Kanter is "unplayable"? LMAO

[Andre Roberstan]

Is it opposite day?

[ThunderBolt]

Harden doesn't guard the other teams best player. That's Patrick Beverly.

[sleestak33]

The only thing not being understood here is the value of defense at the center position, by you.

Harden is a guard. He cannot defend. You can hide him quite easily on the other team's weakest offensive player. Just like we hide Westbrook.

You can't hide Kanter. No matter what we did defensively with him, he was scored on. Game 2, he HAD to be pulled because they were literally scoring on him every single possession! There's nowhere to hide Kanter. Stick him on a perimeter guy and he gets beaten off the dribble. Stick him on a center and the other team is guaranteed points if they do a PG/center pick and roll. If his offensive output outweighed his defensive issues, then he would have played. But he didn't, because, surprise surprise, Kanter posting up into a double or even triple team is not as efficient as the other team drawing him out into pick and rolls.

You're actually 100% wrong because you have it backwards...you can hide defensive deficiencies with a big much easier than a perimeter player like Harden because the NBA is much more perimeter oriented now than ever. Harden many times is guarding the other team's best player and since shooting guards and point guards take many more shots than bigs these days his defense is far more scrutinized than Kanter's would be. It's just amazing to me that for some reason Kanter is the only one penalized for mistakes though. Adams gives up 28 pts. and 10 rbds. in only 25 minutes to Nene in game 4 and never gets pulled and nobody in the media or on here is ripping him about it. I PROMISE you Kanter never had even one game this year where he got absolutely destroyed like that. Then you have Roberson giving up 37, 35 and 44 pts. in the first 3 games to Harden (more points than anybody has scored in the first 3 games of the playoffs dating back to Jordan) and he also goes 3-21 on free throws (an all time NBA playoff record in a series for futility) yet they not only leave him out there he plays over 35 minutes. This team has no idea how good Kanter is and it's just ridiculous. He should have been starting since day one and if they start him this season instead of Sabonis like they should have they would have won 6-7 more games and might not have even had to play Houston in the first round. It's ridiculous the grief this guy gets.

You absolutely cannot hide defensive deficiencies with a big easier than a guard. 3 of the top players in the league- Curry, Westbrook, Harden- are generally underwhelming defensively. But despite their defensive deficiencies, they're still right at the top of the league. Kanter can score, and he can score well. That's his strength. We know this. But if defense didn't matter at center, then wouldn't Kanter be a top 10 player? But he's not. Because he can't play D.

Also, this era is all about switching in pick and rolls. If you have a center that can score but can't defend, than you're in huge trouble. Guys like Monroe and Al Jefferson have also been made to come off the bench, because exactly like Kanter, they get exposed in pick and rolls. You HAVE to play a defensive center now. Teams can easily get away with having a guard or wing that's weak defensively. You can just put them on a player that poses no offensive threat. And Harden is definitely, absolutely, 100% not guarding the other team's best players. That's why they have Patrick Beverley and Trevor Ariza. If this was true, Harden would have been Westbrook's main defender. He wasn't. Patrick Beverley was. Harden was quite safely hidden on Taj Gibson a lot of the time (even though we didn't take advantage of that, but that's a whole other thing). We put Westbrook on the opponent's weakest guard/wing.Where are you going to hide Kanter?

Yes, Adams was in shocking form post ASB. But his entire career preceding that shows that any talk of comparing his D to Kanter's is ridiculous. Also, at least around these parts, Adams WAS copping it when his form dropped.

Lastly, starting Kanter instead of Sabonis would not have yielded better results. Kanter's defense at center is bad enough as is, make him guard power forwards that are increasingly mobile and shooting more and more, and he's toast. The biggest takeaway from all of this should be that Kanter's offense is good, but easily planned around by the best teams. He doesn't pass. At all. Double team him and you'll force a miss. Go at him on the defensive end, and that's how you score more points than the other we do. Kanter looks great against some teams and in some situations. But he is overall a net negative, because there's no way we can possibly play passable defense with him out there. Essentially: Offensive plays designed to score on Kanter are always going to yield more points than plays designed for Kanter to score.

