The short answer is that his defense really is that bad and he may be the one guy in the league LMA could beat in a "Ms Congeniality" contest. If even half the stories about him are true, he was the most hated guy in the Utah locker-room.
He's immature, so what? He's 23. Produce enough on the court and eventually people stop giving a shit. Look at Boogie.
Like you, I haven't watched Kanter play enough to have an opinion on him. But if we accept that, offensively, he can replace LMA (and I do!) then I think it would have been fine to plug-n-play Kanter into LMA's slot. It's not LMA's absence that cripples the team - it's the fact that we no longer have Wes and Nic that cripples the team. Without adequate wings there's really no point (IMO) to adding another big man when we have 4 that need playing time to develop. If the only change we made this summer was to replace LMA with Kanter (or Monroe) I think we would have been about the same as we were last year...maybe a bit better, but still not a contender. But once management decided not to take a chance on Wes, and then decided to ditch Nic, we lost all of our ability to be competitive for at least 1-2 years.
The fact that he still hasn't signed with Oklahoma must mean that he expects a large offer sheet from us, right? In another thread I saw someone mention Philly is the only other team that could offer him more than Oklahoma besides us, and they're packed at center or power forward.
I'm having a tough time deciding if I want us to make a big offer to him. Good talent but does he fit? OKC has some salary issues coming up that the need to deal with. Durant and Waiters, Westbrook Adams... can they afford Kanter too?
If we want to be a competitive team, we gotta get him. I'd offer him the max then trade him if he doesn't work out.
His QO is ~$7M. OKC would be wise to offer him $10M and tell him to bring them his best offer and they'll match.
According to 82games, it seems he's a +8.8 PER vs other centers. He seems to hold them to a 15 PER average. http://www.82games.com/1415/14OKC21.HTM
Yeah I see his DRTg is 109.8!!!!! That is bad man, even if this is a "team oriented stat". His offensive rating is really high though.
He's 23, it's possible he will improve on defense. I can get behind a kanter-ed davis pairing. They compliment eachother well
Don't get me wrong bro. I wouldn't be pissed if we got him. I'm just pointing out some really bad numbers. Is he just lazy on the defensive end? Wow?!?!
http://www.basketballinsiders.com/the-curious-case-of-enes-kanter/ One of the reasons for this, explained by Kennedy, includes Kanter’s comments about his former team, the Utah Jazz. But an even bigger concern for the Thunder than Kanter’s recent comments is his performance on the court. Kanter, age 22, has put up nice per game statistics in his short time with the Thunder. Over his last 10 games, Kanter is averaging 21.3 points and 13.1 rebounds, while shooting 58.8 percent from the field. So what is the problem with the way Kanter is playing? Kanter’s former Utah Jazz teammate Trevor Booker summed up the problem concisely after the Jazz beat the Thunder on March 28. “He did what he always does: he got his stats, he didn’t defend, he took an L,” Booker said of Kanter, according to Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune. This was a bold and candid statement from Booker, but is exactly what the Thunder’s front-office needs to consider moving forward. On many nights, Kanter looks imposing and like a guy who deserves a lucrative deal. But look closer, and you can see the defensive limitations that puts a strain on his team’s overall defense. In 21 games played with the Thunder, Oklahoma City is scoring 108.1 points per 100 possessions, while surrendering 109.5 points with Kanter on the court, according to NBA.com. That comes out to a -1.4 net differential, which isn’t great, but isn’t terrible. However, consider that a 109.5 defensive rating would rank as the worst defensive rating in the entire league, including the last-place Minnesota Timberwolves. And things have only gotten worse recently. Over the last 10 games, the Thunder are giving up 111.6 points per 100 possessionswith Kanter on the court, while scoring 107.1 points (-4.5 net). And it’s not as though Kanter is offsetting his lack of defensive impact with his offense. In that same span, when Kanter is off the court, the Thunder are scoring 110.8 points per 100 possessions. Still not convinced that Kanter’s box score numbers blur his actual on court impact? Let’s take a look at the Jazz, who have become the league’s most dominant defensive team since trading Kanter. With Kanter, the Jazz scored 102.9 points per 100 possessions, while allowing opposing to teams to score 106.1 points, according to NBA.com. However, since trading Kanter, the Jazz have an offensive efficiency rating of 101.3 and a defensive efficiency rating of 93.2, good for an impressive +8.1 net rating. To be fair to Kanter, being replaced by Rudy Gobert will make anyone look bad by comparison on the defensive end. That, and the Jazz collectively are showing signs of internal development and chemistry that were not there at the beginning of the season. But the numbers confirm what we can see with our eyes. Kanter is not a good rim protector, he isn’t very quick and he doesn’t have the foot speed to effectively defend the pick and roll (though he has improved his foot speed since losing weight). All of this is encapsulated in ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus metric (RPM), which ranks Kanter at 385thin the league (-3.28), due mostly to his abysmal -3.75 defensive RPM rating. To give more perspective, Kanter ranks dead last in defensive RPM among all qualified centers, including Andrea Bargnani of the New York Knicks.
He demanded a trade. He was playing poorly and his minutes were starting to go way down...kind of a malcontent.
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/6447/enes-kanter That Oklahoma statline looks really nice. If he could learn to be even below average defensively that would be great.
