Welcome to Boston Enes Kanter!

[BillTheGOAT]

If Brad was able to hide IT on defense im sure a 6'10 to 6'11 Kanter won't be that bad right?

[Scoonie]

Kanter is a good dude with a lot of personality, hopefully we can help him improve his defense.

Would've been the best rebounder on the Celtics the past few years.

[Tai]

Kanter is good value for the room so we did well.

But he's a pretty bad fit for our current roster. We've recreated the problems we had last year with too many hungry mouths to feed.

Kanter needs, needs, needs shots to be useful. He can create some through his work on the offensive boards, but he gets the rest through rolls and post-ups.

Kemba, Jaylen, Tatum, Hayward, Kanter - that is too many scoring oriented guys and too little D. Someone is gonna have to go the bench to make room for Smart.

What? What's the difference between that and Horford? Again, Horford had 3-point range but to a degree he needed the ball in his hands too.

[Kalela]

Last player I wanted the Celtics to sign.

[Spin Move]

He is good for 25 mins a game to give you some scoring and rebounding, hopefully Robert Williams is up for 20 or so to give us D, I actually think it makes more sense for Williams to start becuase he does not need the ball and can defend and let Kanter abuse 2nd units while some of the starters rest. Is he perfect, heck no his is a below average defender but he is a good rebounder and can give you point off the bench, honestly his stats a couple years ago were really good he has led the league in offense rebounding percentage before. His D in the playoffs was not bad last year, many portland fans are sad to see him go, that is the best indicator, for the money great signing, yet he is limited but he is a stop gap, there is a trade next offseason mark may word.

[Slartibartfast]

You may want to close your eyes for this one:

In defensive RPM, Kanter ranked 70th among 71 centers last season. 52nd among 59 centers in 2017-18, and 49th among 51 centers in 2016-17.

We'll just have to take the good with the bad. Find a way to mitigate his weaknesses through scheming and surrounding personnel.

As your post shows, Kanter is not a championship caliber frontcourt player on nearly all teams. He is just too much of a defensive liability. Maybe the 90's Bulls in place of Luc Longley. he could somehow get it done. He obviously will add to the Celtics defensive problems and not reduce them.

On the other hand, for a big he is a good offensive player. And at least is a threat to score against nearly anyone.

It seems like Ainge is playing that "flexibility" game or is just happy to treadmill with another 2nd round playoff exit. I hope he finally goes for it but realistically Celtics now have a roster to be a top 4-6 seed in the EC if the rookies/young players contribute a moderate amount and the question remains will Ainge make a move to get much better.

I don't believe K Walker signed to max will be dealt by Boston before 1.5-2 years into his deal if he ever is dealt and at this point Ainge is doing a poor job if he doesn't go for it if it is at all feasible. Can't have Walker getting older and a little slower year by year while Brown headed towards RFA and not do anything.

It would just make the entire K Walker signing nonsensical unless the only point of it was to treadmill and make money off of fans and only go for it, if a true no brainer situation presented itself. I can't picture Ainge wanting to ruin his reputation over doing that when it is already on the ropes a little bit and I don't think Celtics fans would even be fooled much longer.

With 3-4 rookies and Robert Williams, Hayward playing without irving, and Brown/Tatum looking to take a step forward, it does sound reasonable to see what the team has and what that Memphis pick is looking like before making a deal at the deadline.

Celtics seem like they will be a top 10 team next year but no real threat to win it all without a dramatically upgraded interior D. Kanter obviously doesn't provide that. But Kanter's scoring may at least help the Celtics get a good look at some other players on the offensive side of the ball.

Unlike Yabs, I think Robert Williams needs to be out there for 15-25 minutes for a few months until he proves that he isn't getting a little bit better at least. Kanter may be a good player for Williams to practice against.

The good news is Ainge didn't overpay to get Kanter. He should be movable. This is now his 5th team, I wouldn't be surprised if the plays on 2-3 more NBA teams after the Celtics.

