I'd have to give some benefit of the doubt. But the way it was, it was clear he wasn't going to get where we or he wanted him or us to be if we didn't trade him. I would have regretted keeping him and letting him walking for nothing.

[JazzMatt13]

He is good for someone else's arsenal, as long as you don't rely on him as a #1 or #2, with 2 superstars like Durant and Westbrook, it is a perfect match, especially considering Ibaka is willingly to cover him. I think Kanter is best utilized as a bench player, like bench him for certain lineups.

When you got explosive point guards, and Shooting PF's like Aldridge and Horford, your going to loss a ton of slack, because the defense won't be there with Kanter.

Just so you know, Utah's defense rating went -15'ish within weeks of him gone, that is like replacing an entire person. Going from the weakest defense in league, to the best. Yeah Gobert is a freak of nature, and Exum can slow down explosive point guards, so combine that PG shutdowns, and the Rim Protection, and of course it is gonna feel like an entire player is replaced.


One man's garbage, is another man's gold....thats all I can really say.

[Winglish]

Enes Kanter has good post moves, is a good shooter, and a good offensive rebounder. He is an atrocious defender and he does not pass the ball.

[bucephalus]

Re: the defense. Atrocious almost undersells it. Kanter is dead last in DRPM among all NBA centers, and it's not even close (last time I checked it was -3.72, Matt Bonner is next worst at -1.99). Just not an intuitive help defender.

That said, he fits really well in OKC. Teams that don't have an athletic shot-blocking PF with decent range (like Ibaka) should just stay away from him, it will not work out.

[callmened]

thanks for the objective input guys!!

[dautjazz]

Bull on offense and on the boards, not very good on defense.

[Nate505]

Greetings from HARLEMworld, NY

- i just had a few questions regarding Enes Kanter. I'm just curious as an NBA fan and a Knick fan (with the cap space to acquire this young talent):

1. was dude always this good? he looks great on OKC. posting 20-15 games
2. was it an immaturity problem? case of a young kid placed in a losing environment so he dogs it
3. how bad was his defense? or was that overrated?
4. any regrets on giving up on Kanter? The Stifle tower is amazing though!

thanks!!!

PS: yo guys have a great future. I agree with the Zach Lowe article. let these western powers age out...then you guys will overtake them. just get some more 3&D guys. I believe in Snyder and most importantly i believe in Exum.

1) He might have been. If he was it just proves how much he was half assing it here.

2) Maybe he's immature. I think he's a total self absorbed bitch myself.

3) defense is about the worst I've ever seen in the NBA. He has no talent on defense, doesn't try, and just doesn't care. He's pretty much completely worthless on defense. The difference in each team's defense since he left/went on it is astounding. I've never seen anything like it.

4) None. He's a cancer, he's a bitch, and Gobert will be a stud while he'll be another overrated hack who puts up good numbers on losing team.

[Joao Saraiva]

Greetings from HARLEMworld, NY

- i just had a few questions regarding Enes Kanter. I'm just curious as an NBA fan and a Knick fan (with the cap space to acquire this young talent):

1. was dude always this good? he looks great on OKC. posting 20-15 games
2. was it an immaturity problem? case of a young kid placed in a losing environment so he dogs it
3. how bad was his defense? or was that overrated?
4. any regrets on giving up on Kanter? The Stifle tower is amazing though!

thanks!!!

PS: yo guys have a great future. I agree with the Zach Lowe article. let these western powers age out...then you guys will overtake them. just get some more 3&D guys. I believe in Snyder and most importantly i believe in Exum.

1. He was always good on offense. He was always a good rebounder, and as an offensive rebounder he showed tremendous ability.
2. An attitude issue for sure. Absolutely no D and pathetic effort.
3. His bad defense can't be overrated. That's how bad it was.
4. Not really. I would hate having Kanter taking minutes from Gobert or Favors.

