Kanter's Game Last Night

[Sexual Favors]

Even with Kanter playing exceptionally well last night, I still saw people on twitter bitching about him, calling him ***** Cancer, or saying they wish he'd get cancer. Everytime someone would score, Harpring was quick to point out how Kanter is not the shot blocker Favors is. I see people quoting the retarded stat of how we've only won one game with Kanter in starting lineup (failing to recognize that has meant there was no Favors, and thus Kanter's minutes were distributed to less experienced players).

Wake up people! Kanter had a great game last night, and has been having a decent season.

Last night's stats:
25 pts, 60 fg%, 10 reb, 4 ast, 3 blk, 1stl, 2 to

His per 36 for the season is:
17 pts, 50 fg%, 9 reb, 1.2 ast, .5 stl, .9 blk, 2.5 tov

Rudy Gobert is 21,. Kanter is 21. Rudy is not putting up numbers even remotely close to these.

Derrick's per 36 for the season is:

15.2 pts on 50 fg%, 10.7 reb, 1.3 ast, 1.1 stl, 1.6 blk, 2.2 tov

Derrick is 22.

How is Kanter deserving of all the hate he gets? Why are so many people suggesting we trade Kanter?

In the games Kanter starts, his helper is Gobert off the bench. Think about that. Last night Gobert played 12 minutes and blocked 1 shot, and scored 1 point. That is all he did. Should you be mad at Rudy? No. Rudy is a rookie... Who is the sme age as Kanter.

Point is, Kanter is producing, and basketball is a team game. It just so happens that Kanter has started games when important members of the team have been injured.

 

[Sexual Favors]

I thought this piece was good:

"
Kanter's Screen-Roll Defense
From the outset one member of the Utah Jazz broadcast team made it a point to harp on what he considered poor defense by Kanter – namely Kanter’s refusal to show out and contest a lot of shots on the pick&roll. Similar to how teams used to attack Al Jefferson in the previous two seasons, Portland made it a priority to involve Kanter in defending pick&roll as often as possible.

Utah’s strategy remained simple - allow Kanter to drop back into the lane and force Portland into taking a lot of mid-range jumpshots. Of the 41 direct pick&rolls that involved Kanter defending the screener, Utah allowed just 31 points on initial defense (not counting second-change opportunities). Of those 41 plays, Portland shot 13-34 (38.2) from the field, drew 3 fouls (resulting in 4-4 from the foul line) and turned the ball over 4 times. Most impressively, out of their 34 shot attempts only two were three-point field goals.

Obviously the Blazers missed LaMarcus Aldrige’s mid-range shooting but when Kanter was involved in defending screen-roll, Utah could not have asked for better results against Portland’s high-octane offense. One negative is how susceptible Utah leaves themselves on the offensive glass. With Marvin playing at PF, anytime their center (be it Kanter or Favors) leaves his man to help, Utah is left with a huge disadvantage trying to rebound the basketball (12 offensive rebounds for Portland tonight).

Nevertheless, allowing 31 points on 41 possessions speaks for itself. Considering there were also a handful of plays where the initial screen-roll yielded no shot so Portland continued to move the ball, admonishing Kanter’s defensive performance last night is not only unnecessary but ridiculous.

Kanter will give up points at the rim but he also did a good job staying vertical in his challenges which resulted in quite a few Portland misses in the paint (many by Lillard who is among the poorer finishers in the basket area). It’s also important to remember Kanter isn’t a shotblocking force. Jerry Sloan didn’t rant and rave on the sideline when Mehmet Okur didn’t block a shot and Kanter deserves a similar approach. What you ask for from Kanter is good positional defense where he can use his 6-11 frame to contest shots to the best of his ability, and if the ball still goes in the hoop you can live with it because he can contribute in a lot of other ways.

(Side Tangent: It’s also absurd to criticize Kanter when he leaves his man to pick up a free driver toward the rim and then gets burned because no one rotated to his man. In Jazzbasketball that’s called “helping the helper” and it’s very difficult to be a good defensive team when your defensive rotations can’t extend to that level.)

Blazers announcer Mike Rice may have said it best late in the 3rd-quarter, “Once again, Kanter has been the man in there, he’s been able to defend that rim against – and I mean everybody is dribble-driving for the Blazers – and testing him. So far he’s not done a bad job at all.”"