Adams most certainly is NOT some great defender and routinely gets outscored and outrebounded by opposing players, something that almost never happens to Kanter considering he is averaging 14/6 in only 21 minutes (Adams averages only 11/8 in 30 minutes). Nene's game 4 performance against Adams (25 minutes 28pts 10 rbds on 12-12 shooting) is not abnormal at all and I listed around 20 games from this year where Adams got badly outplayed and gave up tons of points. The difference is Adams never takes any criticism for his defense for some reason but Kanter does.
Like I said you can hide defensive issues with a big a thousand times more easily than a guard because in today's era the perimeter players are taking the majority of the shots. Harden is widely considered by anybody who knows anything about the NBA to be a terrible defender and it doesn't matter one single iota because he more than makes up for it with his offensive prowess just like Kanter does.
Kanter is an INFINITELY better overall player than Sabonis and yes, OKC would have won probably 7=8 more games had he started like he should and he would be one of only 5 bigs in the entire league averaging 20/10 if he was getting around 34 minutes that he should be getting every game. The love this franchise has for defensive players that suck on offense like Roberson, Grant and Sabonis absolutely astounds me. Sabonis started all year and didn't even play in the playoffs! How can you possibly justify starting a player all year that doesn't even play in the postseason? That's the 2nd time Okc has had to do that as Sefolosha got yanked from the lineup in the postseason because his offense sucked so bad.

[sleestak33]

Hey look what I found!
http://m.newsok.com/article/5549199



Guest said:
Funny that Kanter somehow is "unplayable" against the Rockets and Spurs yet Aldridge (who is the Spurs' version of Kanter) had 38/12 in game 6 against the Rockets and 28/8 last night against the Warriors and played 40 minutes in that one. Aldridge's per 36 minute numbers (19/8) pale in comparison to Kanter (24/11) so I can only imagine what Kanter would do with that many minutes. Obviously not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups with the Warriors and Rockets was a disaster as OKC went 2-11 against those teams if you include the playoffs. The truth is that OKC had absolutely no chance against those two team without playing Kanter because he's their 2nd best player (certainly their 2nd best offensive player) and you're not going to compete with teams averaging 115 points per game playing guys like Grant and Roberson big minutes.




Erik Horne

The Spurs' version of Kanter is better than Kanter on both ends. Y'all saw what happened when Kanter played.
Kanter is the Thunder's fourth best player. It's Westbrook, Oladipo/Adams in some order then Kanter.
There are two ends of the floor to account for.The question isn't why didn't Kanter play more. It's why didn't Taj Gibson get the ball more against Ryan Anderson, why the Thunder didn't make Harden defend more? The starters held serve. Kanter was a nightmare on defense (131 offensive rating) and he couldn't get his shot off and recognize the double well enough to be effective. His offense became predictable. He wasn't using the face up game like Aldridge does.

Yeah I saw that and immediately thought Sleetak was pleading his case in the power lunch.

What we saw in the playoffs was Donovan just giving up on Kanter and him never getting a chance yet he leaves Roberson out there who is getting absolutely scorched by Harden for 37, 35 and 44 pts. in the first 3 games and is going 3-21 on free throws including 2-12 in game 4 which absolutely lost that game. It's beyond ridiculous that Kanter is the only one who gets penalized for mistakes especially considering he's the team's 2nd best player and it's ludicrous that Horne is trying to say he's 4th. Kanter's per 36 minute averages are 24 pts and 11 rbds. while Oladipo's are 18/ 6 and Adams are 14/9. Oladipo is their 2nd leading scorer and Kanter averages a significant amount more than he does. He is actually 17th in the entire NBA in points scored per minute which puts him ahead of Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony not to mention he's the best offensive rebounder in the league. Kanter is a much better overall player than Aldridge and he's more mobile. If Horne thinks Aldridge is a good defender he's just not watching games or doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't have the footspeed on the perimeter. Again, at the end of the day OKC went 2-11 against the Warriors and Rockets so Horne can make whatever argument he wants but that stat is the final nail in the hammer on this debate. Not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups was a disaster and didn't work.

