He has been a complete liability this series. All of his flaws as a player have been exposed in this matchup. That is the reason they decided to bench him.
No, Stotts just didn't think he was playable due to his defensive inefficiencies. For once I don't completely disagree with Stotts but I'm not sure RHJ was the answer out of everyone on the bench.
Nothing has happened to Kanter. He's a great teammate, high energy, undersized center, who will outwork a lot of people during a long regular season. In a series where teams can really dial in their gameplans, teams will always attack him with their bigs and at the rim. Jokic is so big, he's also struggled to rebound. This is not a knock on Kanter, he is who he is. We're not the #6 seed without him, but he's always going to be a liability, especially in the playoffs.
I agree with you the RHJ, Melo, or Roco should not be the answer at backup center, but looking at our roster, we have two options over 6'8".
The fact that he played at all in the second half again highlights how insane Stotts is. Came in for one offensive play and got in Dame's way, and then gave up an offensive rebound and a flagrant foul.
Nurk should get all the heat for Jokic in this series Never going to convince me otherwise I thought Denver traded Nurk to Portland because Jokic made them feel like Nurk was expendable... The beast is capable of higher levels of performance than he’s given us so far in this series. We’ve seen flashes; just need consistency on the defensive end. Tough game tonight with the foul calls. Nurk gets fouled without whistles often as well.
Thanks for your comments. I can't watch the games unless they are on TNT or ESPN. I watch the Play by Play on my computer - which only gives stats. It looked like he did a good job replacing Nurkic for so long.
Kanter sucks ass. He is physically too weak on offense against Jokic and milsap and gordon. So offensively he brings nothing in this series. On defense he is worst big man in history an absolute disgrace. Essentially its like we playing with 4 players. Yet stotts played him for 3 games. Even if nurkic is fouled out bring in Giles, little, RH. Whoever else . Kanter doesn’t deserve trash minutes either.
Spoiler: jokic v nurk matchup are you sure nurk should get heat for his defense on jokic, cause it looks like hes doing a really solid job on him
Hold on there Sparky.... did you just type to play Giles and Little at center vs Jokic because Kanter is “physically too weak”!?!? Sweet Baby Jesus!!!!
Post like these just make me wish soooo badly the poster would say this to his face. The anger and opinion being so aggressive, just would love to see you wilt in front of Kanter in person.
Kanter is slightly slower than a few years ago. Mostly its the matchup, 2 years ago he was fine against Steven Adams and a less athletic much less dominant Jokic. But he got destroyed against Golden State, Meyers was better. In this series he doesn't have a plodding big to matchup with, he needs to be benched.
So you're saying Kanter is slower and Jokic is faster? I don't see that they've changed that much to make all that difference. I would've thought that Jokic would be one of the few cases where Kanter's lack of foot speed wouldn't matter as much. It's not like he's driving by everybody (except maybe when he pump-fakes them into the air - and that ain't gonna happen with Kanter). Was Kanter this useless against Denver during the season? Cuz if so, Olshey really fucked up in not trying to get SOME big man backup.