Enes Kanter - Trade Candidate

Now entering his 4th season, Enes Kanter has been somewhat of an enigma so far. He has shown flashes of brilliance with his quick feet and power, the fast-forward spin moves and a great touch on his assorted hook shots, low block finishes, and jump shots mixed with periods of absolute stupidity and a seemingly lack of concentration on court.

Jazz insiders claim he has to be "babied" to get him to play hard. And he hasn't shown much defensive intensity. But occasionally you see glimpes of his quick feet in pick-and-roll defense.

Now...the Jazz are turning over a new leaf with the hiring of Synder as their coach. Snyder has a defensive pre-disposition and is openly talking about having 5 guys on the floor that can "defend their position".

The Jazz have also this last season fiddled and toyed with Kanter and Favors, flipping both of them back and forth between center and power forward, trying to figure out who was what and where each should play. It looks like they finally settled on Favors as the defensive anchor in the middle. Kanter lost weight and they started playing him as an experimental stretch-4. I can't really tell if they were really trying to find how to fit these guys together or whether they were just inventing new ways to lose ballgames and pick up ping-pong balls.

Needless to say though, it appears that Utah needs to sort out it's 4/5 slots. They appear to be somewhat set on the perimeter with Exum (future superstar), Burke, Burks, and Hayward (very, very good player) taking up the bulk of the minutes out there with Rodney Hood also coming in and showing great promise as a shooter off the bench. So, it appears they are set on the perimeter and really need to figure out their 4/5 rotation.

They've already given Favors big money and now they're paying Hayward max dollars. And Kanter is coming up on his restricted free agency season. Are they prepared to pay him big money? Dunno. Is he a fit defensively? Questionable.

Favors, in my opinion, would be best served playing the 4 spot alongside a high-post center that has the ability to anchor down the paint and let Favors help defend from the weak side. The high-post stretch-5 could fit Kanter nicely. But I just don't think on the defensive end whether he'll ever fit as a lock-down-the-paint guy.

Favors appears to fit Utah as well. He does play both ends, plays hard, keeps his mouth shut, and stays out of trouble, and doesn't require babying. All those little things add up. Kanter could be the odd man out. He may be on the trade block this year.

 

Agreed. Don't know if that is fit or attitude or coaching or some combination of the above. Some people that know him say he's a great guy. When you watch him individually...he can flat tear up guys on the offensive end. He's got the full arsenal offensively, great strength, quick-quick feet, quick spins, great hands, great jump shot form...and he knows how to use all his tools to get buckets.

In my opinion, this guy is who we would like Dwight to be offensively. But he has no chance to be anything like Dwight defensively. Defensively he needs to learn to use his strength and his base and positioning. I did watch a lot of video of him in pick-and-roll defense. It sure seems like to me when he wants to play he can move his feet and be decent in pick-and-roll defense. But other times he acts like he just doesn't care. How much of that is playing on a lottery team that is trying to lose games??? I don't know. All I know is he has an elite offensive skill-set. And he has plenty of strength and quick feet to be decent to above average defensively.


The other thing to question about him is his health. I can't get a handle on his knee. Some reports when he came out of UK was that he had a degenerative condition that would limit the length of his career. So...don't know. But he would be an interesting project if he were acquired by a team for a relatively cheap price, say a lottery protected pick and/or other non-superstar players.

 

Here's some D: Good (ok), bad, and ugly.

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Here he toys with Gortat, Seraphim, and Nene:

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Muscling Jordan Hill and Dwight

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Takes Brooks Lopez outside and strokes it over him. Then bangs him around in the paint and rips down the boards and put backs. Bludgeons Blatche, Plumlee, and nut-grabber also.

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15/19/2 against Dallas. Takes on Dally, Blair, and Wright. Dirk doesn't wanna guard him.

He follows his shot better than anybody I've seen since Moses Malone.

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