When the dust settled and most of the big free agents were signed, there were two interesting forwards that had yet to agree to any new deals with their respective teams.
Tristan Thompson and Enes Kanter were both restricted free agents going into the summer and were two of the most intriguing guys that could have warranted a close-to-max deal. Thompson more than Kanter, for one reason or another.
While Thompson has been back and forth with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a new deal and has yet to agree to any kind of contract with any other team, Kanter played the field and tested the commitment of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
He agreed to a $70 million contract offer sheet from the Portland Trail Blazers but the Oklahoma City Thunder were allowed to match the Blazers offer, something Thunder GM Sam Presti immediately made a priority.
For a long time, Kanter’s weakness has been his defense and going forward with him on the roster wasn’t exactly necessary to the Thunder’s success. His scoring could easily be replaced by a healthy Kevin Durant and it would allow the Thunder to have a solid four big man rotation with Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, Nick Collison and Mitch McGary with KD sprinkling in to play power forward here and there.
The Thunder obviously felt that for whatever reason, they couldn’t do without Kanter so they matched the Blazers offer to Kanter.
Many people looked at this move by the Blazers to be essentially them trolling the Thunder by forcing their hand and making them choose to give Kanter the big money. The Blazers didn’t feel that way.
Following from Blazers GM Neil Olshey on Zach Lowe’s podcast ‘The Lowe Post’.
Lowe- So you made an ultimate troll move with the Thunder by signing Enes Kanter to a max offer sheet, which I loved as just a fan of entertainment in general. The question is, why are you not doing that with Tristan Thompson?
Olshey- I can’t talk about free agents. We targeted certain players, we pursued certain players. That wasn’t the case… I know what a troll move is.
Lowe- I’m just using what the kids say. I assume you wanted Enes Kanter on your team?
Olshey- We did, we absolutely did. We pursued him and this isn’t the first time we went down the road of restricted free agency for a starting center. Maybe we won the recruiting battle but lost the war in terms of adding him to our roster and how that situation played out.
This obviously wasn’t a ‘troll move’ by the Blazers in any shape or form. Bringing Kanter in as a good scoring option in the post to compliment Damian Lillard would be a great move for the offense. The defense needs some work but that’s alright for a team not expected to make the playoffs next season, they have time to grow.
Also, if it was a ‘troll move’, they would’ve trolled themselves to Tristan Thompson and made an offer to the Cavs big man. There has been no movement on the Thompson camp as of yet and there are even threats about Thompson leaving Cleveland if things don’t go his way.
Portland is just trying to do the moves they deem appropriate to try and still be a respectable team in the NBA next year. They won’t be making the playoffs in the Western Conference but they also shouldn’t be bottom feeding in the conference.
