See what you missed? Almost everyone down on Kanter and then he suddenly transforms into a franchise center over the course of the pre-season. If I hadn't seen it myself, I'd swear that one-move, lumbering lug we had in the summer league is not the same person who came to camp.
Maybe I'm wrong, but the only answer I can think of is someone replaced his Folgers with Red Bull.
Yeah I see it. OK, here is my take, I'll be honest. I don't believe Enes has transformed into antoher player either.
You know guys, I've said it before, I watched Kanter a lot before you even heard about him. And as you know now, he was a phenomenon in Europe among his age group and even in the older age groups. I know it seems now, it's basically because of his more mature and bigger body than his peers and weak competition etc. And there is some truth in it, I can't deny it. But it's not that much as you'd think of. The guy played more than half of his young career among and against his elders. So he wasn't a Shaq among the boys all the time. Yet he was always at the top and glaring among all others. And when it comes to size, do you have any idea how many very big PF/C candidates are there in europe on every age categories? There are many, but we only hear about the ones like Kanter. Because he is smart, skilled, can learn fast and most importantly, he's talented. Think about it, he started to BBall at 14 and he became a phenomenon at 15-16! It wasn't for nothing.
2008 is the year I heard of him and I acutally started to follow basketball closely with young age categories. Kanter seemed to have the most potential whenever I watched him. He could shoot very smoothly even that years. I can't know how many times I said here that he has a very good touch and range than everyone knows.
About his rebounding, if someone thinks that he's a very good rebounder just because of his size then that means he doesn't know much about basketball. His instincts, timing and positional fundamentals are also important reasons why he's such good rebounder.
I know, losing weight and getting quicker must have helped him a lot but I believe that if he was still 260-270, he'd be still seemed as improved his game. Because I believe the main thing that has changed with him are the mental and confidence-related things. As he adjusts himself to the league and the team, along with the totally different environment for him, (he now lives his dreams, the NBA, playing in the best leauge with great players etc), he is just revealing his skills, sharpening them and gaining his game feel again. I even can go one step further here and say that he's gonna make you surprised more with his game within the time.