We haven’t even had kemba officially sign and your already talking trading down the road? My god some posters on here really make me wonder if your a fan of the team or here to criticize. Kemba will be GREAT here. Look at what he has done with the hornets surrounded by mediocre talent. He fits the system perfectly. Like fellas be happy someone of his caliber wanted to sign in boston, this offseason could have been a disaster and yet we upgraded at PG. Of course were undersized at the big but we have a very long ( pause ) and athletic team. I think the character of kemba and kanter is being undervalued. We have leaders who lead by example; something we clearly lacked last year.

We did not upgrade at PG. We are not long and athletic - we have good size wings, but we're badly undersized at 1 and 4 (starters AND bench) and not very athletic in the frontcourt.

Kanter and Kemba being nice does not make up for their horrible D and it never has.

On the plus side, we can do a fair imitation of the Blazers with good health, which is a nice save after getting dumped by our stars. On the negative side, the Blazers are the classic pretenders and no one really wants to be them long-term. Hence entertaining a Kemba trade to make the next step a few years down the road.

[zoyathedestroya]

If Brad was able to hide IT on defense im sure a 6'10 to 6'11 Kanter won't be that bad right?

Harder to hide a big on defense especially when we don't have a PF like Draymond who can cover for everybody. We can put Kanter on the least threat on opposing team but they can still hunt him in PnRs. And we'd still need a big to protect the paint.

[captain green]

It's as if the team needed a defensive center that could pass,or block or steal the ball or could shoot the 3. oh wait nah we get the center that is soft as **** can't block pass or shot the 3 or steal the ball. Worse center pick up that could have happened. Absolutely horse **** off season.
F on the draft, f on the summer league pick ups and f in free agency. With the roster as is
Walker/smart/edwarfs/waters
Brown/smart/langford
Hayward/semi/williams
Tatum /thies/Williams/ yabu
Canter/timelord/thies/fall

Enjoy the 7th seed max or no playoffs.
Absolute let down.

[Feed Your Head]

Posted this in the other thread, but oh well. Remember how Greg Monroe would get amazing position down low, or grab every offensive board, but then would throw a 95 mpg sinker towards the rim, often not even making it over it?

That's Kanter, except with fantastic touch. He can pass from the high post, and will grab every board. He sucks horrifically on D no doubt, but he will be a weapon for 20-25 minutes a game.

[Celtics_Champs]

Ya know, I turn my head for two hours and then we sign someone.

It is what it is. I hope he does well in Boston I’ll root for him like crazy. I don’t like some aspects of him but I’ll deal.

I’d rather have Kemba over Kyrie. If that means I have to lose Horford for Kanter, so be it.

[soxfan2003]

You may want to close your eyes for this one:

In defensive RPM, Kanter ranked 70th among 71 centers last season. 52nd among 59 centers in 2017-18, and 49th among 51 centers in 2016-17.

We'll just have to take the good with the bad. Find a way to mitigate his weaknesses through scheming and surrounding personnel.

As your post shows, Kanter is not a championship caliber frontcourt player on nearly all teams. He is just too much of a defensive liability. Maybe the 90's Bulls in place of Luc Longley. he could somehow get it done. He obviously will add to the Celtics defensive problems and not reduce them.

On the other hand, for a big he is a good offensive player. And at least is a threat to score against nearly anyone.

It seems like Ainge is playing that "flexibility" game or is just happy to treadmill with another 2nd round playoff exit. I hope he finally goes for it but realistically Celtics now have a roster to be a top 4-6 seed in the EC if the rookies/young players contribute a moderate amount and the question remains will Ainge make a move to get much better.

I don't believe K Walker signed to max will be dealt by Boston before 1.5-2 years into his deal if he ever is dealt and at this point Ainge is doing a poor job if he doesn't go for it if it is at all feasible. Can't have Walker getting older and a little slower year by year while Brown headed towards RFA and not do anything.

It would just make the entire K Walker signing nonsensical unless the only point of it was to treadmill and make money off of fans and only go for it, if a true no brainer situation presented itself. I can't picture Ainge wanting to ruin his reputation over doing that when it is already on the ropes a little bit and I don't think Celtics fans would even be fooled much longer.

With 3-4 rookies and Robert Williams, Hayward playing without irving, and Brown/Tatum looking to take a step forward, it does sound reasonable to see what the team has and what that Memphis pick is looking like before making a deal at the deadline.

