Who is OKC's 2nd best player?

[sleestak33]

To me it's Kanter hands down. The 3 candidates are Adams, Kanter and Oladipo and really the best way to compare them is to look at their PER 36 minute stats since Kanter only gets 21 minutes on average. Adams PER 36: 13.9 points 9.1 rbds. Oladipo: 17.7 pts. 4.7 rbds. 2.7 asts. Kanter: 24.3 pts. 11.4 rbds. As you can see, Kanter averages significant more points per minute than even Oladipo and is completely dominating Adams. The most significant stat with Kanter is that he averages almost 5 offensive rebounds per game. Those are very significant because they give the team an extra possession so they're very much like a steal. He's basically giving the team almost 5 extra possessions per game and many times he's scoring on putbacks. Yes, I'm aware his defense is below average but he's improved dramatically in the last year and if anybody still thinks Adams is some sort of great defender they're delusional. Adams has been destroyed several dozen times this year by opposing centers and outside of just basic low post defense he's really not good at all. Kanter should be starting and playing 32-34 minutes per game at a minimum and this franchise just doesn't realize what they have. He is an elite scorer and rebounder and it doesn't matter who's guarding him they can't stop him.

[Pillendreher]

Semaj Christon.

[ThunderBolt]

It varies for each game and that's the problem. Forget a second all star, we don't have a true second option. Oladipo reminded us again why that can't be him tonight. He doesn't have the ability. He's a nice role player, but nothing more.

[sleestak33]

It varies for each game and that's the problem. Forget a second all star, we don't have a true second option. Oladipo reminded us again why that can't be him tonight. He doesn't have the ability. He's a nice role player, but nothing more.

The only thing holding Kanter back from being an All-Star is Billy Donovan. There are 4 bigs in the entire NBA averaging 20/10 (Cousins, Davis, Anthony-Towns and Lopez) and Kanter would EASILY average that if given the minutes. It's just funny to me that all anybody talks about is his supposed lack of defense. James Harden is widely known to be a terrible defender and he's probably going to win the MVP this year and look at how his team is doing. Defense always has its role in any sport but when you're that elite of a scorer and rebounder you're going to more than offset any defensive issues.

[Pillendreher]

We need to get an actual NBA coach before we judge these guys.

[spearsy23]

Defense from a center is much more important than defense from a 1/2. Oladipo is easily our second best player, followed by Taj, then it's either Steven or enes ( right now I'd lean enes).

[Kizz Fastfists]

Oladipo and Adams are the only candidates for second best player and I'd give it to Dipo. Roberson and Taj are 4/5. Abrines is 6th. Kanter is 7th. Kanter's defense makes his offensive contributions worthless. An all offense no defense wing can be covered by a good center. A all offense no defense center destroys your team defense and makes elite defensive wings look average.

If you want to include Kanter's lack of IQ off the court you could make a case for him being the worst player on the roster. How stupid does one have to be to give the Spurs your strategy in a post game interview during the playoffs so they know exactly what to adjust for?

[Kizz Fastfists]

The only thing holding Kanter back from being an All-Star is Billy Donovan. There are 4 bigs in the entire NBA averaging 20/10 (Cousins, Davis, Anthony-Towns and Lopez) and Kanter would EASILY average that if given the minutes.

Kanter gets more minute playing for Donovan than he would on any team with a real coach that is trying to win games. It is 3 bigs and one PG averaging 20/10 this year. Lopez never has and never will because he doesn't rebound worth a damn for a big man.

[spearsy23]

Oladipo and Adams are the only candidates for second best player and I'd give it to Dipo. Roberson and Taj are 4/5. Abrines is 6th. Kanter is 7th. Kanter's defense makes his offensive contributions worthless. An all offense no defense wing can be covered by a good center. A all offense no defense center destroys your team defense and makes elite defensive wings look average.

If you want to include Kanter's lack of IQ off the court you could make a case for him being the worst player on the roster. How stupid does one have to be to give the Spurs your strategy in a post game interview during the playoffs so they know exactly what to adjust for?

There is no case to be made for Alex being better than enes. And saying he could be the worst player on the roster is just dumb.

[Andre Roberstan]

Defense doesn't worth anything confirmed

[bondom34]

Dipo or Adams. Then Enes and Robes. Then Alex.

