Enes Kanter has a day left to decide whether to pick up his player option with the New York Knicks and stay in the Big Apple for at least one more season. But if there’s one thing that can be gleaned from this now-deleted tweet from Kanter, it’s that he could be headed to the Milwaukee Bucks.
There are no reports yet indicating that Kanter is closing on a deal with the Bucks. Moreover, it was just reported on Wednesday by Ian Begley of ESPN that Enes Kanter is “leaning heavily toward” staying in Manhattan, which makes Kanter’s tweet as confusing as it is intriguing.
The Bucks’ center position is bannered by John Henson, Tyler Zeller, and Thon Maker. Should Milwaukee acquire Kanter, the Turkish big man could provide a stable source of inside scoring and rebounds as the likely starting center for the Bucks, who were last in the league last season with only 14.9 points coaxed from their centers per game.
Last season, Kanter averaged 14.1 points and tied his career-high in rebounds with 11.0 in 71 games for the Knicks. He shot an efficient 49.6 percent from the floor, though, he made only 66.7 percent of his shots from the charity stripe.
If Kanter ultimately opts in with the Knicks, he’ll earn $18.6 million next season before becoming an unrestricted free agent in next year’s summer.