First Impressions: Enes Kanter
While EuroBasket, and their preparation games, allow us to see NBA players in action, it also gives us first looks at a few interesting players. Perhaps the most interesting of them all is Enes Kanter, the third overall pick in this year’s draft. His Turkish team started their preparation schedule on Thursday, playing three games in three days (against Ukraine, Germany, and Serbia), giving us our first look at Kanter in about a year (the last look we got at Kanter came from a great post at Draft Express, using little-seen tape from 2009 and August of 2010).
Using tape of Kanter’s performance over the weekend (yes, I know, only three games), we can now look at how Kanter’s game has progressed during a year where he hasn’t played any live games.
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On a team that features quite a few NBA players, the 19 year old Kanter obviously won’t be one of Turkey’s main options. Even in his limited post opportunities, you could see Kanter’s smooth touch around the basket and his ability to make moves on the block when facing a straight man defense:
This is a NBA player, and actually current teammate in Kyrylo Fesenko, that Kanter made this move against, and it is a sweet move. Kanter does a great job of getting to a spot he wants on the court, spinning off of Fesenko, creating separation, and using his touch to hit the basket.
However, Kanter does run into some problems in the post. Unlike some of the best post players in the NBA, who anticipate doubles and uses that against the defense by kicking it out, Kanter always seems to have scoring on his mind when he makes the catch on the block. That’s a good thing when a double doesn’t come, but when it does, that can lead to problems:
