Portland Trail Blazers: Enes Kanter has Performed Well as a Starter

Since Jusuf Nurkic went down with injury, the Portland Trail Blazers placed Enes Kanter into his role.

When catastrophe hit the Portland Trail Blazers in the form of a compound fracture to starting center’s Jusuf Nurkic, the club was forced to shift their rotation. Enes Kanter has slotted into a starters role over the last three games and performed admirably. In fact, he has been better than expected.

Kanter is averaging 15.7 points and 9.7 boards with a plus-minus of +9.7 over this short stretch. Of course, it would be irresponsible to not provide some context. Two of those three games came against the bottom-feeding Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks, while the third was against the Detroit Pistons without Blake Griffin.

Still, the Turkish native has been a force in the post offensively and a stalwart on the glass both ways.

Against the Pistons particularly, who boast the league’s leading rebounder in a physical Andre Drummond, Kanter held his own and snagged 14 boards – including this tough offensive board which led to two of his 20 points in the contest:

There were also moments in this Saturday night game where Kanter looked effective at his most criticized skill – defense. At one point, Reggie Jackson targeted him in the pick-and-roll and Kanter faked to the diving man only to contest the guard’s floater for a miss. Though this is just one positive moment in a slew of examples of his getting lost in this type of coverage, this type of proficiency was promising. He ended the night with two steals.

As of now though, more than anything, Kanter appears placed into the starting role for his offensive ability. Without CJ McCollum on this road trip or Nurkic for the rest of the year, the Blazers are without their second and third leading scorers. Kanter, fourth on the team in points (11.3), has been thrust into a de factor second-option role alongside superstar Damian Lillard.

For right now, it is working well. The Blazers smacked the two teams they should beat. And although they lost to Detroit, it was the second night of a back-to-back and Kanter led a Blazers’ team who couldn’t buy a shot in points for most of the game, until Lillard began taking over.

Questions will arise once McCollum comes back. He will surely slot into that co-star role. There may not be enough touches for all three of them on the court to make Kanter as effective, especially if his defense returns to normal form. Kanter must score to make up for the points he is giving up on the other end.

But for now, Kanter is making a case for the club to ride him as the starting center all the way into the postseason.