New Portland Trail Blazers addition Enes Kanter revealed his free agent final decision came down to two teams — the Blazers and the Los Angeles Lakers, according to Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com.
The Lakers reportedly were amongst a field of teams interested in the Turkish big man, along with others like the Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Los Angeles already has two centers vying for playing time in JaVale McGee and veteran Tyson Chandler, having traded a young Ivica Zubac to their hallway rivals, the L.A. Clippers.
Portland could only offer him a position as a reserve, but the minutes would surely be there to protect starter Jusuf Nurkic for the remaining games of the regular season.
Kanter was bought out by the New York Knicks after the franchise had opted to favor their two youngest cogs at the center position, Mitchell Robinson and Luke Kornet. Adding veteran DeAndre Jordan into that equation only extrapolated that situation, making him the odd man out of The Big Apple.
A powerful rebounder and an efficient scorer, Kanter can help a second unit that could always use the scoring punch he can provide when given ample minutes on the floor. While the Blazers won't gain much at the defensive end, his presence opens up opportunities to score inside, as well as giving them a relentless glass-pounder to create second-chance points.
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