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Enes Kanter: OKC Thunder Season in Review

By Casimir Cuffy

Jan 11, 2017; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter (11) reacts after a play when he was hit in the mouth against the Memphis Grizzlies during the fourth quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 11, 2017; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter (11) reacts after a play when he was hit in the mouth against the Memphis Grizzlies during the fourth quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jan 11, 2017; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; OKC Thunder center Enes Kanter (11) reacts after a play when he was hit in the mouth against the Memphis Grizzlies during the fourth quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 11, 2017; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; OKC Thunder center Enes Kanter (11) reacts after a play when he was hit in the mouth against the Memphis Grizzlies during the fourth quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /

Coming into this season, the expectations increased for every single player on this OKC Thunder team. Some players rose to the challenge, some did not. Enes Kanter was supposed to take that next step in his progression, but how did that play out?

It’s no secret that on July 4th, the state of this Thunder team changed drastically. Every player was instantly thrust into a new role where they would be counted on to produce consistently. Its arguable that Enes Kanter was the most suited person to make this transition smoothly, but he actually regressed.

Let me preface this article by stating that I am not here to bash Kanter. I am here to provide straight facts (or something close) to what we witnessed this past season by someone who was supposed to be a true difference maker for this team.

Now let’s get back to my point. Let’s flashback to the spring of 2015 when Enes Kanter first got traded to the Thunder. If you recall, OKC was hit with a mean injury bug that season. Kevin Durant was basically out for the season along with Serge Ibaka who suffered an injury to his knee a few weeks after Kanter arrived. Kanter came in to the team at a time where Steven Adams was injured so he was thrusted into the starting line-up and remained there even after Adams returned.

This was when we got our first taste of just how good Enes Kanter could be as a second scoring option behind Russell Westbrook. The line-ups were basically the same. Westbrook, Andre Roberson, Kanter, Adams and (insert below-average small forward here). Kanter and Westbrook proved to be a force together in the pick & roll, which led to him averaging 18.7 points and 11 rebounds in his 26 games with OKC.

It was a small sample size and an entirely different head coach, but the system has not changed that much since then. Many of us were expecting to see similar contributions from Kanter this season coming off the bench as a primary scorer, but it never shaped out that way. Instead, the last time we saw Kanter on the court he was scoreless with only three minutes and 22 seconds played.

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