So the reason this is happening is other teams are keeping 2 of their 5 starters in while we play all 5 bench players at once. This is on Coach Stotts.
I'm not on the 'Kanter is garbage' train, but on defense, he certainly leaves a lot to be desired. He is ranked as the worst defensive center in the NBA in this article. https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-nbas-worst-defender-at-every-position#slide4 "The Knicks were 3.9 points per 100 possessions worse on defense when he (Kanter) played. Admittedly with quite the small sample, Rip City's defensive rating has fallen by 11.8 when he's logging minutes." That is not good...
Yeah, since he joined the team I am astounded at how bad his defense is. When his signing was announced I thought people were probably exaggerating how bad he was, but if anything they were underselling how bad he is. It's amazing that anyone could this bad.
What's on Stotts? The team is 5-1 on this road trip so whatever rotation he is employing is certainly working better than the competition we are playing.
I was in awe of how truly terrible he was in the Thunder game. His defense was abysmal (he had one block that stunned everyone, but was in another area code for the rest of the game when somebody attacked the rim). And those 6 rebounds were completely empty--some he fumbled, some were missed shots and some came from just standing there. You could go years and not see 6 less consequential boards. Stotts needs to trot him out there situationally--when the other team's bench has a small front court basically. He's great at posting up and out-rebounding smaller players. But shit, if he can't do that he's less than worthless. I'd like to see Stotts use the right guy at the center position for the situation: 1. Collins as the general purpose backup center 2. Kanter for abusing smaller backup front courts 3. Leonard if we face a really big center with an aggressive offense (Marc Gasol, Boogie, etc) You pick the guy who fits the bill and ignore the other two unless they embarrass themselves. Against the Thunder you want Collins for help defense to close the lane (or at least commit really hard fouls). I didn't want Collins to deliberately injure Paul George, but you know he would make him think about his shoulder a little before taking it inside. With Kanter out there Paul George had a free pass.
Kanter is currently a whopping -7.7 in only 18 mpg. That's impressive! It's worth wondering what we would've been like if we'd've just kept Biggie and played him those minutes. But let's not let Kanter's awfulness obscure how bad Rodney Hood has been. (Like Stauskas, he's hanging on because he had one good game. Memories of Aaron Afflalo.)
Kanter is playing due to Olshey trade for him to backup Nurk. So when someone tells me the GM doesn't have impacted on who plays then he needs his head exam. You don't trade for guys like Hood and Kanter and don't play them because if you don't then the GM will have egg on his face so the coach is not going show up the GM. Now Skal was a little different he was replaced player wasn't in the rotation.
I think Nurk and Kanter both struggle against big strong centers. I noticed last night when they both went low on Adams they were working much harder than they did on most of that 7 game roady. When either cant bulldoze the get clumsy and out of control. Nurk, at the high post with some p&R does him well.
Kanter said he just wanted to come to a winning environment and didn't care about minutes....but I can't believe there wasn't an agreement between Olshey and the agent that if Kanter came, he would play. The defense has been atrocious and that they don't even try Zach when the Kanter is going all sieve is beyond me. He is also clogging the lane and it has completely taken away Layman's cuts to the basket.
Honestly though, if Layman would start hitting 3's it would open his drives. He's been wide open lately and needs to make the defense respect his shot again.
Agreed it would help....but Layman is not just a spot up shooter which is what he has been reduced to since Kanter arrived....same for Hood. Layman is a rhythm shooter and getting a layin/dunk off a cut or lob helps get him going. To have all of those opportunities basically disappear and be relegated to just an occasional '3' doesn't do much for anyone's average.
