I guess Oladipo and his .424 TS%, -5.9 BPM and -0.2 was unplayable as well, since OKC ditched him and Sabonis for Paul George, who made such a difference in the playoffs with his -0.6 DBPM! And in a stroke of brilliance, they replaced the unplayable Kanter with defensive superstar and playoff-hardened veteran Carmelo Anthony!

Presti and Donovan. Sheesh!

Yeah Kanter is bad on defense but it is weird that so much of that reputation is based on a single playoff series against arguably the greatest team of all time.

That playoff series is when his deficiencies became apparent to the fans. It was and still is already well known around the league.

The implications: stats are fake and coaches know everything. Wrong on both counts.

The implication is that some stats are BAD.
The implication is that good coaches more than the box score, plus/minus, and most fans.

You need stats to create an inventory of a player’s skills (on offense and defense).

You need stats to determine how effective a player has been at using his skills.

You need stats to determine what a player’s role has been on his team (on offense and defense) and whether he has been used effectively.

There is a good correlation between a player’s actual ability and the boxscore metrics and plus/minus fans favor. They aren’t optimal because they don’t measure all the nuances and subtleties that impact them.

What could be more obvious than a coach and most fans observing that Kanter was getting killed guarding the P&R and then making the decision to try to play him only when the opposition had a unit on the court that couldn’t take advantage of his deficiencies?

If you are smart enough to do that (as Donovan was), you can even get a positive contribution out of the player. Of course the boxscore/plus minus will make it look like Kanter was playing great and should have been given more minutes, but the reality is that was put on the court when he was capable of being a net positive and held off when he would have been a defensive disaster and net negative.

JK47, Ever heard the expression that styles make fights. NBA will frown upon but someone needs to take it to the old school during a playoff series.

Well, you’re correct that the NBA would likely frown upon a 4-0 playoff series with every game being decided by 35+ points. So you have that going for you, which is nice.

The problem is that he doesn’t really belong in a playoff rotation for a great team at all. It’s hard to imagine any contender will feel like he’s an upgrade.

See, I continue to think this goes too far. If Klay Thompson doesn’t go absolutely nuclear in game 6 of the 2016 WCFs, there’s a very good chance OKC wins the NBA championship with Kanter playing 21 MPG and playing all 82 games (18 MPG in the playoffs). I’m simply unconvinced he was entirely detrimental to that team.

I’m not holding out hope for a first rounder, but here are some big men receiving rotation minutes on teams who want to be good this season:
Brook Lopez
Marcin Gortat
Jarrell Martin
Ivica Zubac, presumably
Once a Knick, Always a Knick Jason Smith

I may have missed a few, but I’m also sure you could make an argument that some of these guys are more deserving of minutes than Kanter. I’m just saying if a team is truly wedded to the idea of winning the most games possible this year, a second rounder or two for Enes Kanter seems like potentially good value. Especially considering how tough it can be to upgrade at the margins once a team reaches a certain threshold.