Welcome to Boston Enes Kanter!

[BostonCouchGM]

due to Danny's atrocious drafting and inability to build through the draft, we'll never have a proper rebuild. His hubris won't allow it. This will leave us anywhere from the 5th to 10th seed in the Eastern Conference at least until he's fired. It's going to be a long time before we are as excited as we were those first few minutes of Hayward's first game with us.

[Fencer reregistered]

Posted already?

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Thanks. Good read. Makes me feel good about this signing.

Great article. More complexity and adversity even than I thought. E.g., I assumed he'd grown up as a good, obedient student (presumably in Gulenist schools), but that wasn't really the case.

[zoyathedestroya]

Watch on YouTube

Kanter defense leading to Hayward offense. LOL David Lee. Maybe the only YT clip of a Kanter defensive highlight.

So I was trying to look for Enes Kanter Defensive Highlights, I got this instead

Watch on YouTube

[Ernest]

due to Danny's atrocious drafting and inability to build through the draft, we'll never have a proper rebuild. His hubris won't allow it. This will leave us anywhere from the 5th to 10th seed in the Eastern Conference at least until he's fired. It's going to be a long time before we are as excited as we were those first few minutes of Hayward's first game with us.

I'm gonna guess you are a glass half empty kind of guy, right?

[zoyathedestroya]

...

Hi Ernest. Any chance your last name is Kane? 'Cos your name would then be an anagram for Enes Kanter.

[Fencer reregistered]

Kanter's leaping ability reminds me of past Celtics centers such as Vitaly Potapenko.

[sam_I_am]

My take on Kanter....

1. He was starting center on a team that knocked out #3 MVP candidate Paul George and he made a difference
2. He sucks defensively but without him we expected to get destroyed defensively
3. If we win this year it will be by scoring 125 ppg. Kanter will significantly increase our offensive possessions with his offensive rebound
4. If our perimeter defenders force up a bad shot, at least he will secure the rebound
5. When scraping the bottom of the barrel, you can do worse....but I wish Baynes has opted out so he could have resigned
6. He wants to be a Celtic so I will embrace him warts and all. Screw Kyrie.

In all honestly beating an OKC team with George on it not much of an accomplishment for Portland considering this....

"In 56 games prior to the All-Star break, George averaged 28.7 points on 45.3 percent shooting from the field and 40.6 percent from three-point range. He averaged 26.4 points on 33.6 percent shooting from the field and 33.6 percent from beyond the arc in 21 games after the All-Star break."

George really hurt his shoulders and his play probably declined as a result of it. He got operated on so it wasn't just a little bruise. In other words, after all-star break, George may not have even been playing at level of a 10 player due to injury. He did gut it out in playoffs like other players in the NBA did..

Celtics have never won a championship without a defense in the top 20-25% of the league. More than half of the Celtics championships, Celtics have actually had number 1 defense in the league.

From a very short term asset accumulation perspective, one can make the argument than Kanter is a player that may be good for spot minutes if the team changes a ton before the end of the year but if the team doesn't change a ton, he is just an example of a somewhat high usage treadmill center.

I think probably the best thing about this signing in all honesty, he may be a good player for Timelord to learn from and practice against.... By that I mean learn some more moves on offense...

If last years Warriors signed him instead of Cousins, I would think good signing since you may be able to strategically play him 10-15 MPG in some series. And good depth.

But it is scary given Celtics other players if he is anything beyond the teams 3rd best legit PF/C....

I think Ainge got him since he may think of him as a better fit with Timelord and he may think as long as Kanter gets some time on the court, he won't be much of a headache.

In all fairness, I believe Bulpett is Ainge's mouthpiece and Bulpett was indicating that the Celtics know they are not that close right now. Some major moves need to be made for Celtics to have a chance. Question is if they start making them this off-season or wait until later.

He was starting center for WCF Trailblazers. He played very well in 7 game series against Denver and had a good game 1 against Warriors too. We arguably have comparable talent to Portland another guard heavy team. During their run to WCF their other bigs Meyers Leonard and Zach Collins played 10-15 min per game. It was Kanter who got bulk of minutes (30-32 ) in place of Nurkic and he was a net positive against OKC and Den. And even though GSW swept them, Portland didn’t get embarrassed and Kanter was still okay but had a lesser role.

Honestly, for the money we had to spend, this was a really nice signing.

