Oklahoma City signed Enes Kanter to a four year $70 million deal this past season. Some experts around the league view it as one of the worst current contracts in the league because of Kanter’s negative net value on the defensive end of the floor.
It has served for endless discussions and comparisons from the analytics crowd. Every conceivable plus/minus analytic stat has been used to try and decide if Enes Kanter is only moderately bad or really bad on the defensive end. Whether Kanter is a net plus or a net minus? Whether Kanter in any way gives OKC a better chance of beating Golden State and San Antonio as each game forward accrues with more value attached?
Last night in Denver, Kanter had a season high game of 25 points against the extraordinarily mediocre Denver Nuggets. This doesn’t do that much for me. I need to see more from Kanter night in and night out against the Top 12 teams in the league to justify this contract. As we nudge forward into the goal achieving portion of Kevin Durant’s free agency season this is a storyline which has to be viewed closely and from an objective lense.