Enes Kanter acquitted himself better than expected after signing with the Portland Trail Blazers in February. Due to his incumbent team's limited financial flexibility, though, the veteran big man is reportedly keeping his options open in free agency, and poised to garner early interest from two of the league's glamor franchises.
According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Kanter will be courted by the Trail Blazers, Boston Celtics, and Los Angeles Lakers when free agency officially begins on June 30.
Free agent center Enes Kanter is expected to receive interest from the Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics on June 30, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 26, 2019
Kanter signed with the Blazers in February after he was yanked from the New York Knicks' playing rotation one month earlier as coach David Fizdale fully embraced a youth movement. Planned as a backup to starting center Jusuf Nurkic, enjoying a breakout campaign, Kanter ultimately ended up starting 22 games for Portland last season, including 14 of the team's 16 playoffs games, after Nurkic suffered a devastating broken leg in late March.
Kanter averaged 11.4 points and 9.7 rebounds in 28.8 minutes per game for the Blazers in the postseason, shooting 51.4 percent from the field. Long known for his exploitability on defense, he fared better than anticipated on that end of the floor against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets before his role was reduced in the Western Conference Finals versus the Golden State Warriors to account for the presence of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
Portland could certainly use Kanter as it waits for Nurkic to regain full health, but is limited to using all or a portion of the $9.2 million mid-level exception to sign him. The Celtics and Lakers, by contrast, could offer Kanter more money, but it's unclear if either team would be willing to use such a significant chunk of its cap space to pay him market value.