[spearsy23]

Hey look what I found!
http://m.newsok.com/article/5549199



Guest said:
Funny that Kanter somehow is "unplayable" against the Rockets and Spurs yet Aldridge (who is the Spurs' version of Kanter) had 38/12 in game 6 against the Rockets and 28/8 last night against the Warriors and played 40 minutes in that one. Aldridge's per 36 minute numbers (19/8) pale in comparison to Kanter (24/11) so I can only imagine what Kanter would do with that many minutes. Obviously not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups with the Warriors and Rockets was a disaster as OKC went 2-11 against those teams if you include the playoffs. The truth is that OKC had absolutely no chance against those two team without playing Kanter because he's their 2nd best player (certainly their 2nd best offensive player) and you're not going to compete with teams averaging 115 points per game playing guys like Grant and Roberson big minutes.




Erik Horne

The Spurs' version of Kanter is better than Kanter on both ends. Y'all saw what happened when Kanter played.
Kanter is the Thunder's fourth best player. It's Westbrook, Oladipo/Adams in some order then Kanter.
There are two ends of the floor to account for.The question isn't why didn't Kanter play more. It's why didn't Taj Gibson get the ball more against Ryan Anderson, why the Thunder didn't make Harden defend more? The starters held serve. Kanter was a nightmare on defense (131 offensive rating) and he couldn't get his shot off and recognize the double well enough to be effective. His offense became predictable. He wasn't using the face up game like Aldridge does.

Yeah I saw that and immediately thought Sleetak was pleading his case in the power lunch.

What we saw in the playoffs was Donovan just giving up on Kanter and him never getting a chance yet he leaves Roberson out there who is getting absolutely scorched by Harden for 37, 35 and 44 pts. in the first 3 games and is going 3-21 on free throws including 2-12 in game 4 which absolutely lost that game. It's beyond ridiculous that Kanter is the only one who gets penalized for mistakes especially considering he's the team's 2nd best player and it's ludicrous that Horne is trying to say he's 4th. Kanter's per 36 minute averages are 24 pts and 11 rbds. while Oladipo's are 18/ 6 and Adams are 14/9. Oladipo is their 2nd leading scorer and Kanter averages a significant amount more than he does. He is actually 17th in the entire NBA in points scored per minute which puts him ahead of Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony not to mention he's the best offensive rebounder in the league. Kanter is a much better overall player than Aldridge and he's more mobile. If Horne thinks Aldridge is a good defender he's just not watching games or doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't have the footspeed on the perimeter. Again, at the end of the day OKC went 2-11 against the Warriors and Rockets so Horne can make whatever argument he wants but that stat is the final nail in the hammer on this debate. Not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups was a disaster and didn't work.

Does defense even exist in your fantasy world?

[sleestak33]

Yeah I saw that and immediately thought Sleetak was pleading his case in the power lunch.

What we saw in the playoffs was Donovan just giving up on Kanter and him never getting a chance yet he leaves Roberson out there who is getting absolutely scorched by Harden for 37, 35 and 44 pts. in the first 3 games and is going 3-21 on free throws including 2-12 in game 4 which absolutely lost that game. It's beyond ridiculous that Kanter is the only one who gets penalized for mistakes especially considering he's the team's 2nd best player and it's ludicrous that Horne is trying to say he's 4th. Kanter's per 36 minute averages are 24 pts and 11 rbds. while Oladipo's are 18/ 6 and Adams are 14/9. Oladipo is their 2nd leading scorer and Kanter averages a significant amount more than he does. He is actually 17th in the entire NBA in points scored per minute which puts him ahead of Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony not to mention he's the best offensive rebounder in the league. Kanter is a much better overall player than Aldridge and he's more mobile. If Horne thinks Aldridge is a good defender he's just not watching games or doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't have the footspeed on the perimeter. Again, at the end of the day OKC went 2-11 against the Warriors and Rockets so Horne can make whatever argument he wants but that stat is the final nail in the hammer on this debate. Not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups was a disaster and didn't work.

Does defense even exist in your fantasy world?

Ask yourself this question...who is the best team in the NBA right now? That same team just set the all time NBA wins record going 73-9. What team has led the NBA in scoring the last 3 years? BINGO...THE WARRIORS. You think they're winning with defense? LMAO. When your team is averaging 115 points per game it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the opposing team to just keep up with you. What the average fan doesn't understand that the more efficient your offense is, the better your defense will be because the other team is getting less transition opportunities when they're always getting the ball out of the basket after made shots. That's why guys like Kanter are so important because he is incredibly efficient (he is 17th in the NBA is points scored per minute). Defense always has its place in any sport but in the current state of the NBA offense, and specifically perimeter offense and outside shooting are at a premium and guys like Roberson and Grant who are atrocious offensively give you no opportunity to compete with elite teams like the Rockets and the Warriors.