Kanter is a good piece in OKC, and after KD went down he is essential there because they need scoring ability. If they put Ibaka and Kanter it might work, but Ibaka will have to work a lot to compensate for Kanter's lack of D. (I haven't seen much from him in OKC so I don't know if he improved in that regard since he might at least try sometimes now).

Thanks for the message about our future. I'm pretty confident in Snyder, I believe he'll become Sloan 2.0. About Dante Exum... He has showed a bit more of what he can do after the all-star break. He needs to take a step forward... if he can or not, only time will tell. But he's worth a try.

[millslapper]

1. Trevor Booker said it: he gets his stats and gets the L, as always. Nice moves, good offensive arsenal, but nothing crucial in terms of winning basketball
2. he is immature as hell (from a fan perspective, of course - you never know, how he really is). would be a "perfect" fit next to cousins
3. defense is non existent. maybe the worst i ever saw in the NBA from a big rotation player, maybe Bargnani is in this category
4. No. Big big no.

So: A team, where Kanter is playing big minutes will never be really good.

[StocktonShorts]

So: A team, where Kanter is playing big minutes will never be really good.

I don't think this is close to accurate. If everyone was healthy on OKC and they started Kanter, Ibaka, Durant and Westbrook (and anyone else at SG) they would win 60+ games. Their defense would be only okay but their offense would be very, very good.

[Nate505]

So: A team, where Kanter is playing big minutes will never be really good.

I don't think this is close to accurate. If everyone was healthy on OKC and they started Kanter, Ibaka, Durant and Westbrook (and anyone else at SG) they would win 60+ games. Their defense would be only okay but their offense would be very, very good.

Perhaps, but if you have a team with two potential MVP candidates on it they will be pretty good. Stockto and Malone had teams that win 60 games with Jeff Hornacek and a bunch of guys who never left much of a mark in the NBA (not that they were all scrubs, but nobody else on the Finals' teams were above average)

[zimpy27]

Kanter fits OKC, he can obviously play basketball but he is an old-world center that really only works in an offense-based system (think amare in phoenix). Kanter isn't as good as Amare on defense yet, that's definitely his ceiling and players like Kanter/Amare are always overrated because people they fill the columns with the biggest numbers when they chuck up stats mid-game (pts/rebs).

I don't rate him as a great well-rounded player but he definitely has a fit and that fit is probably OKC, PHX, DAL, LAL and NYC. The last two because of the showtime ball, won't be surprised if those 2 clubs offer Kanter big money in free agency. And I seriously feel sorry for the team that offers him that money because he could never be in the top 3 players for any team serious on being a contender, I've seen enough basketball to know that someone will be lured into the trap as he is worth more than 10 a year given the cap jump even (an overpay at 12 is possible, anything above is disastrous).

I see OP is a Knicks fan, I hope you guys try to sign Koufos to pair with the PF/C they draft. Grabbing Rondo and Tobias Harris would make for a pretty good team that I think could be had for good value contracts. A distributing PG with weapons and two solid defensive C would be enough to see atleast the semis in the east next year

[millslapper]

So: A team, where Kanter is playing big minutes will never be really good.

I don't think this is close to accurate. If everyone was healthy on OKC and they started Kanter, Ibaka, Durant and Westbrook (and anyone else at SG) they would win 60+ games. Their defense would be only okay but their offense would be very, very good.

ok, you have to compare different situations. With this OKC Lineup the goal would be the title and nothing else. And i dont see Kanter winning the title even with RW, KD and SI besides him. ok, maybe they have a chance if Ibaka is correcting all of Kanter defensive pnR breakdowns and they don't play a "space the floor with all 5 team" on their way.

[BudTugly]

OleKanterCity chasing playoffs, losing by 30. Championship.

[MHSL82]

OleKanterCity chasing playoffs, losing by 30. Championship.

And New Orleans won their most-likely-lose game. Hopefully NO can keep it going.