Oklahoma City Thunder: Grading The Offseason

Kantering Portland’s Offer

I have mixed feelings about this one. When the Portland Trail Blazers put forth a four-year, $70 million offer sheet for Enes Kanter, it was a win-win for them. If the Thunder didn’t match, the Blazers would nab a useful double-double machine after losing four of their five starters. If the Thunder did match, well, at least Portland would force a division rival pay up for his services.

That kind of max contract seems like a pretty sizable overpay for Kanter, and it is to a certain degree. Unfortunately for Kanter, his woeful defense could be the very thing that prevents the Thunder from being a legitimate title contender in 2015-16, which, by extension, could lead to a free agency departure for Durant next summer.

It’s not that Kanter’s defense is bad. It’s that it’s SO bad that the Thunder are bleeding points whenever he’s on the floor. Before the Kanter trade, OKC was the 10th best defense in the league, and that’s with Durant out for most of that time. Once Kanter joined Oklahoma City, the Thunder plummeted to the fourth worst defense in the league, per NBA.com.

However, there are also obvious benefits to the Thunder keeping a 6’11” center who’s a walking double-double and already one of the best back-to-the-basket players in the NBA at age 23. Kanter averaged 18.7 points and 11.0 rebounds per game in 26 appearances for the Thunder while shooting a career high 56.6 percent from the field and posting a Player Efficiency Rating of 24.9.

OKC had to give up Reggie Jackson in order to bring Kanter on board, so it’s not like the Thunder would’ve been okay with just letting him walk for nothing. It’d also have been pretty hard to explain to Westbrook and Durant — particularly right before KD’s free agency — why the Thunder were letting a regular 18-11 guy walk out the door.

The biggest gripe about the Thunder’s formula over the last few years has been that their offense is far too reliant on Durant and Westbrook isolation plays, which is a valid complaint. Kanter gives OKC a legitimate post presence that they can feed down low for easy, efficient looks when they need a bucket.

In addition to Kanter being nowhere near his prime, he’ll have the chance to grow under new head coach Billy Donovan and there’s hope he could improve on the defensive end, the biggest reason pundits wondered whether OKC should match. It’s also worth noting the Thunder wouldn’t have freed up any cap space by declining to match Portland’s offer.

Finally, we have to bear in mind that even though Oklahoma City is gearing toward a hefty luxury tax bill, Kanter’s deal won’t look as bad two years from now, when the NBA’s salary cap has increased by about $40 million. The Thunder weren’t deciding whether or not to sign Kanter to a max deal; they were deciding whether it was better to match a max offer sheet or to let him walk for nothing.

If it were as simple as money or Xs and Os, the Thunder might have been better off dropping Kanter. It doesn’t matter that he’s a walking double-double if the stats are empty and the defense that comes with it is even emptier. Kanter’s a gaping hole on that end and in time, we could look back on this move the same way we remember the James Harden trade: wondering if Durant and Westbrook could’ve built a dynasty had things gone differently.

But unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that. This isn’t just about trying to win a title this season; it’s about keeping Durant happy and around so the Oklahoma City Thunder can keep trying to win a title every season. To that end, OKC had to match, knowing they could try to trade him later if this backfires. And who knows? Perhaps Donovan can coax some major defensive improvement out of this 23-year-old. It’s not ideal, but the Thunder did what they had to do.

Grade: B-

Next: Sacrificial Lamb