The arrival of Enes Kanter may have lit a fire under Nurkic, based on last night’s game. Now Nurkic can’t rest on his laurels anymore. He has to play his butt off every night, or Stotts will send in Kanter who may make him look bad. And the better Nurkic plays, the better Kanter will want to play, just to show that there’s no letdown when he comes into the game. This could actually be the best possible scenario for both big men, driving their games to new heights. We may look back on this signing of Kanter—and the emergence of a new, dominating twin towers—as one of the biggest developments in Trail Blazers’ history.
What? Kanter is gone after this season. He's only signed until the end of this season. We don't have his bird rights. We don't have capspace to give him the contact he deserves. Nurk is on a long term contract. So nobody is worried about losing their job.
It is possible this could lead to Nurkic playing with greater fire and focus on a consistent basis, but it will take a while to determine that. I certainly wouldn't overreact to one game. Nurkic has had plenty of good games this season without Kanter playing behind him.
Kanter, Hood and Curry are probably gone after this Season. So let's enjoy the depth we have right now. The good news: Evan turnover, Harkless and Meyers are coming into the last year of their Horrible contracts
I think there's a decent chance we use our MLE to keep one of those 3. But yes, the depth we currently have is a luxury we should appreciate.
Not necessarily. If the Blazers develop a winning culture with this team, and make a deep push into the playoffs, management will do their best to keep him. Hood, Aminu, Leonard and possibly others will be let go or traded, but they’ll keep Kanter. Lillard may even insist on it.
They don't have the ability to make that decision though. Only Kanter does. Will he sign for the vet min? Possibly if we win, but otherwise the Blazers have zero control regardless of e let others go, the money still wont be there. A trade would have to bring back in the same salary if I am correct, so no matter what we do, we don't have money to offer Kanter if he wants money. The ONLY way he will be on the roster next year is if he signs for WAY less than his value because he likes it here...which isn't out of the realm of possibility based on how we play and his current attitude displayed in interviews thus far. Besides, its been proven that Dames wants don't supersede NO's decisions... see Ed Davis.
He doesnt need to be. He beeds to be the defensive anchor. Different skill sets no doubt, but still a stop gap Edit: i hope im wrong. Im already in love with the depth.
I don’t think the Blazers are just renting Kanter for half a season. They know the potential of pairing two young good centers like Nurkic and Kanter, and if this experiment works out over the next two or three months there is going to be a major effort to keep Kanter.
but the rules only allow certain things. Effort or no effort, the rules make it very difficult and a slim chance we can retain him. Again. Its up to Kanter. Not the Blazers. He will hold all the cards this off season.
Collins has had some good moments defensively, but he doesn’t have the strength to fight off the tougher inside players and he can’t keep out of foul trouble. I’m hoping he turns into something great eventually, but right now he doesn’t have the muscle, the scoring ability, or the rebounding prowess of Kanter.
