Really like karl malone's take a page back. I certainly understand the venom we're seeing toward Kanter. I felt all kind of vindicated with the Jazz's win over OKC last week. But I hope that doesn't preclude us from facing facts. Kanter's a wonderful offensive/rebounding talent who's been on a real statistical roll since joining the Thunder.
What I don't get (well, I guess I do get it, but it seems like playing with fire), is all these Jazz supporters on Twitter (including Locke and Tony Jones tonight) going on and on about Kanter's plus/minus and point-in-the-paint stats from game to game. It's as if they're trying to persuade the OKC fans and organization, as well as anyone who will listen nationally, that Kanter's terrible. But it's a bad use of stats on such a limited sample size in a new system with a still-young player, for one thing. And even if it were not, wouldn't it be better to have the realization dawn on OKC slowly?
In any event, OKC likely has a very different perspective on things. Remember back when plus/minus was just coming into vogue? It was early in Kevin Durant's career, and his +/- numbers were at the bottom of the league or thereabouts, despite his high scoring. You had some stats guys convinced he was a bust. But then one year, his plus/minus stats moved toward the top of the league, and he was universally acclaimed as a superstar. For those don't remember, see
this article.
So when OKC's organization thinks about Kanter, it probably has the memory of Durant somewhere in mind. Not necessarily that Kanter will become a superstar, but just that plus/minus and defense stats can improve greatly from a player's early career (not to mention how much these stats depend on fit within a system and among a particular collection of teammates). Kanter's a bit older now than Durant was when the switch flipped, but he also has less total basketball experience and appears to be starting from a baseline of much more immaturity. There's no guarantee the switch will flip for Kanter. Even if he does keep manage the frequent 25/15 line, he may end up being no more of a winner than Carmelo Anthony. But no matter how much Jazz supporters taunt them now, OKC probably feels good about the price it paid to see whether that switch will flip will over time.
None of this is to say that the Jazz shouldn't have made the trade. I think the Jazz correctly decided that the switch wasn't going to flip for Kanter in Utah for reasons of his own making, as well as because he had become unnecessary to the Jazz's identity with the Favors-Gobert pairing going forward. But they likely understood that he had improved a lot during his Jazz years. (I don't buy that the Corbin years were wasted development years for Kanter -- he improved even if neither he nor Jazz fans want to recognize it. I think the Jazz rightly prioritize instilling winning habits over statistical production and playing time for the development of young players -- see Hayward, Favors, Gobert.) And they likely realized that he could possibly blow up elsewhere. But it's a trade that had to be made.