From
https://jazzbasketball.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/jazz-trailblazers-feb-21-2014/

 

[franklin]

Kanter's best games look like Al Jefferson's mediocre-good games. 25 points on 25 shots, 3 blocks against, no free throws...

Kanter has been four years hope in one hand, **** in another.

 

[franklin]

Kanter's best games look like Al Jefferson's mediocre-good games. 25 points on 25 shots, 3 blocks against, no free throws...

Kanter has been four years hope in one hand, **** in another.

But his shoulder injury, & he can dunk it from the free throw line yo! Ty Corbin!!!

 

[Sexual Favors]

Kanter's best games look like Al Jefferson's mediocre-good games. 25 points on 25 shots, 3 blocks against, no free throws...

Kanter has been four years hope in one hand, **** in another.

False. 20 fga, and a lot of those were volleyball style hustle putbacks--which should count as a different kind of fga. He shot 60%, and he did go to the line. You should know that getting FTAs on the road is hard when you're young big and you haven't earned that rep with the refs.

And four years? Dude, Kanter is a third year player. He's 21. He was drafted as a project. He is developing on time given the limited playing time in first two seasons, no college, and a missed offseason of training. I'd venture to say he's ahead of schedule.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I thought this piece was good:

"
Kanter's Screen-Roll Defense
From the outset one member of the Utah Jazz broadcast team made it a point to harp on what he considered poor defense by Kanter – namely Kanter’s refusal to show out and contest a lot of shots on the pick&roll. Similar to how teams used to attack Al Jefferson in the previous two seasons, Portland made it a priority to involve Kanter in defending pick&roll as often as possible.

Utah’s strategy remained simple - allow Kanter to drop back into the lane and force Portland into taking a lot of mid-range jumpshots. Of the 41 direct pick&rolls that involved Kanter defending the screener, Utah allowed just 31 points on initial defense (not counting second-change opportunities). Of those 41 plays, Portland shot 13-34 (38.2) from the field, drew 3 fouls (resulting in 4-4 from the foul line) and turned the ball over 4 times. Most impressively, out of their 34 shot attempts only two were three-point field goals.

Obviously the Blazers missed LaMarcus Aldrige’s mid-range shooting but when Kanter was involved in defending screen-roll, Utah could not have asked for better results against Portland’s high-octane offense. One negative is how susceptible Utah leaves themselves on the offensive glass. With Marvin playing at PF, anytime their center (be it Kanter or Favors) leaves his man to help, Utah is left with a huge disadvantage trying to rebound the basketball (12 offensive rebounds for Portland tonight).

Nevertheless, allowing 31 points on 41 possessions speaks for itself. Considering there were also a handful of plays where the initial screen-roll yielded no shot so Portland continued to move the ball, admonishing Kanter’s defensive performance last night is not only unnecessary but ridiculous.

Kanter will give up points at the rim but he also did a good job staying vertical in his challenges which resulted in quite a few Portland misses in the paint (many by Lillard who is among the poorer finishers in the basket area). It’s also important to remember Kanter isn’t a shotblocking force. Jerry Sloan didn’t rant and rave on the sideline when Mehmet Okur didn’t block a shot and Kanter deserves a similar approach. What you ask for from Kanter is good positional defense where he can use his 6-11 frame to contest shots to the best of his ability, and if the ball still goes in the hoop you can live with it because he can contribute in a lot of other ways.

(Side Tangent: It’s also absurd to criticize Kanter when he leaves his man to pick up a free driver toward the rim and then gets burned because no one rotated to his man. In Jazzbasketball that’s called “helping the helper” and it’s very difficult to be a good defensive team when your defensive rotations can’t extend to that level.)

Blazers announcer Mike Rice may have said it best late in the 3rd-quarter, “Once again, Kanter has been the man in there, he’s been able to defend that rim against – and I mean everybody is dribble-driving for the Blazers – and testing him. So far he’s not done a bad job at all.”"

From
https://jazzbasketball.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/jazz-trailblazers-feb-21-2014/

Yeah, this was the best defensive game he has played in a while and it was still just average for the most part, and really bad in the 4th quarter.

 

[Sexual Favors]

But his shoulder injury, & he can dunk it from the free throw line yo! Ty Corbin!!!

Despite his zero training in the offseason due to his shoulder injury, he has played a lot better than people give him credit for.

