Good idea brining in more talent. I’m hoping it’ll do wonders for our shooting as he helps to collapse the defense.
He's awful in all plus minus based stats...drpm, dpipm, and raw+/- And the only reason his dbpm has risen the last couple of years is due to his improved defensive rebounding %. But that's more to do with playing largely with no other good rebounding big on the floor than anything he's doing. He still ranked near the bottom in drpm for centers over that time (67th/73 in 17-18, 60th/61 in 18-19) and in terms of raw +/-, the Knicks were on average 4 points worse defensively with him on the floor.
What? If we got another guard that's what people be saying too. We just added a wing and have Moe, Jake, and Hood as SF types. So you could say this about any position.
Kanter grades out well in pick and roll as the roll man and is in the 98th percentile in offensive rebounding, specifically contested rebounds. He’s also 80th percentile in effective field goal %. He’s also been an 80% + free throw shooter the last two seasons, 78% career. This is a massive upgrade offensively, and defensively his numbers don’t line up with his reputation as a liability. Don’t get me wrong, he is not a good defender, but he’s objectively better than he was three years ago.
It's the first player since I remember that doesn't have to go under Dame's wings. Kanter doesnt need Dame's extra motivation to go out and play basketball. I mean Blazers don't seem to have to much players that care about W hard enough. Kanter is a fighter and he can score. He might make a difference in playoffs. Lillard needed guy like him. At least thats what I'd like to be true.
In the bigger picture Neil had to do something. Will it be the “missing piece “ ? Will it get them a couple more wins and a better showing in the playoffs? I hope so. People around here wanted something. Anything! He worked a way to make this team better. That is worthwhile in my book. Now it’s up to the Blazers to play well and make a run the best they can.
Another thing Kanter does is get under opposing teams skin. He has a knack for pissing other teams off. That might come in handy.
I'm hoping that he will be better here than he was in OKC (where he played a lot of PF) and NYK (where he probably wasn't truly motivated). I'm hoping playing against a bench lineup instead of starters will help neutralize his defensive inefficiencies. In the end, he's an upgrade over Meyers and Collins, especially for a bench that struggles to get shots in the paint. Whenever the bench goes on a dry spell, they shoot lots of jumpshots and can't get anything at the rim. Meyers loves his 3s, and Collins is too weak inside. Having Kanter fixes that problem. Hopefully he's able to play the best defense of his career (not saying much).
I would say some of this depends on how Stotts uses him. Who he plays with and how many minutes he gets.
His biggest weaknesses defensively seem to be mobility (primarily lateral quickness and he's slow at rotating his hips). In our defense scheme, I think those weaknesses will be as neutralized as possible as our bigs aren't really asked to do that (just as long as it isn't that one random game where we switch everything).