Celtics seem like they will be a top 10 team next year but no real threat to win it all without a dramatically upgraded interior D. Kanter obviously doesn't provide that. But Kanter's scoring may at least help the Celtics get a good look at some other players on the offensive side of the ball.

Unlike Yabs, I think Robert Williams needs to be out there for 15-25 minutes for a few months until he proves that he isn't getting a little bit better at least. Kanter may be a good player for Williams to practice against.

The good news is Ainge didn't overpay to get Kanter. He should be movable. This is now his 5th team, I wouldn't be surprised if the plays on 2-3 more NBA teams after the Celtics.

We haven’t even had kemba officially sign and your already talking trading down the road? My god some posters on here really make me wonder if your a fan of the team or here to criticize. Kemba will be GREAT here. Look at what he has done with the hornets surrounded by mediocre talent. He fits the system perfectly. Like fellas be happy someone of his caliber wanted to sign in boston, this offseason could have been a disaster and yet we upgraded at PG. Of course were undersized at the big but we have a very long ( pause ) and athletic team. I think the character of kemba and kanter is being undervalued. We have leaders who lead by example; something we clearly lacked last year.

Not to sound like truth18 too much but the off the court leadership problem was overblown when folks are just assessing the bottom line of where Celtics finished. There wasn't that much talk about Irving's poor leadership after C's won their first 5 playoff games...... Yes, if Kyrie played better vs Bucks, series closer but C's still lose decisively. These players much more than fans realize IMO know that when the playoffs begin, you have to be a little less selfish and play hard on defense. That is why Irving not doing that enough stood out since rest of Celtics in general were doing that.

Kemba is a little less talented than Kyrie Irving. Better leader? Sure. Better fit in terms of style of play? Maybe a little better. Probably much better in the regular season leadership department but the biggest Celtics problems were structural(7 perimeter players worth 10+ million a year and only one big worth that). Even with a decent defensive big in Baynes and good to very good defensive big in Al Horford, the Celtics couldn't defend the paint well against elite competition.

Now those two are lost are replaced by Kanter and a largely unproven rookie with a little promise in Williams? If you don't see that as a massive slide back that the Celtics need to fix before trading deadline to even have a chance, I don't know what to tell you.

And if you see my post as pure negativity, you are misreading it as well. Tatum/Brown/Hayward and the young players all have a chance to increase their values before the trading deadline.

But it is already obvious that this team is far from title contention right now. It is NOT as good as the team that lost to the Bucks.

How are the Celtics very long right now with Walker at PG, possibly Hayward or Tatum at PF and Kanter? This Celtics team is still undersized like last years. Maybe Morris is upgraded by Grant Williams but that is most likely not in Williams first year if we are talking 2 way play.

I think when Ainge finally speaks, he will state the obvious that this Celtics team is not a contender as current constituted but that it can be a "good playoff" team and he may be able to make moves to get better.

But without trades, Ainge is setting up a treadmiill team. I am not afraid to say that. At a certain point, you have to choose a direction or you end up just treadmilling.

[Theocy]

It's as if the team needed a defensive center that could pass,or block or steal the ball or could shoot the 3. oh wait nah we get the center that is soft as **** can't block pass or shot the 3 or steal the ball. Worse center pick up that could have happened. Absolutely horse **** off season.
F on the draft, f on the summer league pick ups and f in free agency. With the roster as is
Walker/smart/edwarfs/waters
Brown/smart/langford
Hayward/semi/williams
Tatum /thies/Williams/ yabu
Canter/timelord/thies/fall

Enjoy the 7th seed max or no playoffs.
Absolute let down.

Someone is being very grumpy.

[greenpierce]

Kanter is good value for the room so we did well.

But he's a pretty bad fit for our current roster. We've recreated the problems we had last year with too many hungry mouths to feed.

Kanter needs, needs, needs shots to be useful. He can create some through his work on the offensive boards, but he gets the rest through rolls and post-ups.

Kemba, Jaylen, Tatum, Hayward, Kanter - that is too many scoring oriented guys and too little D. Someone is gonna have to go the bench to make room for Smart.

I actually imagined that Rob Williams gets the first shot over Kanter. Stevens often liked to start Baynes at center, so I'd like to think R.Williams/Tatum/Brown/Smart/Walker, with Smart and R.Williams being the defensive anchors. Then Hayward and Kanter off the bench to punish the back-ups. Theis, Ojeleye and G.Williams key 2nd team D.

