After a season that has made the Oklahoma City Thunder a playoff team yet again after the departure of Kevin Durant, the team has many-a-stride to make in order to get back into the Western Conference's elite. Namely pairing a shot-maker and some wing help to facilitate Russell Westbrook‘s dynamic play, which the team was overly reliant on this season.
One of the pieces available to be traded by GM Sam Presti is forward/center Enes Kanter, whose value has once again held steady as a low-post scorer and rebounder, according to Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman. Tramel even goes so far as to say that “Kanter absolutely is on the trading block.”
“Will we go out and look at every opportunity? Yes, we will,” Presti said. “Because, you know, that's what we've done over the course of time. But unless somebody is willing to give us exactly what we want, for limited return or for return that we feel comfortable with, we have no alternative other than to continue to be head down, sleeves up, working to get better with this group of players.”
Kanter averaged a career-best 14.3 points and snatched 6.7 rebounds per game (2.7 offensive) through his 2016-17 campaign, making him a prime target this offseason for a team looking to add depth at his position.
While the Turkish international's numbers aren't as shiny as an All-Star line, it is his potential that really becomes his selling factor, as he played only 21.3 minutes per game during the season before having his minutes evaporate during the playoffs.
Kanter was on pace to average 33.1 points per 100 possessions during the season. The jamlog of bigs at OKC presents yet another reason to move the 6-foot-11 center this offseason.
Free agents Taj Gibson and Andre Roberson both have a 50-50 chance to return this upcoming season, per Tramel.
“We're not in a position where we're going to be a cap space team, per se,” Presti said. “We'll look at every opportunity that we can, but it's not a matter of us necessarily extending offers to people. It's basically people extending interest to us, you know what I'm saying, and then we can work from there.
“We'll make every single phone call to every single team, and the players that everyone I think probably thinks about and fantasizes about. You know, if we can make those players be here, they would probably be here by now. Otherwise, we're going to have to like kind of do our job and keep getting better and go from there.”
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