Enes Kanter deserves some love

[ETNCeltics]

4th in the league in per 36 rebounding, 2nd in offensive rebounding/36.

[Somebody]

Absolutely love what he’s offering. Despite the tired arguments about his defence (in the face of our team defence not suffering with him on) he’s been a huge piece for us.

Haven’t seen an offensive rebounder like him since ... I can’t think when!

Forever lol, I don't think the Celtics ever had an elite offensive rebounder (at least on Enes' level, we might have had a few good ones) in franchise history.

Yeah, I feel like Russell might have been, but who knows.

Go Enes! $5m is a complete bargain

Good shout about Russell. But from what I can scrounge from the internet (both in terms of game tape and articles about his play) I think he was more of a defensive rebounder than an offensive one, and for good reason (he intuitively knew about ways to maximise efficiency for his teams, and in the Celtics' case it was stifling defence and pushing the pace on offence to make up for the team's average offensive efficiency).

[Somebody]

Absolutely love what he’s offering. Despite the tired arguments about his defence (in the face of our team defence not suffering with him on) he’s been a huge piece for us.

Haven’t seen an offensive rebounder like him since ... I can’t think when!

Forever lol, I don't think the Celtics ever had an elite offensive rebounder (at least on Enes' level, we might have had a few good ones) in franchise history.

How soon we forget. Paul Silas was the best offensive rebounder in the league for most of his time here in Boston. A pillar of two titles here in the 70's.

He was fantastic, but his ORB% was about 5 points lower than Kanter’s current one. Not sure I’ve ever seen a guy with seemingly limited athleticism gobble up offensive boards like that.

Different game back then where teams often had 2-3 players sitting in the paint and were putting at least 2 top notch rebounders under the basket as much as they could. Silas played tons of minutes alongside Cowens, another very good offensive rebounder in his time.

You also had teams crashing the boards like madmen though, which pumped up offensive rebounding rates. If anything the "different game back then" argument serves against the case for Silas since the disparity in their offensive rebounding rates relative to league average is even wider than that of their raw offensive rebounding rates.

[nickagneta]

Absolutely love what he’s offering. Despite the tired arguments about his defence (in the face of our team defence not suffering with him on) he’s been a huge piece for us.

Haven’t seen an offensive rebounder like him since ... I can’t think when!

Forever lol, I don't think the Celtics ever had an elite offensive rebounder (at least on Enes' level, we might have had a few good ones) in franchise history.

How soon we forget. Paul Silas was the best offensive rebounder in the league for most of his time here in Boston. A pillar of two titles here in the 70's.

He was fantastic, but his ORB% was about 5 points lower than Kanter’s current one. Not sure I’ve ever seen a guy with seemingly limited athleticism gobble up offensive boards like that.

Different game back then where teams often had 2-3 players sitting in the paint and were putting at least 2 top notch rebounders under the basket as much as they could. Silas played tons of minutes alongside Cowens, another very good offensive rebounder in his time.

You also had teams crashing the boards like madmen though, which pumped up offensive rebounding rates. If anything the "different game back then" argument serves against the case for Silas since the disparity in their offensive rebounding rates relative to league average is even wider than that of their raw offensive rebounding rates.

See, I disagree. In Kanter's time he has most often been grabbing offensive rebounds with just him being under the basket for his team and just 1-2 players from the other team.

Silas was most often grabbing offensive rebounds with 6 people under the basket while playing alongside another top ten in the league offensive rebounder. Leading the league and doing it under those circumstances makes his 13% look every bit as impressive as Kanter's 18%.

[Somebody]

Absolutely love what he’s offering. Despite the tired arguments about his defence (in the face of our team defence not suffering with him on) he’s been a huge piece for us.

Haven’t seen an offensive rebounder like him since ... I can’t think when!

Forever lol, I don't think the Celtics ever had an elite offensive rebounder (at least on Enes' level, we might have had a few good ones) in franchise history.

How soon we forget. Paul Silas was the best offensive rebounder in the league for most of his time here in Boston. A pillar of two titles here in the 70's.

He was fantastic, but his ORB% was about 5 points lower than Kanter’s current one. Not sure I’ve ever seen a guy with seemingly limited athleticism gobble up offensive boards like that.