[captain green]

It's as if the team needed a defensive center that could pass,or block or steal the ball or could shoot the 3. oh wait nah we get the center that is soft as **** can't block pass or shot the 3 or steal the ball. Worse center pick up that could have happened. Absolutely horse **** off season.
F on the draft, f on the summer league pick ups and f in free agency. With the roster as is
Walker/smart/edwarfs/waters
Brown/smart/langford
Hayward/semi/williams
Tatum /thies/Williams/ yabu
Canter/timelord/thies/fall

Enjoy the 7th seed max or no playoffs.
Absolute let down.

Someone is being very grumpy.

Ya seeing every eastern team out manouver us and have extremely defensive minded bigs and then seeing we sign canter made me grumpy till summer league and then I will be even more grumpy seeing all those worthless guards battle it out for the 14 or 15th spot sounds fun.
Wow how far have we falling. Yes I'm grumpy

[jfs1000d]

He'll plau passable D here. Wont be a shotblocker, but getting into correct defensive position is effort and coaching.

As far as him on the PnR. There are things you can do. I like him because he rebounds, can score inside.

[Slartibartfast]

Kanter is good value for the room so we did well.

But he's a pretty bad fit for our current roster. We've recreated the problems we had last year with too many hungry mouths to feed.

Kanter needs, needs, needs shots to be useful. He can create some through his work on the offensive boards, but he gets the rest through rolls and post-ups.

Kemba, Jaylen, Tatum, Hayward, Kanter - that is too many scoring oriented guys and too little D. Someone is gonna have to go the bench to make room for Smart.

What? What's the difference between that and Horford? Again, Horford had 3-point range but to a degree he needed the ball in his hands too.

Shots. Al was low-volume shooter and high-volume facilitator. A strong passer and ball-mover who also spaced the floor for others.

Kanter does not space the floor for others and he's not a great passer. He's a scorer. He plays well off of ball-dominant guards because he's a good roll man and offensive rebounder, but he also needs post touches to put up his points.

Kemba and Kanter in particular need to shoot the ball a lot to maintain their value. Both are terrible defenders who will be attacked repeatedly. They stay positive (or neutral in Kanter's case) primarily by scoring in impressive volume at impressive efficiency.

This type of set-up works best when the other guys on the floor are 3/D. Portland had Harkless and Aminu, two sub 14% usage guys, to work around Dame (29% usage) CJ (26%) and Nurkic/Kanter (25/23).

Asking 2 of Hayward/Tatum/Jaylen to be shooter spectators is not going to go over well.

[radcot]

Kanter is a nearly elite rebounder and a much better than average post scorer. I'm more excited to have someone who does a couple of things very well, even if his D is weak, than some complete mediocrity like Amir or Tyler -- which is the caliber I thought we'd be looking at with no more than the room exception to offer. And Danny is not done - we can pretty much count on that.

[threrf23]

Posted this in the other thread, but oh well. Remember how Greg Monroe would get amazing position down low, or grab every offensive board, but then would throw a 95 mpg sinker towards the rim, often not even making it over it?

That's Kanter, except with fantastic touch. He can pass from the high post, and will grab every board. He sucks horrifically on D no doubt, but he will be a weapon for 20-25 minutes a game.

That and he has a better, or at least more consistent motor than Monroe.

Defensively, he is where Vuc was not too long ago. He looked okay on D in the playoffs, and being on a competitive team should hopefully continue to bring out the best in him. The main disadvantage is that our defensive schemes may need to be altered to hide his weaknesses.

[Tiny ball]

I like size and rebounding, and he’s moved up to being a net neutral on D. Still young. No complaints here and hope we can get him to become a more useful defender.

Think his defense was good in the playoffs playing with bad shoulder.? Just saw something on YouTube saying that?

[soxfan2003]

As your post shows, Kanter is not a championship caliber frontcourt player on nearly all teams. He is just too much of a defensive liability. Maybe the 90's Bulls in place of Luc Longley. he could somehow get it done. He obviously will add to the Celtics defensive problems and not reduce them.