I do blame Ty for not playing Kanter and Favors together more, and for allowing people to scapegoat Kanter, and for doing it himself. Kanter offers enough to this team that he is deserving of the starting role alongside Favors. It is Ty's job to develop a system that makes it work together instead of always bitching about how it doesn't magically fall into place. Be a coach Corbin!

 

[The Thriller]

Of course harpring and those who pay him would harp on kanter's defense. Otherwise, they might have to question how Ty keeps Marvin in the starting lineup, how Jefferson and Hayward never rotate, or how Burke is a chair out there being continuously burned.

It's easier to merely blame everything on. Kanter rather than question the coach or the more established/or popular players.

 

[Sexual Favors]

Yeah, this was the best defensive game he has played in a while and it was still just average for the most part, and really bad in the 4th quarter.

Have you ever heard of team defense? Kanter is not a shot blocker. That is fine. There are a lot of offensive minded 4's. How is 3 blks average? Kanter can play really good team defense. If he rotates to help a player who leaked through on the perimiter from Trey or RJ (both have been our real defensive whole all season), and no one rotates (Marvin, Gobert, Jeremy, etc.) to defend the guy Kanter is forced to leave, how is that Kanter's fault? The solution is playing Favors and Kanter together because Favors helps the helper. Favors gets by with ****ty team rotations because he is so quick he can recover faster than most people in the league.

You shouldn't only blame Kanter if he doesn't rotate at all. If Kanter is forced to challenge someone who leaks from the perimeter, someone else needs to rotate to help the helper.

 

[Sexual Favors]

Of course harpring and those who pay him would harp on kanter's defense. Otherwise, they might have to question how Ty keeps Marvin in the starting lineup, how Jefferson and Hayward never rotate, or how Burke is a chair out there being continuously burned.

It's easier to merely blame everything on. Kanter rather than question the coach or the more established/or popular players.

This.

Hayward ia a good defender, but is guilty of not rotating to help the helper.

RJ and Burke and Burks aren't good defenders, and they NEVER help the helper.

 

[Hantlers]

Kanter isn't a good defender, but not too many people on this team are, especially with Favors out.

He still shows a relatively low BBIQ, which is concerning, but he does have a lot of skills.

Also, just because a guy has 3 blocks doesn't mean he had a good defensive game. Blocks and steals are generally not indicative of overall defensive performance...while Kanter played better defense than he usually does, like Cyrone said, it was still nothing special. We're never going to get special defensive performances from him, so all I wanna see is increased BBIQ from him.

Final point: people are harder on Kanter than other players because he has the potential and skill to be a top post player in the NBA, and it hasn't happened yet. People aren't going to compare a rookie 21 year old who was drafted late in the first to a 3rd year pro 21 year old who was a top 3 pick. Acting like they should be treated the same is ridiculous.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Kanter can play really good team defense?

I guess "can" is a hypothetical word, but so far he hasn't shown the ability to consistently make simple rotations. Last night was a step in the right direction. Had about 3 quarters of decent defense before fatigue set in and he fell apart.

His man defense is surprisingly weak for someone who is suppose to be strong.

Kanter is far and away the worst defender on the team, not even really a question TBH.

 

[infection]

I would have to venture to guess there's a bit of groupthink at play. I'd also assume, to an extent, that when we've got a shot at a decent win or looking good that Kanter is not Corbin's guy, so it's not like you're goin to see him out there on the floor contributing in some meaningful way. It's kind of like a game of chicken and after we've seen Corbin not play Kanter for three consecutive years we starting to bail out because we just assume he's right and we are afraid of being caught with egg on our face.

 

[sgjazzfan]

Yeah, this was the best defensive game he has played in a while and it was still just average for the most part, and really bad in the 4th quarter.

But he was playing against such offensive juggernaut Post men in Robin Lopez, Thomas Robinson and Victor Claver (averaging 15 points combined on the season). Portland is missing 3 of their top 4 big men. I won't give Kanter too much credit for his "defense" last night. I'm with you, last night shouldn't give you any reason to be excited about Kanters defense.

 

[Sexual Favors]

Kanter can play really good team defense?

I guess "can" is a hypothetical word, but so far he hasn't shown the ability to consistently make simple rotations. Last night was a step in the right direction. Had about 3 quarters of decent defense before fatigue set in and he fell apart.

His man defense is surprisingly weak for someone who is suppose to be strong.

Kanter is far and away the worst defender on the team, not even really a question TBH.

