Friday Bolts – 2.20.15
Rob Mahoney of SI.com: “Three cheers for mutual satisfaction. Every team involved in this transaction made out with a reasonable, practical address of its immediate needs. Detroit landed a starting point guard prospect worth its time and, if the price is right, its long-term investment. Oklahoma City managed three rotation players from an unhappy one. Jackson is better on balance than any of those three acquired, though stylistically the Thunder find better fit and balance in their newcomers. Utah worked the phones against a ticking clock to accommodate Kanter’s trade demands and made out with a pair of draft picks to show for it. Other teams pressed into similar deadlines have had no such luck.”
Sam Amick of USA Today: “Kanter could turn out to be a classic Thunder story, as the fourth-year center — like Jackson — was desperate to go to a new team and now finds himself with an organization that is widely-lauded for its player development. Despite sharing time with Rudy Gobert, Derrick Favors and Trevor Booker, Kanter averaged 13.8 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Jazz this season. His skill-set should complement Adams, as he is far more offensive-minded than the New Zealander whose defense-first mentality and never-ending edge have become such a big part of what the Thunder do. Adams is currently recovering from a broken hand, but is expected to return in late February or early March.”
Kevin Pelton gave the Thunder a “D” for the Enes Kanter deal: “The much-maligned Perkins has actually had positive impact in plus-minus terms this season; his plus-3.7 net rating per 100 possessions while on the court is best of Oklahoma City’s reserves, per NBA.com/Stats. So despite the wide gulf between their individual statistics, ESPN’s real plus-minus says swapping Perkins for Kanter is a substantial downgrade for the Thunder. Augustin gives Oklahoma City a replacement for Jackson, and their box-score stats are fairly similar this year. Again, though, RPM gives the edge to the player the Thunder traded because Augustin is a defensive liability due to his small stature. That leaves Singler, a 40 percent 3-point shooter with more size than current Oklahoma City shooting specialist Anthony Morrow, as the only unequivocal upgrade. Kanter has been dominating the paint recently, and playing alongside Serge Ibaka is the best possible fit for a player who neither protects the rim nor stretches the floor. And Augustin will play a relatively small role, with some of Jackson’s minutes going to Dion Waiters, for better or worse. So I don’t think the Thunder have downgraded going forward. This just doesn’t look like enough of a win to justify giving up a first-round pick, especially for a team that already traded a first-round pick last month.”
Thunder players don’t seem to be having much issue moving on from Reggie Jackson.
Berry Tramel on the Thunder losing Kendrick Perkins: “Which means cold winter nights and spring playoff series trying to stop Memphis’ mammoths and Lob City and LaMarcus Aldridge and Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard. Perkins was up to the challenge. You reach the Western Conference by beanstalk. It’s not for the faint of heart. Of course, that label never has landed on Adams, the Thunder’s second-year New Zealander. But with Kanter, a slick-offense/no-defense center, headed to town, Adams’ mission goes into overdrive. He has to be the Thunder’s defensive anchor. The giant in the middle who can bully foes’ big men and slow pick-and-rolls.”
Kyle Wagner of Deadspin: “Oh look, the Thunder have a new, even more anonymous Nick Collison. Somewhat less depressing than the Brook Lopez alternative, I guess. Dispassionate Thunder observers will be thankful to be rid of the horrifying Perk shifts at the end of close games, but they’ll also have to deal with a whole lot more Dion Waiters now, too, so it’s kind of a wash on that front.”
Reggie Jackson was apparently happy to be traded.
Pelton gave the Thunder a “B” for the Ish Smith deal though: “So why would the Thunder pay the Pelicans to take Smith? Because if they waived Smith, he would count against them in terms of luxury-tax calculations. This way, Oklahoma City saves that amount, equivalent to 1.5 times Smith’s salary this season — a little less than $1.3 million.”
James Herbert of CBSSports.com gave OKC a “A” for the Kanter deal: “In Jackson, the Thunder lost a productive player they’d developed nicely since selecting him No. 24 overall in 2011. They didn’t have a lot of leverage here, though, and you have to applaud general manager Sam Presti for improving his bench.”
Kurt Helin of PBT: “Oklahoma City should now be the favorite to win the West. The lowest seed to win the NBA title was the Houston Rockets as the six seed (the only eight seed to make the NBA Finals was the 1999 Knicks). The Thunder may rewrite that history. Oklahoma City was a potential contender before Thursday — healthy again this was the same team that made the conference finals last season and, once Serge Ibaka returned, gave San Antonio all it could handle. But they won the trade deadline Thursday adding Enes Kanter, D.J. Augustin, and Steve Novak. They now have a bench they can trust in the playoffs, something they have lacked since James Harden left. If you had any question how good the Thunder are you could see it Thursday night as they jumped on a good Dallas team early and never let up. The one concern with OKC is health — Kevin Durant‘s surgically-repaired foot was clearly bothering him Thursday night. The West remains loaded and to count out Golden State, Memphis, San Antonio, or a few other teams is a mistake. But right now, I’d bet on OKC.”
Kelly Dwyer of BDL gives the Thunder an “A”: “Kanter never quite fit in with the Jazz, so our initial optimistic take as to his role with the Thunder may surprise you. At the worst, the big man will fit in far better than the lumbering Brook Lopez (who was available from Brooklyn all Thursday) would have with OKC. Even if the Thunder play chicken with the luxury tax yet again this summer and Kanter signs elsewhere as a restricted free agent, this is a move you make. It’s time to win this thing. Adding shooters in Singler and Novak, and one of the league’s top reserve point guards in Augustin on top of that? This won’t guarantee a championship — the Thunder will probably still have to play the Golden State Warriors in the first round — but this was quite the haul for the Thunder.”
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “Two other factors sealed the deal. First, by committing to stay in the tax when they re-sign Kanter, the Thunder are banking on some relief from the influx of new TV revenues. If the money is “smoothed” into the system, as the NBA has proposed, it would minimize the financial impact over a two-year period. If not, the Thunder would be looking at a significant tax bill next season but then potentially could be under the tax in 2016-17 while still having all their needs filled. The second factor is the escalating value of first-round picks in trades; the Thunder are taking advantage of that market on both sides. While some teams value future first-round picks so highly that they’re willing to give up significant assets (or tank half the decade) to get them, the Thunder have established a pattern that other teams would do well to emulate. They’ve mastered the art of trading their own future picks, which most often would fall in the 20s, as part of trades that bring back established players who were top-five picks — and who have an NBA track record, established behavior patterns and future salary commitments they can plan for.”
Ben Alamar of ESPN told his story of how he became an analytics guy and was instrumental in OKC drafting Westbrook: “After the meeting, I flew back home to San Francisco — I worked for the team remotely — but returned to town for draft day. That first year, the Sonics’ final in Seattle, the team gave me a desk, a computer and a TV. My desk was not far from the draft room, but its door was closed. I watched the draft on TV. When the door did finally open, though, Presti came out with a big smile on his face, shook my hand and said, ‘Congratulations. You got your guy.’ I had been hammering the group for the previous two weeks with emails lobbying for Westbrook. I’ll never know whether those arguments made a difference, but it was thrilling to be on the same side as the decision that Presti made.”
