Oklahoma City center Enes Kanter got his wish when he was traded from lottery-bound Utah. However, his defensive play has taken almost as much criticism as his public comments related to his time in Salt Lake City.
“He did what he always does. He got his stats. He didn’t defend. He took an L (a loss).” That would be former Jazz teammate Trevor Booker, regarding Kanter, as quoted by Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Shots. Fired.
It’s safe to say that the Jazz don’t miss Kanter much like they probably do not miss losing. Since trading Kanter the Jazz are 15-7, including wins over Portland, San Antonio, Houston and Oklahoma City. Small sample size maybe, but life without Kanter has allowed Ruby Gobert to really explore his potential and it looks good. Even when Kanter was in Utah, it was fairly clear that Kanter was the offensive option for the Jazz while Gobert was relied on for his devastating rim protection capabilities and superhuman length.
Since joining the Thunder, Kanter is averaging a double-double of 17.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, both are improvements over his numbers with the Jazz. Notably, Kanter is nearly a full two offensive rebounds per game better for the Thunder. Two extra chances to get putbacks or touches for Russell Westbrook each game has to be nice for Oklahoma City.
The offensive numbers are nice, but back to Booker’s bomb about Kanter’s defense. In Kanter’s first nine games with the Thunder, the team had the luxury of teaming up Kanter with perennial defensive stud Serge Ibaka. During the nine games that they played together, Kanter actually held a more favorable plus/minus than Ibaka, 1.2 over -0.5.
Better still, perhaps it would be best to compare Kanter’s numbers when sharing the floor specifically with Ibaka, then with another player, such as McGary. Since joining the Thunder, Kanter has played with Ibaka in nine games. In those games, the Thunder have a record of 6-3. They played together for an average of 26.4 minutes and held their opponents to a plus/minus of -1.0. For comparison, when paired with McGary, for only 8.7 minutes per game since Ibaka has been out, they held opponents to a -2.3, a small improvement. In the absence of Ibaka, the most frequently used combination for the Thunder has actually been putting two centers on the floor, Steven Adams and Kanter. That two-man lineup has played nine games since the Ibaka injury, with a matching record to Ibaka-Kanter of 6-3. Kanter and Adams actually share the floor 20.8 minutes game over that stretch, remarkable for a two-center lineup.
When Kanter was on the floor, Thunder opponents managed a -2.1 plus/minus, when Kanter sits that number improves to -5.7 – a modest indicator. Ibaka seems to be more of an outlier, or unlucky, as teams fared much worse with Ibaka sitting (-14.8) than when he was actually in the game (0.7). Maybe there is a better number to differentiate the impact of Ibaka and Kanter when paired together. For the sake of considering Kanter’s impact, we should look for one other similar player with a similar number of games played during that stretch. Enter Mitch McGary. McGary, a rookie, only saw action in five games before the All-Star Break, but has played in 20 games since, average 16.2 minutes per game. In the same period of games that Ibaka and Kanter played, prior to Ibaka’s knee procedure, McGary has a better plus/minus, Opponent Field Goal percentage and Opponent points per game than Ibaka or Kanter.
The second set of numbers to look at when gauging the defensive impact of Kanter involves the absence of Ibaka. In the 10 games in that time frame, Kanter sat 193.6 minutes and the Thunder’s Opponent Field Goal percentage dropped to 45.8. Kanter saw Opponent Field Goal percentage increase to 48.0 while he was on the court for 286.4 minutes during that same ten game stretch. Interestingly, when Kanter is on-court, opponents actually shoot considerably fewer three-pointers and take more shots overall which means that they are either finding more mid-range chances or attacking the rim more frequently with Kanter on the floor.
There does not appear to be much data that suggests the team suffers when Kanter plays, even if he doesn’t command a great deal of respect for his defensive efforts, or lack thereof. It is possible that Kanter is worse when he is out there on his own, but fortunately the loss of Ibaka was tempered by the few minutes of McGary and the return of Steven Adams. While Kanter, and the Thunder, did lose the game against his old team on Saturday, the real loss seems to be in the PR department. Oh, and maybe Mitch McGary is actually doing a good job in his limited time on the court.
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