[ParticleMan]

due to Danny's atrocious drafting and inability to build through the draft, we'll never have a proper rebuild. His hubris won't allow it. This will leave us anywhere from the 5th to 10th seed in the Eastern Conference at least until he's fired. It's going to be a long time before we are as excited as we were those first few minutes of Hayward's first game with us.

tatum, a guy who was the most valuable young player in the L to trade for AD, had AD not refused to come here. brown, a guy who has outplayed expectations as the 3rd pick in a 2-player draft. smart who is the heart and soul of our team. just atrocious drafting!

see, this is why you are BostonCouchGM and ainge is boston's real GM.

[chrisab123]

due to Danny's atrocious drafting and inability to build through the draft, we'll never have a proper rebuild. His hubris won't allow it. This will leave us anywhere from the 5th to 10th seed in the Eastern Conference at least until he's fired. It's going to be a long time before we are as excited as we were those first few minutes of Hayward's first game with us.

Phoenix NYK Atlanta etc have been doing a hard tank for a few years now. Hows that working out? Sacramento finally is showing promise after a decade plus of being irrelevant and almost losing their team to Seattle. There is no such thing as a proper rebuild its just a preference on how to go about one. GSW never bottomed out and they ended up running the league for a little bit.

[Green89]

I am kinda surprise Boston signs Kanter. Does it mean Boston give in on Theis? Tacko Fall and Robert Williams is also on roster.

Theis can't handle big centers, Fall has yet to play an NBA minute, and Williams only averaged single digit minutes last year. We absolutely needed an experienced center with some size.

[sam_I_am]

due to Danny's atrocious drafting and inability to build through the draft, we'll never have a proper rebuild. His hubris won't allow it. This will leave us anywhere from the 5th to 10th seed in the Eastern Conference at least until he's fired. It's going to be a long time before we are as excited as we were those first few minutes of Hayward's first game with us.

Apparently atrocious drafting and incompetent management is the key to success. The problem with Danny is that he is too good. Want proof? Look at Lakers. They’ve been a dumpster fire since Dwight Howard signing in 2012. Now they have AD, Lebron and soon Kawhi (if he wants to go there.)

[FelixD]

tbf the strength of Ainge is making trades and free agency.
His drafting has never impressed me. And i think, we have really bad luck of not having a high pick in 2018, no offense to Brown because he is a excelent pick in 2016, but id rather have a pick in 2018. Tatum is alright.

[brackdan70]

due to Danny's atrocious drafting and inability to build through the draft, we'll never have a proper rebuild. His hubris won't allow it. This will leave us anywhere from the 5th to 10th seed in the Eastern Conference at least until he's fired. It's going to be a long time before we are as excited as we were those first few minutes of Hayward's first game with us.

Glass half empty kind of guy I see.
Smart, Brown, Tatum seem to be the core Danny is building around, and plenty of upside o R. Williams as well as this years picks(remains to be seen). Memphis pick looking good as the West is stacking up. Seems like the rebuild is going ok.

Oh and Kemba.

[Fencer reregistered]

So I was trying to look for Enes Kanter Defensive Highlights, I got this instead

Watch on YouTube

I watched the first three minutes of that, and that particular video doesn't look that damning to me.
-- Many post defense fails, but 1-on-1 post defense is hard.
-- A couple of offensive rebounding fails, but we know he's a good rebounder.
-- Little else.

[celticfan42487]

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.

I notice you didn't say anything on Kemba. Even in his interview with SVP on Sportscenter, he admitted without explicitly saying it that he could compete in Boston, cause reality is no one was really around him in Charlotte thus he took more shots. I wanna see how he plays now that he actually has players like Hayward/Tatum/Brown. Not saying he won't put up shots, but I don't think you're giving enough credit to what Kemba's joining in Boston vs what he's leaving.

You have a point on Horford being a better passer, but apart from that, he has similar FGA to Kanter. The only thing even there as I mentioned is that Horford can shoot 3's, but it's not like he put up less actual shots than Kanter. One other thing I notice is that Kanter's a bit of a better rebounder, so it works that he plays closer to the basket. Look, Horford's better by a mile I'm not disputing that, but I don't buy that suddenly we'll have a "only one ball on the court" problem that we didn't supposedly have last season.

I think we need to take a little closer work on how the team is going to fit.

Kemba is a pick and roll player, I think he was top 5 in PnR attempts last season. He doesn't work if he's not PnR.

Kanter, is a top level roll man on the PnR. So yes Kanter will get some low post touches, but a lot of his shots are going to be coming naturally off of a Kemba PnR. Which again, Kemba like IT needs PnRs to be anywhere near his best efficient form of offense.

Brown, Tatum, and Hayward are going to be upset about shots. I think Hayward will be a professional about it, I'm not so sure about the Jays.