[Andre Roberstan]

What we saw in the playoffs was Donovan just giving up on Kanter and him never getting a chance yet he leaves Roberson out there who is getting absolutely scorched by Harden for 37, 35 and 44 pts. in the first 3 games and is going 3-21 on free throws including 2-12 in game 4 which absolutely lost that game. It's beyond ridiculous that Kanter is the only one who gets penalized for mistakes especially considering he's the team's 2nd best player and it's ludicrous that Horne is trying to say he's 4th. Kanter's per 36 minute averages are 24 pts and 11 rbds. while Oladipo's are 18/ 6 and Adams are 14/9. Oladipo is their 2nd leading scorer and Kanter averages a significant amount more than he does. He is actually 17th in the entire NBA in points scored per minute which puts him ahead of Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony not to mention he's the best offensive rebounder in the league. Kanter is a much better overall player than Aldridge and he's more mobile. If Horne thinks Aldridge is a good defender he's just not watching games or doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't have the footspeed on the perimeter. Again, at the end of the day OKC went 2-11 against the Warriors and Rockets so Horne can make whatever argument he wants but that stat is the final nail in the hammer on this debate. Not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups was a disaster and didn't work.

Does defense even exist in your fantasy world?

Ask yourself this question...who is the best team in the NBA right now? That same team just set the all time NBA wins record going 73-9. What team has led the NBA in scoring the last 3 years? BINGO...THE WARRIORS. You think they're winning with defense? LMAO. When your team is averaging 115 points per game it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the opposing team to just keep up with you. What the average fan doesn't understand that the more efficient your offense is, the better your defense will be because the other team is getting less transition opportunities when they're always getting the ball out of the basket after made shots. That's why guys like Kanter are so important because he is incredibly efficient (he is 17th in the NBA is points scored per minute). Defense always has its place in any sport but in the current state of the NBA offense, and specifically perimeter offense and outside shooting are at a premium and guys like Roberson and Grant who are atrocious offensively give you no opportunity to compete with elite teams like the Rockets and the Warriors.

The Rockets who just got their tails kicked by the #1 defense in the league?

[slick_watts]

sleestak is not interested in a discussion on facts. it's been three weeks now, almost, since he claimed steven adams was dominated 'dozens of times this year' and despite repeated reminders, he has still failed to produce evidence for this. his evidence was a haphazard list of 14 point and rebound totals without context or boxscore links.

he's also failed to provide an explanation for the thunder's defense being elite against houston with andre roberson and steven adams on the court.

instead, sleestak simply repeats dogma like a basketball ideologue. he's essentially the anti-vaxxer of this thunder board.

sleestak: if you want your ideas to be taken seriously, address the issues you raise head on and stop avoiding the tough questions by simply regurgitating the same mantra again and again. do the proper research to back up your claims and address the counter-arguments honestly without rhetoric. my suggestion.

[spearsy23]

What we saw in the playoffs was Donovan just giving up on Kanter and him never getting a chance yet he leaves Roberson out there who is getting absolutely scorched by Harden for 37, 35 and 44 pts. in the first 3 games and is going 3-21 on free throws including 2-12 in game 4 which absolutely lost that game. It's beyond ridiculous that Kanter is the only one who gets penalized for mistakes especially considering he's the team's 2nd best player and it's ludicrous that Horne is trying to say he's 4th. Kanter's per 36 minute averages are 24 pts and 11 rbds. while Oladipo's are 18/ 6 and Adams are 14/9. Oladipo is their 2nd leading scorer and Kanter averages a significant amount more than he does. He is actually 17th in the entire NBA in points scored per minute which puts him ahead of Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony not to mention he's the best offensive rebounder in the league. Kanter is a much better overall player than Aldridge and he's more mobile. If Horne thinks Aldridge is a good defender he's just not watching games or doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't have the footspeed on the perimeter. Again, at the end of the day OKC went 2-11 against the Warriors and Rockets so Horne can make whatever argument he wants but that stat is the final nail in the hammer on this debate. Not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups was a disaster and didn't work.

Does defense even exist in your fantasy world?

