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NBA Playbook: First Impressions of Enes Kanter

My favorite part was the Bad Screens section. Kanter had me laughing pretty hard on his pathetic attempts to set screens, especially the off-ball ones.
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All in all it was a pretty balanced assessment.

Agreed. I enjoy how fair the criticisms were, didnt smell a hint of bias in the article at all. I just want to see the guy play more games, and I seriously hope he gets some serious burn in the Eurobasket later this month. Either that, or the lockout ends soon.
 
But wait???

Hold the phone!

I thought after watching maybe a combined 20 minutes of Kanter and maybe 10 total shots, that we had declared him a bust! Guys, why all of a sudden are we flip flopping? Make up your minds!

Yesterday, it was declared that he was a bust and the next Darko. Now all of a sudden he isn't?

Stop being rational!
 
I wonder who the guy who posted below the Article who called himself "Fire KOC" is on our board....... HMmmm...
 
Yeah, a lot players coming out of college or just entering the pros don't know how to pass out of double teams effectively because they're either used to playing against zone defenses or sets that don't use post-ups very effectively. It takes some time to do that well. Al Jefferson is still learning to pass out of the post in his mid-twenties.
 
My assessment:

Vid 1: this was Kanter's best play in the preliminary games - a post up, spin to baseline move with a fallaway jumper. It should work nicely against larger defenders in the NBA.
Vid 2: here we see Kanter doing his patented "bull" rush where he puts his head and shoulder down and tries to create some separation with his post defender. This move that will not work against the majority of NBA centers because he doesn't have the size advantage anymore. He needs to modify it by going up with one a one hand shot rather than straight up with two or it will get consistently blocked.
Vid 3: probably Kanter's worse play as he lethargically rolls across the lane 10' away from the basket. He makes no contact with the defender and fades away, thus making it easy for the defender to close the gap and block it. He needs to never do this again.
Vid 4: not much to say here, all young big men are horrible at setting screens. Especially when in a new system.
Vid 5: Kanter's post D was better than expected. He showed quick hands and good anticipation of what his opponent wanted to do. Given Fesenko's 30 lb weight advantage he held his ground pretty well.
Vid 6: Obviously Kanter struggled on pick and rolls switches. He needs to beat the guards to the middle of the floor and concede the jumper.
 
After these 3 games my opinion is,

His defense is much better than i expected and it will improve more once he get used to a certain game plan and play more with same teammates.

His offense wont be effective as early as i thought it would be. Not only game practise but he also should focus on certain points of his offense in individual trainings.

I believe that if we had Sloan now, Kanter would be getting probably 5-10 mins per game for his rookie year. But with Ty Corbine he will get much more mins and as he plays more games, he will get his confidence and wont make most of the mistakes we saw in the tournament due to his impatiency. I believe in 2-3 yrs everyone will realize how much better he is than Boozer and Big Al overall.
 
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