[spearsy23]

Defense doesn't worth anything confirmed

Tbf Adams hasn't played defense in months.

[spearsy23]

Dipo or Adams. Then Enes and Robes. Then Alex.

Taj.

[oken]

It varies for each game and that's the problem. Forget a second all star, we don't have a true second option. Oladipo reminded us again why that can't be him tonight. He doesn't have the ability. He's a nice role player, but nothing more.

The only thing holding Kanter back from being an All-Star is Billy Donovan. There are 4 bigs in the entire NBA averaging 20/10 (Cousins, Davis, Anthony-Towns and Lopez) and Kanter would EASILY average that if given the minutes. It's just funny to me that all anybody talks about is his supposed lack of defense. James Harden is widely known to be a terrible defender and he's probably going to win the MVP this year and look at how his team is doing. Defense always has its role in any sport but when you're that elite of a scorer and rebounder you're going to more than offset any defensive issues.

The problem with this approach is that defensively so many things are leaning on Adam's being an anchor that when you replace him with Kanter everything starts falling apart against teams which know how to exploit those weaknesses. If we were Spurs and everybody was plugging each other's defensive shortcomings or if we were just trying to outscore opponent with sharpshooters and collecting the offensive rebounds it would be OK. But we definitely are not any of these so simply replacing Adams with kanter would never work But I agree that Kanter should see more floor time against first teams, maybe in tandem with Taj and Andre.

[sleestak33]

Oladipo and Adams are the only candidates for second best player and I'd give it to Dipo. Roberson and Taj are 4/5. Abrines is 6th. Kanter is 7th. Kanter's defense makes his offensive contributions worthless. An all offense no defense wing can be covered by a good center. A all offense no defense center destroys your team defense and makes elite defensive wings look average.

If you want to include Kanter's lack of IQ off the court you could make a case for him being the worst player on the roster. How stupid does one have to be to give the Spurs your strategy in a post game interview during the playoffs so they know exactly what to adjust for?

LOL. Like I said, the only two players even remotely comparable with Kanter are Adams and Oladipo and I clearly showed that Kanter is much more valuable with my stats. Taj isn't even on the radar and games like last night (2 pts. 4 rbds.) illustrate that. His PER 36 minute numbers aren't on the same planet as Kanter's. Roberson is by far the worst rotational player and routinely gets outscored by double digits game in and game out, many games by more than 20 points leaving everybody else having to make up the slack. Whatever contributions Roberson gives you defensively he more than negates by being the worst offensive perimeter player in the history of the NBA. Hilarious post, bro.

[bondom34]

Oladipo and Adams are the only candidates for second best player and I'd give it to Dipo. Roberson and Taj are 4/5. Abrines is 6th. Kanter is 7th. Kanter's defense makes his offensive contributions worthless. An all offense no defense wing can be covered by a good center. A all offense no defense center destroys your team defense and makes elite defensive wings look average.

If you want to include Kanter's lack of IQ off the court you could make a case for him being the worst player on the roster. How stupid does one have to be to give the Spurs your strategy in a post game interview during the playoffs so they know exactly what to adjust for?

LOL. Like I said, the only two players even remotely comparable with Kanter are Adams and Oladipo and I clearly showed that Kanter is much more valuable with my stats. Taj isn't even on the radar and games like last night (2 pts. 4 rbds.) illustrate that. His PER 36 minute numbers aren't on the same planet as Kanter's. Roberson is by far the worst rotational player and routinely gets outscored by double digits game in and game out, many games by more than 20 points leaving everybody else having to make up the slack. Whatever contributions Roberson gives you defensively he more than negates by being the worst offensive perimeter player in the history of the NBA. Hilarious post, bro.

The problem is you didn't. Because even currently improved Kanter still sucks defensively and is a net negative on the court. He wouldn't and shouldn't start for any NBA team. He's not that good.

[bondom34]

Dipo or Adams. Then Enes and Robes. Then Alex.

Taj.

Forgot Taj. He's after Dipo and Adams. But currently is outplaying Adams.

[Osirus89]

Oladipo is the second best player on the team. Its not by much of a margin, but he is still the 2nd best player.
He is a factor on both ends of the floor which automatically takes most of the roster out of the running. He can create his own offense which puts him squarely above Adams. Now if you brought in someone, it wouldn't be hard to make him the third best, but we don't have that player yet.