Ask yourself this question...who is the best team in the NBA right now? That same team just set the all time NBA wins record going 73-9. What team has led the NBA in scoring the last 3 years? BINGO...THE WARRIORS. You think they're winning with defense? LMAO. When your team is averaging 115 points per game it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the opposing team to just keep up with you. What the average fan doesn't understand that the more efficient your offense is, the better your defense will be because the other team is getting less transition opportunities when they're always getting the ball out of the basket after made shots. That's why guys like Kanter are so important because he is incredibly efficient (he is 17th in the NBA is points scored per minute). Defense always has its place in any sport but in the current state of the NBA offense, and specifically perimeter offense and outside shooting are at a premium and guys like Roberson and Grant who are atrocious offensively give you no opportunity to compete with elite teams like the Rockets and the Warriors.

You mean the warriors who were 1st, 4th, and 2nd in defense the last 3 years?

[Bergmaniac]

Does defense even exist in your fantasy world?

Ask yourself this question...who is the best team in the NBA right now? That same team just set the all time NBA wins record going 73-9. What team has led the NBA in scoring the last 3 years? BINGO...THE WARRIORS. You think they're winning with defense? LMAO. When your team is averaging 115 points per game it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the opposing team to just keep up with you. What the average fan doesn't understand that the more efficient your offense is, the better your defense will be because the other team is getting less transition opportunities when they're always getting the ball out of the basket after made shots. That's why guys like Kanter are so important because he is incredibly efficient (he is 17th in the NBA is points scored per minute). Defense always has its place in any sport but in the current state of the NBA offense, and specifically perimeter offense and outside shooting are at a premium and guys like Roberson and Grant who are atrocious offensively give you no opportunity to compete with elite teams like the Rockets and the Warriors.

You mean the warriors who were 1st, 4th, and 2nd in defense the last 3 years?

But that's only because they are so good at scoring, as sleestak33 explained so well. That totally makes sense. I mean the Rockets and the Cavs were 2nd and 3rd in offensive efficiency in the regular season and naturally they were awesome defensively, they were among the Top 21 defenses in the league.

[ThunderBolt]

Hey look what I found!
http://m.newsok.com/article/5549199



Guest said:
Funny that Kanter somehow is "unplayable" against the Rockets and Spurs yet Aldridge (who is the Spurs' version of Kanter) had 38/12 in game 6 against the Rockets and 28/8 last night against the Warriors and played 40 minutes in that one. Aldridge's per 36 minute numbers (19/8) pale in comparison to Kanter (24/11) so I can only imagine what Kanter would do with that many minutes. Obviously not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups with the Warriors and Rockets was a disaster as OKC went 2-11 against those teams if you include the playoffs. The truth is that OKC had absolutely no chance against those two team without playing Kanter because he's their 2nd best player (certainly their 2nd best offensive player) and you're not going to compete with teams averaging 115 points per game playing guys like Grant and Roberson big minutes.




Erik Horne

The Spurs' version of Kanter is better than Kanter on both ends. Y'all saw what happened when Kanter played.
Kanter is the Thunder's fourth best player. It's Westbrook, Oladipo/Adams in some order then Kanter.
There are two ends of the floor to account for.The question isn't why didn't Kanter play more. It's why didn't Taj Gibson get the ball more against Ryan Anderson, why the Thunder didn't make Harden defend more? The starters held serve. Kanter was a nightmare on defense (131 offensive rating) and he couldn't get his shot off and recognize the double well enough to be effective. His offense became predictable. He wasn't using the face up game like Aldridge does.

Yeah I saw that and immediately thought Sleetak was pleading his case in the power lunch.

What we saw in the playoffs was Donovan just giving up on Kanter and him never getting a chance yet he leaves Roberson out there who is getting absolutely scorched by Harden for 37, 35 and 44 pts. in the first 3 games and is going 3-21 on free throws including 2-12 in game 4 which absolutely lost that game. It's beyond ridiculous that Kanter is the only one who gets penalized for mistakes especially considering he's the team's 2nd best player and it's ludicrous that Horne is trying to say he's 4th. Kanter's per 36 minute averages are 24 pts and 11 rbds. while Oladipo's are 18/ 6 and Adams are 14/9. Oladipo is their 2nd leading scorer and Kanter averages a significant amount more than he does. He is actually 17th in the entire NBA in points scored per minute which puts him ahead of Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony not to mention he's the best offensive rebounder in the league. Kanter is a much better overall player than Aldridge and he's more mobile. If Horne thinks Aldridge is a good defender he's just not watching games or doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't have the footspeed on the perimeter. Again, at the end of the day OKC went 2-11 against the Warriors and Rockets so Horne can make whatever argument he wants but that stat is the final nail in the hammer on this debate. Not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups was a disaster and didn't work.

