Recent New York Knicks rumors involve Enes Kanter, who went down to the wire making a decision on his player option, trolling another NBA team in the process.
New York Knicks rumors have slowed down in recent weeks. With only one roster spot open for training camp, the Knicks may not make any more roster changes before paring down the roster for the regular season. Earlier in the offseason, there was a chance that more roster spots could have been opened up.
Heading into the offseason, the Knicks had multiple players with player options. Kyle O’Quinn and Enes Kanter both had an opportunity to enter free agency if they so chose.
O’Quinn declined his player option, which was worth $4.3 million. He agreed to a one-year deal with the Indiana Pacers worth just under $4.5 million with hopes of landing a long-term deal next offseason.
Kanter, on the other hand, picked up his player option for the 2018-19 season. Kanter will make about $18.6 million this season with the Knicks. While Kanter was long expected to opt in, It was a decision that Kanter said went down to the wire.
In an interview with Royce Young of ESPN, he discussed a number of topics, including politics, his home country of Turkey and of course the player option that he had this offseason.
Kanter opened up about his decision to opt in with the Knicks for the upcoming season. He insisted that the decision wasn’t made up until June 29, which was the deadline for a player and team options to be decided.
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While Kanter was undecided on his option, he was certain of one thing this offseason: He was not going to be playing with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Prior to free agency, it was reported that the Bucks were one of the teams interested in Kanter should be opt out of his deal. While Milwaukee was interested in him, the feeling was not mutual. Kanter had no intentions of going to the Bucks had he opted out.
"Come on, you really didn’t know?“I swear. The night before I went to my friend’s house, I ate dinner and I was coming back to my house in an Uber and I was so bored. So I posted the deer emoji, and five minutes later I deleted it. On purpose.“So everybody was talking about it. I was like, ‘This is going viral, this is crazy.'”So that was just you trolling the media?“You gotta mess with the media a little. Because I know I was not going to go to the Milwaukee Bucks. It’s the Milwaukee Bucks. Unless they give you good, good money, then go, but you don’t leave New York for Milwaukee.”"
Kanter has become known for his trash talking both in games and on Twitter. LeBron James is one of his targets, but even Kanter admits that his trash talk directed toward him falls on deaf ears.
As for his reasoning for not wanting to go to Milwaukee, it would be difficult to argue against that. New York is one of the greatest cities in the world. The same has not been said about Milwaukee too often. However, on the court right now, the Bucks would have been an upgrade on the Knicks.
Milwaukee has qualified for the postseason two consecutive years and four of the last six years. New York has made the playoffs only four times in the past 15 seasons.
For this season, Kanter looks like he will be the starting center once again for the Knicks. While he leaves something to be desired defensively, there is no denying the impact that he can have offensively and on the glass.
Last season, Kanter averaged 14.1 points and 11.0 rebounds per game despite averaging only 25.8 minutes. Those are some elite per-minute averages, something Kanter will look to cash in on next season.
His defense could limit how much money he can make as a free agent, but he should have no problems landing a multi-year deal in free agency in the summer of 2019. He may not get the $70 million he received in his last contract, but at only 26 years old, he still has plenty of strong basketball ahead of him.