But in a lineup of

Kemba
Brown
Tatum
Hayward
Kanter

Brown and Tatum would work best playing the Bradley/Crowder style roled. And Hayward playing the Kelly 0 styled role in an IT like offense.

The main difference is our current 3 unlike the previous 3 (potentially with Kelly 0 and Hayward as an exception) are much better at driving to the basket after a kickout 3 if they are not open.

But that's how this team would be the most effective on offense. And yes sure we'll sprinkle in some Kanter and Tatum ISOs as we go. I'm sure if there's a really small guard on Smart we'll sprinkle in some low post Smart things too. It's a long game and you don't always have your starting 5 on. But that's the 80% of the game rules we should be playing by... if everyone buys in and wants to win as bad as Kemba does. I question Brown, Tatum, and Smart's professionalism to take a step back and not play ISO Melo ball.

[Darth Celtic]

I like the part about him working on his legs to improve lateral movement. He puts in the work to get better and knows what he needs to do. He might get big mins for us.

[FakeScreenName123]

i hope kanter doesn't get dunked on too much and lose confidence

[FakeScreenName123]

kanters gonna piss you all off in < 12 games

[ddb]

[quote="FakeScreenName123"]kanters gonna piss you all off in < 12 games[/quote]

I don't think so man. He's a good player and he brings a couple traits to the front court that the Celtics haven't had in years. Post scoring and REBOUNDING. The ball sticks to this guys hands. He's fearless down low and is a double/double machine when he gets 20+ minutes.
He is not a good P/R defender, and opposing teams will finish on lobs over him as well. But let's give Brad a chance to coach him up a bit. Brad Stevens helped make Kelly Olynyk a solid positional defender. Same with Sullinger. There is no reason to think that Stevens can't help guide Kanter towards becoming a better interior defender.

I'm also going to leave this link here. A few folks have asked about his 3pt shooting. He's 27 years old and throughout his career hasn't taken too many 3's. But he is absolutely capable of developing that aspect of his game. He has a nice form and release on his 3. On the Celtics playing with Kemba/Smart/Hayward, Kanter is going to get more opportunities then ever before to take and make open 3's. Horford developed this aspect of his game at around 29 years old.

https://youtu.be/IgUHF2tI5zg

Lastly, Kanter just played very well in the playoffs for Portland. Had some nice games against Joker too.

My prediction is that Kanter becomes a fan favorite here. His personality is going to fit in well. He loves his fans, he loves social media, he enjoys being who he is. If he can be serviceable on D then he'll be an steal at slightly less then 5 million per season.

[24istheLAW]

I think we need to take a little closer work on how the team is going to fit.

Kemba is a pick and roll player, I think he was top 5 in PnR attempts last season. He doesn't work if he's not PnR.

Kanter, is a top level roll man on the PnR. So yes Kanter will get some low post touches, but a lot of his shots are going to be coming naturally off of a Kemba PnR. Which again, Kemba like IT needs PnRs to be anywhere near his best efficient form of offense.

Brown, Tatum, and Hayward are going to be upset about shots. I think Hayward will be a professional about it, I'm not so sure about the Jays.

But in a lineup of

Kemba
Brown
Tatum
Hayward
Kanter

Brown and Tatum would work best playing the Bradley/Crowder style roled. And Hayward playing the Kelly 0 styled role in an IT like offense.

The main difference is our current 3 unlike the previous 3 (potentially with Kelly 0 and Hayward as an exception) are much better at driving to the basket after a kickout 3 if they are not open.

But that's how this team would be the most effective on offense. And yes sure we'll sprinkle in some Kanter and Tatum ISOs as we go. I'm sure if there's a really small guard on Smart we'll sprinkle in some low post Smart things too. It's a long game and you don't always have your starting 5 on. But that's the 80% of the game rules we should be playing by... if everyone buys in and wants to win as bad as Kemba does. I question Brown, Tatum, and Smart's professionalism to take a step back and not play ISO Melo ball.

Good post.

I'm absolutely concerned about Tatum's fit with Kemba. It's imperative for Tatum to be more of a pick & pop threat for the puzzle to fit together. He wasn't that good as a roll man last year. 0.96 PPP per synergy. On 28 total such possessions all season.

Horford and Morris being on the floor can explain why he didn't see the ball as much in those situations. But for Tatum's game to go to the next level, being the ballhandler he is, he needs to develop as a roll man and use his accuracy from 18-20 feet to his advantage.

Kanter complicates this. If Kanter is on the floor, you NEED to be running P&Rs with him because he's killing you at the other end. This renders Tatum a spot-up shooter. Which, as we've seen, is neither his best role long-term, nor a role that encourages good habits.