Thunder Playbook: How Enes Kanter Fits With OKC

Feb 22, 2015; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter (34) attempts a shot against Denver Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic (23) during the second quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Kanter on Offense 

Much has already been made of Kanter’s ability at finishing on pick-and-rolls. Westbrook has seemingly been looking for him since the plane touched down from Utah and the early results have been nothing short of outstanding. However, Kanter’s offensive skill isn’t merely limited to purely the pick-and-roll. He’s actually surprisingly athletic for his size, something that OKC has never really had down low. Here’s an example of that while Enes was playing for Utah:

In the play, Pau Gasol sags off Kanter just slightly to help against the ball handler in the mid-post. This leaves Enes isolated at the top of the key, where things immediately go south for the Bulls. All it takes is two dribbles for Kanter to blow by Gasol and then a strong-side spin move to freeze Pau. Gasol is immediately out of position and not even Joakim Noah’s help defense can prevent Kanter from slamming that one home. 

This same skill set was put to use in Kanter’s first game with the Thunder, where his first basket came on an authoritative dunk over all-world center Al Jefferson: 

The Thunder immediately initiate a Russell Westbrook/Enes Kanter pick-and-roll, which Charlotte initially defends quite well. Al Jefferson steps up to deny Westbrook, while the long-armed Michael Kidd-Gilchrist switches onto Kanter to prevent the actual “roll” aspect of the play. Westbrook’s opts to feed Kanter in the post, where Enes smartly uses his 6’11”, 267-pound frame to seal Jefferson off from Kyle Singler in the weak-side corner. 

Kanter then initiates the reset of the play by screaming back to elbow, while Jefferson rotates out of the paint to help deny the Singler corner three. Again, this leaves the Hornets out of position while Kanter is isolated at the top of the key, identical to the play against the Bulls. The result is exactly the same with Kanter rocking the rim against a helpless defense. 

What makes both of these plays work, however, is Kanter’s plethora of offensive skills. Even if Jefferson or Gasol had somehow made it back to the paint to deny the roll option, Kanter would have made them pay from mid-range. Over the course of the 2014-2015 season, Kanter is shooting  .673 from 0-3 feet, .407 from 3-10 feet, and actually shooting a respectable .317 from three-point range. There’s really not an area of the court that Kanter can’t score from and that’s TERRIFYING for any defense that is already attempting to stop players the likes of Westbrook and Kevin Durant. 

That’s not to say that Kanter is a perfect offensive weapon for the Thunder. This year more than ever, we have seen Oklahoma City attempt to utilize more high-post facilitation with their big men to free up the wings to work off-ball. The inspiration likely came from San Antonio utilizing Boris Diaw in this capacity last year as a catalyst for their offense and thus far, the returns for Oklahoma City have been pretty outstanding. 

Here, Nick Collison finds Durant with the nifty bounce pass while the Mavs are left watching. Unfortunately for Kanter, he’s not a good enough passer to make that sort of play happen. In his admittedly short NBA career, Kanter has never averaged even an assist per game over the course of a season (0.5 career average). 

Granted, a lot of that probably had to do with the lack of weapons around him in Utah, seeing as he is actually averaging an improved 1.7 assists/game since arriving in Oklahoma City. However, even with guys like Russ and KD on the perimeter, there’s still every possibility of THIS happening (at the 0:19 mark to be specific)  

Perhaps it’s poetic justice that he did that against the Thunder. Nonetheless, for Kanter to be truly effective he needs to be getting plays drawn up for him. He’s not the same sort of Velcro-player that Collison or Adams are offensively, so parts of the playbook would need to be amended to incorporate his skill set. 

All together, Kanter is an offensive force that not many teams will be able to cope with. His limitations as a passer slightly impact his ability to play alongside some of the perimeter guys, but overall the Turkish Hammer (still running with it) is already asserting himself as an offensive cornerstone for the Thunder. 

Next: Kanter on Defense