Different game back then where teams often had 2-3 players sitting in the paint and were putting at least 2 top notch rebounders under the basket as much as they could. Silas played tons of minutes alongside Cowens, another very good offensive rebounder in his time.

You also had teams crashing the boards like madmen though, which pumped up offensive rebounding rates. If anything the "different game back then" argument serves against the case for Silas since the disparity in their offensive rebounding rates relative to league average is even wider than that of their raw offensive rebounding rates.

See, I disagree. In Kanter's time he has most often been grabbing offensive rebounds with just him being under the basket for his team and just 1-2 players from the other team.

Silas was most often grabbing offensive rebounds with 6 people under the basket while playing alongside another top ten in the league offensive rebounder. Leading the league and doing it under those circumstances makes his 13% look every bit as impressive as Kanter's 18%.

I guess we'll agree to disagree then. Silas was grabbing offensive rebounds when 3 or 4 players would crash the offensive glass every possession, grabbing a rebound with 6 people around under the basket sounds a lot less impressive than what you made it sound like when half of them are your teammates. And playing multiple strong rebounders in your frontcourt was pretty common back then, the Lakers surrounded an excellent offensive rebounder in Happy Hairston with strong boarders like Bill Bridges and Elmore Smith, the Bullets had Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes, the Rockets had guys like Kevin Kunnert and Dwight Jones supporting Moses Malone, etc, Silas playing with a strong offensive rebounder in Cowens was nothing unique in his era. I just don't think that Silas was an outlier offensive rebounder in his era like Kanter is in his.

[Phantom255x]

Kanter averaging 11 PPG/12 RPG in about 21 minutes a game in January so far. This is after he averaged 10/9 in 18 MPG in December.

[nickagneta]

His defense tonight was excellent. No, not excellent compared to what he was earlier in his career. No, not excellent compared to how he played to start the season. No, not excellent given his limitations. No, not excellent compared to his recent string of good overall defense.

Tonight, his defense was excellent. Period.

[SHAQATTACK]

I m being honest

i was starving for a big with his skills to be in a Celtics uniform again.

[NKY fan]

Kanter was better in the playoffs last year compared to the regular season... let’s hope he keeps that tradition ! 

[Fafnir]

Eh, he's getting more comfortable in rotations for sure, and just as importantly his teammates are getting better at playing the sort of scheme that he is best at. Of course the Bulls aren't exactly a threatening PnR team either, other than Sato they don't have anyone to truly attack him.

He's still largely a traffic cone around the rim. Players really have no fear of attacking him and it shows, reminds me of Zeller in that aspect. I suppose traffic cone is better than a foul machine that he sometimes can be lol.

[gouki88]

Eh, he's getting more comfortable in rotations for sure, and just as importantly his teammates are getting better at playing the sort of scheme that he is best at. Of course the Bulls aren't exactly a threatening PnR team either, other than Sato they don't have anyone to truly attack him.

He's still largely a traffic cone around the rim. Players really have no fear of attacking him and it shows, reminds me of Zeller in that aspect. I suppose traffic cone is better than a foul machine that he sometimes can be lol.

I think that’s a very harsh and inaccurate assessment of his defence.

[Somebody]

Eh, he's getting more comfortable in rotations for sure, and just as importantly his teammates are getting better at playing the sort of scheme that he is best at. Of course the Bulls aren't exactly a threatening PnR team either, other than Sato they don't have anyone to truly attack him.

He's still largely a traffic cone around the rim. Players really have no fear of attacking him and it shows, reminds me of Zeller in that aspect. I suppose traffic cone is better than a foul machine that he sometimes can be lol.

I think that’s a very harsh and inaccurate assessment of his defence.

^this. He's a traffic cone outside of the paint, he's quite a deterrent at the rim.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I m being honest

i was starving for a big with his skills to be in a Celtics uniform again.

Me too!

[GreenEnvy]

Nice offensive game, great rebounder, and fun personality. What’s not to like?

I get he’s not garnering any All-Defense votes, but he’s definitely a net-positive player.

[trickybilly]

Still deserving a lot of love...