100% disagree that he is the worst. I think people notice it more because.it happens around rim. He is faced with harder decisions than everyone but Favors or Gobert because of position he plays. Gobert has length, but isn't a good rotator yet.

Kanter needs Favors. There games need to be given the time to grow together. Don't misunderstand me and think I'm saying Kanter can do what Favors does. But Favors can't do what Kanter does. For the last 6 or so games Kanter has been playing good team defense. When Favors comes back, they should start together to figure out the chemistry.

 

[sgjazzfan]

Kanter's best games look like Al Jefferson's mediocre-good games. 25 points on 25 shots, 3 blocks against, no free throws...

Kanter has been four years hope in one hand, **** in another.

But the jazz don't have to run their entire offense through Kanter, and it isn't a black hole when you pass it in to him.

 

[Sexual Favors]

But he was playing against such offensive juggernaut Post men in Robin Lopez, Thomas Robinson and Victor Claver (averaging 15 points combined on the season). Portland is missing 3 of their top 4 big men. I won't give Kanter too much credit for his "defense" last night. I'm with you, last night shouldn't give you any reason to be excited about Kanters defense.

He rotated a lot last night. Doesn't matter that portland's bigs weren't offensively special last night, Kanter was rotating (like he has been for past 6 or so games), and contesting driving guards and going vertical. Other players need to learn to help the helper. End of story.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

100% disagree that he is the worst. I think people notice it more because.it happens around rim. He is faced with harder decisions than everyone but Favors or Gobert because of position he plays. Gobert has length, but isn't a good rotator yet.

Kanter needs Favors. There games need to be given the time to grow together. Don't misunderstand me and think I'm saying Kanter can do what Favors does. But Favors can't do what Kanter does. For the last 6 or so games Kanter has been playing good team defense. When Favors comes back, they should start together to figure out the chemistry.

Who is worse at defense than Kanter? Only argument I see would be Burke.

I don't know why you are blind to it though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGv0E8H_85I

 

[Twin Towers]

I love how we blame Kanter for the lack of coaching.

Kanter's athletic ability and mobility is not better or worse than Zach Randolph and David West.
Those teams play big. The fact is Corbin has no idea how to run a team with 2 bigs on offense or defense.
Kanter to be successful long term needs to play next to a long player like Gobert and Favors.
Kanter is a PF!!!!!!! He can punish them in the paint and is longer than most power forwards. Is he slower than most PF's? yes but so is David West and Zach Randolph. They are rigid players but when they have a LONG C behind them to help them it makes up for their lack of length and mobility.
We need a real coach so Kanter can focus on being a PF ONLY. So he can slim down and only worry about his quickness and mobility.
P3 needs to work with him all summer. But even if he can't he is still an above average big man in the league. Just needs Favors on the court with him. But instead we will blame Kanter for floor spacing............. No its Corbin's fault.
If the Spurs, Grizzlies, and Pacers can all get in the top 4 of the playoffs with a very similar front court than the Jazz can once we get a REAL coach and not a jr high coach.

Put David West and Zach Randolph at C and teams would tear apart the defense easily. Kanter is no different. Don't blame Kanter for Corbin's lack of ability to play to the players strengths.

 

[Sexual Favors]

Who is worse at defense than Kanter? Only argument I see would be Burke.

I don't know why you are blind to it though.

Burke. Burks is off and on. RJ is really bad some nights at letting people leak.

Hayward is good at not letting people leak, but is notorious for not rotating to help the helper when someone else has been burnt on the perimieter and he's the closest to the big.

Marvin is constantly overmatched by PF's (thus making interior D harder on Kanter when he starts).

Gobert doesn't rotate. He has great length and can intimidate, but as far as know how, he has a pretty low IQ.

Garrett lets people leak constantly.

Lucas is ludicrous.

Kanter is a bad man to man defender, but in a team setting, we are all really bad, which makes it a lot harder on the bigs. Kanter has shown improvement with his man to man defense, and his rotations. I am not, nor have I ever made the argument that Kanter is a defensive beast, but rather am saying he isn't as big of a liability as people make him out to be. The team needs to get better at playing team defense. We get by when we have Favors because Favors is what Favors does. Kanter has gotten to a point that he can start, and have his deficiencies hidden fairly easily if A. He got to player with Favors and learn the chemistry together, and B. if when Kanter rotated to challenge someone from the perimeter who leaked, someone else rotated to grab the man that is inevitably left open, and so on. The team as a whole needs better awareness/peripheral vision.