On the other hand, for a big he is a good offensive player. And at least is a threat to score against nearly anyone.

It seems like Ainge is playing that "flexibility" game or is just happy to treadmill with another 2nd round playoff exit. I hope he finally goes for it but realistically Celtics now have a roster to be a top 4-6 seed in the EC if the rookies/young players contribute a moderate amount and the question remains will Ainge make a move to get much better.

I don't believe K Walker signed to max will be dealt by Boston before 1.5-2 years into his deal if he ever is dealt and at this point Ainge is doing a poor job if he doesn't go for it if it is at all feasible. Can't have Walker getting older and a little slower year by year while Brown headed towards RFA and not do anything.

It would just make the entire K Walker signing nonsensical unless the only point of it was to treadmill and make money off of fans and only go for it, if a true no brainer situation presented itself. I can't picture Ainge wanting to ruin his reputation over doing that when it is already on the ropes a little bit and I don't think Celtics fans would even be fooled much longer.

With 3-4 rookies and Robert Williams, Hayward playing without irving, and Brown/Tatum looking to take a step forward, it does sound reasonable to see what the team has and what that Memphis pick is looking like before making a deal at the deadline.

Celtics seem like they will be a top 10 team next year but no real threat to win it all without a dramatically upgraded interior D. Kanter obviously doesn't provide that. But Kanter's scoring may at least help the Celtics get a good look at some other players on the offensive side of the ball.

Unlike Yabs, I think Robert Williams needs to be out there for 15-25 minutes for a few months until he proves that he isn't getting a little bit better at least. Kanter may be a good player for Williams to practice against.

The good news is Ainge didn't overpay to get Kanter. He should be movable. This is now his 5th team, I wouldn't be surprised if the plays on 2-3 more NBA teams after the Celtics.

We haven’t even had kemba officially sign and your already talking trading down the road? My god some posters on here really make me wonder if your a fan of the team or here to criticize. Kemba will be GREAT here. Look at what he has done with the hornets surrounded by mediocre talent. He fits the system perfectly. Like fellas be happy someone of his caliber wanted to sign in boston, this offseason could have been a disaster and yet we upgraded at PG. Of course were undersized at the big but we have a very long ( pause ) and athletic team. I think the character of kemba and kanter is being undervalued. We have leaders who lead by example; something we clearly lacked last year.

We did not upgrade at PG. We are not long and athletic - we have good size wings, but we're badly undersized at 1 and 4 (starters AND bench) and not very athletic in the frontcourt.

Kanter and Kemba being nice does not make up for their horrible D and it never has.

On the plus side, we can do a fair imitation of the Blazers with good health, which is a nice save after getting dumped by our stars. On the negative side, the Blazers are the classic pretenders and no one really wants to be them long-term. Hence entertaining a Kemba trade to make the next step a few years down the road.

Good post.

I wasn't even meaning to imply trade K Walker. What I was saying since it is unrealistic to really trade him before he starts to slow down more, Ainge should never ever have signed a marginal max player like Walker, given Walker's age, unless Ainge was very prepared to throw enough chips onto the table to win it all.

More fans need to start demanding accountability from Ainge/Wyc. It is okay to fail....Lakers have failed several times since their two last title(2009, 2010) but it is crazy to build and never go for it if ownership/management is truly as interested in banners as they are in profits.

Some will say Ainge's record as gm is great. I think much closer to average under the circumstances he inherited since this is the Fn Boston Celtics with ownership willing to spend above average and not 1/2 the teams in the NBA that have no history of winning. Team won 16 titles over 3 different decades and then had a major dry spell because of in part bad management/bad luck/yes increased FA probably hurt the Celtics and 2 deaths. And Ainge also inherited a top 10ish player in PP that had already carried Celtics to ECFinals and another top 35 player in Walker who was admittedly flawed.

I am not here to bash Ainge....frankly probably my favorite athlete growing up but I think folks are not helping if they don't admit the Celtics problems right in front of their eyes.

Team obviously needs to make moves quickly to dramatically strength PF/C spots. That is really all what my post was stating. If K Walker is going to be your PG, you have to make up for his defensive shortcomings and even if the Celtics had Mike Conley at PG, they would still need to upgrade the interior.