So Horne is wrong, everyone on this board is wrong, and so is Tramel? No one is on your side.
JCD said:
Read your article about "OKC was on the right track" when it comes to their game plan against the Rockets and the Warriors. My question to you is if they "were on the right track" by trying to match their lineups and not playing Kanter because he's supposedly "unplayable" then why did the Thunder go 2-11 against those 2 teams (including the playoffs)? If 2-11 is "being on the right track" I think they're in big trouble.

Berry Tramel replied:
You're always in big trouble against better teams. But the Thunder slowed down Houston. I never said they were on the right track against Golden STate. But they clearly had the best strategy, which is playing versatile defense. In fact, you've GOT to do that. The Thunder wasn't far from taking out Houston. With any kind of a backup point guard, which are easy to find, OKC wins that series.

[GlenRiceARoni]

Kanter IS unplayable. Still angry at Donovan for allowing kanter to blow that golden State series. I had a lot of money on them at whatever those odds were. 3 to 1?

"Get Out the Way, Let the Real F. Ballas thru" - Juvenile

[getrichordie]

sleestak is not interested in a discussion on facts. it's been three weeks now, almost, since he claimed steven adams was dominated 'dozens of times this year' and despite repeated reminders, he has still failed to produce evidence for this. his evidence was a haphazard list of 14 point and rebound totals without context or boxscore links.

he's also failed to provide an explanation for the thunder's defense being elite against houston with andre roberson and steven adams on the court.

instead, sleestak simply repeats dogma like a basketball ideologue. he's essentially the anti-vaxxer of this thunder board.

sleestak: if you want your ideas to be taken seriously, address the issues you raise head on and stop avoiding the tough questions by simply regurgitating the same mantra again and again. do the proper research to back up your claims and address the counter-arguments honestly without rhetoric. my suggestion.

Dodging criticism better than Trump is dodging impeachment.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[kdthunderup]

I just don't see us being able to trade him unless we give up an assest alongsise him. He will be making 18 million with a 15% trade kicker, which team wants that when there is no value in players like Kanter?

He has a player option for the 2018-2019 season, so praise to be he doesn't activate it. I think we've got to ride this out guys.

[sleestak33]

Yeah I saw that and immediately thought Sleetak was pleading his case in the power lunch.

What we saw in the playoffs was Donovan just giving up on Kanter and him never getting a chance yet he leaves Roberson out there who is getting absolutely scorched by Harden for 37, 35 and 44 pts. in the first 3 games and is going 3-21 on free throws including 2-12 in game 4 which absolutely lost that game. It's beyond ridiculous that Kanter is the only one who gets penalized for mistakes especially considering he's the team's 2nd best player and it's ludicrous that Horne is trying to say he's 4th. Kanter's per 36 minute averages are 24 pts and 11 rbds. while Oladipo's are 18/ 6 and Adams are 14/9. Oladipo is their 2nd leading scorer and Kanter averages a significant amount more than he does. He is actually 17th in the entire NBA in points scored per minute which puts him ahead of Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony not to mention he's the best offensive rebounder in the league. Kanter is a much better overall player than Aldridge and he's more mobile. If Horne thinks Aldridge is a good defender he's just not watching games or doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't have the footspeed on the perimeter. Again, at the end of the day OKC went 2-11 against the Warriors and Rockets so Horne can make whatever argument he wants but that stat is the final nail in the hammer on this debate. Not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups was a disaster and didn't work.

So Horne is wrong, everyone on this board is wrong, and so is Tramel? No one is on your side.
JCD said:
Read your article about "OKC was on the right track" when it comes to their game plan against the Rockets and the Warriors. My question to you is if they "were on the right track" by trying to match their lineups and not playing Kanter because he's supposedly "unplayable" then why did the Thunder go 2-11 against those 2 teams (including the playoffs)? If 2-11 is "being on the right track" I think they're in big trouble.

