BRIGGS wrote:I just finished watching the entire Boston OKC game. Anyone who criticizes or thinks Kanter is not a maximum guy is flat wrong. He was very solid for most of the game defensively--the only point that he had trouble was when they put Olynck at C and played 4 wing players to help Boston make up margin in the 4th Q. But most of this game he looked like an all star PF solid rebounding good passing solid interior defense shot making both on the post and in the mid range. I dont see getting a much better player at all of 22. A lot of these criticisms are coming from people who go by stats and dont watch the games. If anyone watched tonight's game and says Kanter is a poor interior defender--just flat wrong. The only thing he did poorly in this game was that he was not a good match when Boston went very small down 18--they did make up margin there. Otherwise Boston has no match up for him and he played very well on both sides.
Briggs, you just started watching him. Many of us have been watching him for years, and yes, the people who dont buy into this yet are the people who have watched him and his sh1tty stats for a while.
You watch one game and from that you determine that he is a good defender? Thats a flat out joke!
We all see that his STATS and his play have been great since he went to OKC. Some of us are not ready to complete judgement on a guy based on 13 games. Its plain stupid and careless. Remember Jeremy Lin? Was he worth a max after that stretch? Of course not, he is worth 4-5 million per since those games were more of an aberration.
As we have said, we will continue to see how this plays out through the end of the season, no need to pound your chest and to make silly assertions based on watching him play (defense) for one game.
How about when/if he comes back to earth and ends up being closer to what he has been in his career? Are you gonna say that he hurt his leg and that is why he is not the same player anymore? I have seen you do that a number of times so that you are not called out for being wrong.
Stats people have no problem being wrong or jumping ship in a heartbeat if the new sample size is big enough to warrant it.
And, saying that stats people who judge him just don't watch the games is again silly. His stats are phenomenal in OKC and we don't need you to watch the games and report it to us. We can see it for ourselves.
Kanter has played 278 games in his career, judging him on 13 of them is beyond premature and careless.
Can players just turn it around and sustain that overnight? Of course they can but its extremely rare. Can he be that rarity? Lets see (and hopefully keep all this Kanter talk in one thread so that his progress will be easy to follow).
so here is what phil is thinking ....