‘Can’t play Kanter’ returns to playoffs, this time in favor of OKC Thunder
By Rylan Stiles
How three little words change everything
After the Houston Rockets ran a pick and roll play that saw Enes Kanter stuck in no man’s land as Clint Capela rolled to the basket and soared up to throw down an alley oop jam off a feed from former OKC Thunder two guard James Harden.
That is when the TNT producers in the broadcast crew truck decided to switch the cameras to a shot of Billy Donovan. That is when NBA fans got all the content they needed in the new age of NBA Twitter.
Billy Donovan looks over to Mo Cheeks following a blown defensive play by Kanter in pick and roll coverage and appears to say “Can’t play Kanter.”
Billy Donovan did not do much in way of defending Kanter to the media when asked if the lip readers were correct in what he said: “I’m not disputing that that was said or not said,” Donovan said. “But I think to probably take three words on a whole conversation would be really, really hard to do, based on the conversation. I know one of the things we were talking about was in terms of different coverages. We can’t play him in those coverages.”
Donovan is not the first member of the OKC Thunder organization to be vocal about Kanter’s lack of defense.
Steven Adams to David Fizdale during a stoppage: "Sub him (him being Enes Kanter) out. He can't play defense."
— Erik Horne (@ErikkHorne) November 15, 2018
Steven Adam dominated down low that night against Kanter’s Knicks, and it was a rare time that the OKC big man demanded the ball in the post, and asserted himself down low in the flow of the offense.
In this clip, Steven Adams see the Kanter matchup, and immediately runs a pick and roll with Dennis Schroder. He rolls to the basket, sees Kanter stayed on him and made one post move before slamming it home. Even though OKC did not get the switch here, they were still able to exposed Kanter making him try to defend Adams one-on-one.
Here is yet another example of Steven Adams and Dennis Schroder running a beautiful pick and roll, and the Kanter Knicks covering…no one.
And one last clip for good measure. This time on the Schroder Adams pick and roll, Kanter gets stuck in no man’s land and ends up covering literally no one. Sound familiar?
It is clear that a healthy and spry Steven Adams in November of 2018 can absolutely carve up Enes Kanter.