Should Kanter Get Minutes?

[Fafnir]

I was happy to hear Fred Katz talk about Kanter and how he doesn't think starting and not-starting will matter much to Kanter as long as the team is winning.

[tstorey_97]

Kanter is a funny one. Yes, his offense is effective and yes to other posters, the Celtics have plenty of offense on the court most of the time. Watch him play defense. He isn't animated, he isn't "working his position" on the defensive end.

This gets us back to Perkins and Rondo. "Just let the three hall of fame scorers do all the scoring...ok?"

Thus, we see Theis fitting in with the "big 4" quite nicely. He plays his position and knows his team mates and voila...starting center and effective on defense...for a German guy who is kinda small.

I hope that Poirier will be good on defense and thump underneath. Haven't seen much from him, but, he plays more aggressively on defense than Kanter...which isn't saying that much.

Robert is getting better and some day will be on the floor in big spots.

Grant is fine for 6'6" center who doesn't seem to have an outside shot. Excellent foul shooter. Superb with positioning on defense and doesn't do dumb things.

The above agrees with the poster. Technically? Kanter should be behind everyone from a minutes stand point except Bill Russell isn't walking through that door.

[SHAQATTACK]

yes

he is a useful cog 

more useful piece for some lineups than others.

I like him in a line up on the last possession of a game .   Put backs ,  rebound and nice scorer inside .  And as decoy to to get somebody else , say Hayward or Kemba an open look for the win. 

[PhoSita]

Watch him play defense. He isn't animated, he isn't "working his position" on the defensive end.

What stands out to me most is how seldom he seems to make any effort at all to contest a shot when a smaller guy gets into the paint.  It's like he'd rather wait for the shot to go up and either grab the rebound or take it out of the basket.

[PhoSita]

And as for Poirier, from what I've seen so far, if people think Kanter isn't productive, what do they expect to see from Poirier?

He's extremely uncoordinated and looks very green.

Could get better as the season goes on, but this is his first NBA season.

I think what I expect from Poirier is that he will make an effort on defense and maybe actually bother / deter a few shots.


I agree with everybody who says that the sample size is still really small.  I think we should revisit this question in another 10-20 games.  But I tend to think that at best Kanter is going to be a guy who you use as a bench piece when you need some offense but you want to give your main guys a rest.  In other words, he might be mostly a garbage time guy. 

Hopefully Theis and Grant stay healthy and Timelord continues to show out in the minutes he gets.  I think those three guys should be getting almost all of the traditional big man minutes in games against decent opponents.

[ETNCeltics]

I'm no Enes Kanter defender, but he's played a grand total of 56 minutes. It's seems silly to extrapolate anything out of Kanter's tiny amount of minutes thus far.

Stats can't tell you everything. I think most would agree that Theis and RW are our best bigs all things considered. But if it comes down to Kanter vs. Grant, it's a no-brainer unless you need a screen set. GW is just to small to defend any big who has any skill at all.

[td450]

The answer is generally no, unless some players are out.

The defense is excellent with Theis, and Robert Williams is coming along very well too. Against Washington, there was no one at the rim. He's a very good offensive player, but I really don't want to see us diverting shots to him.

[Vermont Green]

Kanter should absolutely get minutes so we can see what we have.  We need him.  I suggest this question be revisited in about 3 weeks assuming he stays healthy and has an opportunity to get into a decent rhythm.  If his defense hurts the team or he otherwise does not produce, you have to deal with it at some point but so far I don't see how you could assume to know what he can give us.

I am not worried about him taking minutes from any other big at this point.  None of them are that good.

[nickagneta]

3 games. 56 minutes. All this statistical evidence based on his playing 3 games.

One game of which he played 5 minutes in just coming back from an injury where he missed 2 1/2 weeks.

Another game, as other's point out, where he played against the best center in the league in a low scoring loss, the team's only loss and by far, lowest scoring game.

How about we give him more run than 56 minutes before trying to kick him out of the rotation? He is still, after all, the team's best rebounder by a wide margin and a guy that put up 11.4 PPG and 9.7 RPG in 28 MPG in 16 playoff games last year.

[hwangjini_1]

Xanny DeVito seems like an angry person.

aren't we all.

[Roy H.]

56 minutes over three games is too small of a sample size to draw meaningful conclusions.

EDIT: What nick said.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

He should definitely get minutes. He's great on offense and rebounding (including offensive rebounding), and is a big body.

Some people on this board think that every player has to be great defensively, but not all players are good on both ends of the court—in fact, many NBA players do only one or the other well. It's not like Kanter is IT out there on defense.

P.S.: That Twitter guy in the OP needs to settle down before he gives himself an aneurysm. Good grief, I can't understand what set him off about a guy who's barely played enough this season to show anything, good or bad.

[td450]

3 games. 56 minutes. All this statistical evidence based on his playing 3 games.

One game of which he played 5 minutes in just coming back from an injury where he missed 2 1/2 weeks.

Another game, as other's point out, where he played against the best center in the league in a low scoring loss, the team's only loss and by far, lowest scoring game.

How about we give him more run than 56 minutes before trying to kick him out of the rotation? He is still, after all, the team's best rebounder by a wide margin and a guy that put up 11.4 PPG and 9.7 RPG in 28 MPG in 16 playoff games last year.

How about we just assume the 8 years he's been in the league count too? He is what he is. He's a very good scorer and rebounder and one of the worst defenders in the league. For 586 games, not 56 minutes.

Do we need that? No.

[PhoSita]

56 minutes over three games is too small of a sample size to draw meaningful conclusions.

EDIT: What nick said.

It's a small sample, but also it's completely in line with what he's been his whole career.


So in that sense it doesn't feel like jumping to conclusions.



I agree that it makes sense to take another look at this in a few weeks.

[chambers]

Great post, TP.

I don't think he's been healthy enough yet to make any conclusions.
He was really, really good for the Blazers in the playoffs (and he was playing injured), and I'm assuming that's why Danny signed him. He's a great pick and roll diver and an excellent screener which is an excellent complementary skill composition for our elite wings who thrive in the pick and roll.