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What Is The Enes Kanter Effect?

By Jared Barker

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At the beginning of the year our Utah Jazz sat at 11-21 sporting a 0.344 win percentage.  Some people were calling the 2014-2015 season “the tank 2.0”. As the team played through January not much changed. Going 6-9 in a given month was the norm. But then a little thing called the All-Star Break happened.  We all know just prior Enes Kanter had demanded to be traded.

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Shortly thereafter, Dennis Lindsey obliged sending the disgruntled big man to the Oklahoma City Thunder. What came next for the Jazz and for the Thunder is what I have come to call the #KanterEffect.

I don’t know if I’m the first one who coined this phrase but it doesn’t really matter. The Kanter Effect is real:

My apologies to @DarnellMayberry who didn’t get linked properly. I have to admit my favorite reaction to the Kanter trade was Amin Elhassan. In a TruehoopTV live chat when he fielded the question: “Don’t you think the Jazz should’ve gotten more for Kanter” He replied incredulously: “More for Kanter?!?!

More?” He then referred to him as a Space Cadet and said he didn’t understand what he was worth on the open market.  I asked him about the tweet above. He’s popularized the phrase: #HateHardApproved and when I asked him if that was hate hard worthy he said:

This isn’t to say that all of the team’s defensive woes were on Kanter. I think there’s much to be said about Favors perhaps playing out of position as a center and Dante Exum entering the starting lineup.

In the span following the All-Star break the Jazz have become the best defensive team in the league.  According to the Sports Illustrated weekly power rankings the Jazz are holding their opponents 18.1% shooting from behind the arch.

WHAT?!?! Rudy Gobert isn’t doing all of that by himself, good defensive guard play by Danté Exum, Paul Elijah Millsap and Joe Ingles are having a real impact. This team was near the bottom defensively not long ago as Andy Larsen highlighted after the Hornets game:

Obviously the changes in the front court were palpable let’s examine how Rudy and Enes impacted the Jazz and how their numbers line up with each other.

One could analyze the whole season but let’s face it there are a lot of losses to examine so we can just look at the differences we see with Rudy Gobert starting after the All-Star Break and with Enes Kanter getting the start and the lions share of the playing time before the break.  It doesn’t look pretty. In fact in several of the losses we see Rudy out rebound Enes.

The other key change at the point also comes into play here. This isn’t just about Rudy and Enes. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t a major factor though.

Danté Exum sports the highest net rating of any Jazzman. In fact if you’re interested in Danté’s effect on the defense check out these sweet defensive stats from NBA.com.

This topic deserves further exploration as the Thunder visit Utah this coming week. Stay tuned for more on this topic and let’s end with some excellent analysis from Ben Detrick with Grantland confirming to some degree what most suspect:

"To some degree, Utah’s recent success involves addition by subtraction. At the trade deadline, the Jazz sent starting center (and impending restricted free agent) Enes Kanter and the little-used Steve Novak to Oklahoma City in a three-team deal that brought back Kendrick Perkins (who was soon waived), Grant Jerrett, the rights to FC Barcelona’s Tibor Pleiss, a protected 2017 first-round pick, and a 2017 second-rounder.–Ben Detrick, Grantland"

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