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. has he been a surprise? what was your opinion of him when he was the opponent?
2. Is he getting along with teammates? seems like he had an immaturity problem in Utah
3. how bad is his defense? or was that overrated from his previous reputation?
4. do you think OKC is interested in keeping him long term?

thanks!

[bondom34]

In order:

1. Yes, he's been fantastic, best offensive big OKC has ever had by far. Didn't really have an opinion previously.
2. Yep, he seems to love the team, and they like him too. He gets along really well w/ Russ and Adams in particular from what I can tell.
3. Awful. Worse than awful.
4. Yep, I don't see him leaving unless there's over about a 15 mil offer thrown at him.

Hope that helps!

[BadWolf]

I0m still on the fence whether he helps or hurts the team. His defense is so bad. But he gets a lot of freebies from Russ, a lot. But is the addition on offense enough to counter the defensive woes? He also misses some easy ones, like last night, not sure whether that's more then others or those just stand out more. His role on the team can be properly evaluated when KD and Serge come back. Right now his defense is needed, but with everyone healthy I'd go defense first. I still think he'd be best used as 6th man behind Adams, getting 25 minutes, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on needs.

[DontH8TheBrody]

We need to resign him.

His offence in the low post combined with Serges defence is the perfect 3rd option for this team.

[callmened]

thanks for feedback

[JazzMatt13]

If someone could smack some sense into Kanter, point at a team player like Duncan, and say that is how you win Championships, and this off-season knuckles down and learns to defend, and becomes more motivated, he could become an all-star in the west. All us Jazz fans wished he would do this, but obviously it never happened, and would have never. But in OKC, where he can play in the next couple years and actually compete for a ring, I am sure he will put in 10x more effort than he did in Utah.

[spearsy23]

If someone could smack some sense into Kanter, point at a team player like Duncan, and say that is how you win Championships, and this off-season knuckles down and learns to defend, and becomes more motivated, he could become an all-star in the west. All us Jazz fans wished he would do this, but obviously it never happened, and would have never. But in OKC, where he can play in the next couple years and actually compete for a ring, I am sure he will put in 10x more effort than he did in Utah.

Unfortunately you can't really imitate Duncan. You're either born with those instincts and feel or not. Kanter isn't athletic enough or smart enough to emulate Duncan, the hope is that he can learn to just be a slight negative instead of terrible.

[Inigo Montoya]

Just hope Kanter will be healthy this offseason. The last two offseasons he was injured and couldn't work on his game. If he's healthy, it's already a good place to start. He'll put in the work.

[Marcus50]

I would be happy to resign Kanter for 10 / 11 million. Talk of 13-15m is simply over inflating the guys value. He is good offensively but his usage rate is exceptionally high given the absence of KD and to some extent Serge. He has a good post game and is very tidy around the basket with offensive rebounds and put backs etc. He works a nice PnR with Russ.

Then we get to the other end of the court and hes not just bad he is tragic. Kanter has a DRTG cose to 110, he gets lost ball watching and loses his man, he does not have quick enough lateral movement and using Scotty's turn of phrase "cant jump higher than a south Dakota phone book". Now Perk sort of fits the lateral movement and jumping description as well but Perk was a smart defender. He leaned on pushed and moved offensive bigs to places he knew they found hard to shoot from, but the most important job Perk did was he was our defensive organizer. He would bawl out Russ and KD if they did not get back on their men and do their job. SO Kanter needs to be taught you do not need to be an uber athlete to be a good defender, it takes commitment, anticipation and being smart about what you do. Where Kanter frustrates me is he is much faster sprinting to the scoring end than the defensive end, he jumps higher and moves quicker on the offensive end which just indicates to me he can do a lot better on defense but it requires an attitude adjustment.

Kanter is the third worst defensive center in the league, has a negative BPM and yet we still have people wanting to pay him the max pointing out that Serge can cover his defense. Don't get me wrong, Serge is great and the 3rd most important player on this team but he is not that good that he can cover his man and Kanters frailty on the defensive end. Players like LMA, Griffin, Davis, Duncan etc are a handful enough for Serge without him having to do Kanters work as well.

So if we can get Kanter for 10-11 mill per year he is good value but over that we are over paying for a one way player on a team that has a heap of scoring ability already

[tleikheen]

Kid is 22 years old and has been playing great offense against all defenders ....is he any good defensively,No ,he's a work in progress ,but 22 years old..... Love,Aldridge ,Nowitzski,Bosh ,none of these guys came in as defenders either ...Kanter is doing what he's suppose to do to gain a starting job and make money ,score and rebound . At 23 ,he's going to be stronger ,more confident,and a year wiser ...someone will pay him big money ,10/11 millions(low ball)...expect OKC to give him the money.he's the triangle to Westbrook and Durant

[Marcus50]

Kanter is a 4th year player whose defense needs a huge amount of work. I would love him to be resigned but a 1 way player just is not worth a max contract or anywhere near that. I think okc will get him for 10-11 perhaps 12 because I would be surprised if another team will pay that.much