Berry Tramel replied:
You're always in big trouble against better teams. But the Thunder slowed down Houston. I never said they were on the right track against Golden STate. But they clearly had the best strategy, which is playing versatile defense. In fact, you've GOT to do that. The Thunder wasn't far from taking out Houston. With any kind of a backup point guard, which are easy to find, OKC wins that series.

The fact is that OKC went 2-11 against the Rockets and the Warriors and that completely destroyed Tramel's assertion that OKC was "on the right track" in the way it went about trying to compete with them in not playing Kanter and trying to match lineups. You can talk about whatever stats you want but 2-11 is the only one that matters. I also messaged Tramel about Roberson's stats in the 4 games against the Warriors this season (110 minutes played only 13 points 0-10 on 3 pointers (I'm not joking), 1-4 on free throws, allowing KD to average 37 and Thompson had 34) and he refused to directly respond to the question and just starting talking about how good OKC's starting lineup was offensively. Tramel will never directly respond to my facts because he knows I've backed him down into a corner and made him look ridiculous. All of you can just keep letting that 2-11 record against the 2 teams OKC is going to eventually have to overcome sink in and maybe someday you'll figure out not playing your 2nd best player (Kanter) against teams averaging 115 points per game is a really bad idea.

[ThunderBolt]

Sleekstak, I just want to say thank you. There are times I've wondered if someone created an account for the sole purpose of ridiculous opinions and generating conversation. The thought of that breaks my heart. I want to believe you're real, sleekstak. I want to believe that with all your heart you think Kanter is the answer to Golden State. Don't change for anyone, your perfect just the way you are. If you are sincere in your beliefs, thank you. Your posts brighten my day when I read them.

[sleestak33]

Sleekstak, I just want to say thank you. There are times I've wondered if someone created an account for the sole purpose of ridiculous opinions and generating conversation. The thought of that breaks my heart. I want to believe you're real, sleekstak. I want to believe that with all your heart you think Kanter is the answer to Golden State. Don't change for anyone, your perfect just the way you are. If you are sincere in your beliefs, thank you. Your posts brighten my day when I read them.

Not playing Kanter definitely isn't the answer and that's why in 4 games against the Warriors OKC's closest game with them was 16 points and the Warriors averaged over 120 points per game with your "elite" defenders Andre Roberson (who allowed KD to average 37 points per game and gave up 34 in game 4 to Thompson) and Steven Adams. LMFAO! Yeah, let me tell you, Kanter's defense would have really opened up the floodgates to the Warriors had he played! LMFAO double time!!! The idiocy of trying to beat a team that averages over 115 per game without playing your 2nd best player in Kanter (who is 17th in the NBA in points scored per minute) is about as intelligent as a screen door on a submarine. We had an "unplayable" player against the Warriors this year and it dang sure wasn't Kanter, it was Roberson. It's laughable that he played even one minute against them...looked like a junior high kid playing in a Div 1 game.

[Bergmaniac]

Kanter had a TS% of 50.4 against the Warriors this season and the team had an offensive rating 94.6 and TS% of 46.5 with him on the court in these games. He also played 20 MPG in the season series, compared to 22 MPG for the season. Why do you keep claiming he dominated offensively against them and didn't get his usual minutes?

[Kizz Fastfists]

Kanter had a TS% of 50.4 against the Warriors this season and the team had an offensive rating 94.6 and TS% of 46.5 with him on the court in these games. He also played 20 MPG in the season series, compared to 22 MPG for the season. Why do you keep claiming he dominated offensively against them and didn't get his usual minutes?

They refuse to let things like facts get in the way of their argument. I heard that Kyrie is working on a book called "The Earth is Flat and Kanter is Good at Basketball".

[oken]

I just don't see us being able to trade him unless we give up an assest alongsise him. He will be making 18 million with a 15% trade kicker, which team wants that when there is no value in players like Kanter?

He has a player option for the 2018-2019 season, so praise to be he doesn't activate it. I think we've got to ride this out guys.

He was nearly going to get stuck at Romania for the Gulen's Light Foundation tour because his passport was invalidated by Turkish embassy there. That could actually solve a lot of problems for OKC but NBA decided to intervene and "bring the boy back home".

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19425510/enes-kanter-oklahoma-city-thunder-london-being-detained-romania