[sleestak33]

Oladipo and Adams are the only candidates for second best player and I'd give it to Dipo. Roberson and Taj are 4/5. Abrines is 6th. Kanter is 7th. Kanter's defense makes his offensive contributions worthless. An all offense no defense wing can be covered by a good center. A all offense no defense center destroys your team defense and makes elite defensive wings look average.

If you want to include Kanter's lack of IQ off the court you could make a case for him being the worst player on the roster. How stupid does one have to be to give the Spurs your strategy in a post game interview during the playoffs so they know exactly what to adjust for?

LOL. Like I said, the only two players even remotely comparable with Kanter are Adams and Oladipo and I clearly showed that Kanter is much more valuable with my stats. Taj isn't even on the radar and games like last night (2 pts. 4 rbds.) illustrate that. His PER 36 minute numbers aren't on the same planet as Kanter's. Roberson is by far the worst rotational player and routinely gets outscored by double digits game in and game out, many games by more than 20 points leaving everybody else having to make up the slack. Whatever contributions Roberson gives you defensively he more than negates by being the worst offensive perimeter player in the history of the NBA. Hilarious post, bro.

The problem is you didn't. Because even currently improved Kanter still sucks defensively and is a net negative on the court. He wouldn't and shouldn't start for any NBA team. He's not that good.

I would love for you to explain to me how a guy who averages 14.6 pts. and 6.9 rbds. in only 21.5 minutes per game is a "net negative"? Have you seen him in any game this year get outscored by the guy he's guarding? This whole garbage about him being a terrible defender is over and if you don't see that then you're just not watching the games. His defense has improved enough to be considered a little below average which really is all he needs since he is so dominant scoring and rebounding. There's absolutely no way he's giving up over 15 pts. defensively in 21 minutes and I will challenge you or anybody else to go find a box score showing where he did. Roberson and Adams on the other hand (who are supposedly these fantastic defenders) have been destroyed dozens of times this year and I can easily look those games up if you want. Roberson consistently gets outscored by double digits by whoever he is guarding and ALWAYS is a huge net negative. The Orlando game is a perfect example as he played 37 minutes and got outscored by Fournier 24-6. As I said, Kanter is CLEARLY the team's 2nd best player and it's not close.

[alessandrux]

LOL. Like I said, the only two players even remotely comparable with Kanter are Adams and Oladipo and I clearly showed that Kanter is much more valuable with my stats. Taj isn't even on the radar and games like last night (2 pts. 4 rbds.) illustrate that. His PER 36 minute numbers aren't on the same planet as Kanter's. Roberson is by far the worst rotational player and routinely gets outscored by double digits game in and game out, many games by more than 20 points leaving everybody else having to make up the slack. Whatever contributions Roberson gives you defensively he more than negates by being the worst offensive perimeter player in the history of the NBA. Hilarious post, bro.

The problem is you didn't. Because even currently improved Kanter still sucks defensively and is a net negative on the court. He wouldn't and shouldn't start for any NBA team. He's not that good.

I would love for you to explain to me how a guy who averages 14.6 pts. and 6.9 rbds. in only 21.5 minutes per game is a "net negative"? Have you seen him in any game this year get outscored by the guy he's guarding? This whole garbage about him being a terrible defender is over and if you don't see that then you're just not watching the games. His defense has improved enough to be considered a little below average which really is all he needs since he is so dominant scoring and rebounding. There's absolutely no way he's giving up over 15 pts. defensively in 21 minutes and I will challenge you or anybody else to go find a box score showing where he did. Roberson and Adams on the other hand (who are supposedly these fantastic defenders) have been destroyed dozens of times this year and I can easily look those games up if you want. Roberson consistently gets outscored by double digits by whoever he is guarding and ALWAYS is a huge net negative. The Orlando game is a perfect example as he played 37 minutes and got outscored by Fournier 24-6. As I said, Kanter is CLEARLY the team's 2nd best player and it's not close.

Kanter is perfect for the second unit, or against really incapable offenses.
But if we would start him, every competent team would run pick-and-roll to death against him, and they would score, a lot (like really a lot). They would switch him on every (semi-)athletic ball handler.

On offense, he is among the best in the league, but defending quicker/smaller players he is among the worst.