Enes Kanter Reportedly Signs 4-Year Offer Sheet with Trail Blazers
Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter gained interest from multiple teams this summer, but he has reportedly decided to join the Portland Trail Blazers.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported the restricted free agent is signing a four-year, $70 million max offer sheet with the Trail Blazers, who lost LaMarcus Aldridge to the Spurs this offseason. David Aldridge of NBA.com reported the deal contains an option for the final year.
On July 2, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reported Kanter also drew interest from the Knicks. The Thunder sent Kanter a qualifying offer on June 29 of $7.47 million for next season, according to Basketball Insiders' Eric Pincus.
Kanter played 26 games for the Thunder last season after the Utah Jazz traded him in a three-team deal back in February. After averaging 13.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game with Utah, Kanter recorded 18.7 points and 11.0 rebounds in Oklahoma City.
Kanter, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2011 draft, showed steady improvement with the Jazz before last year's deal to OKC. He flourished on a team that was missing its biggest star in Kevin Durant and being carried by scoring champion Russell Westbrook, who also missed 15 games.
The Thunder still managed to finish with a 45-37 record, ranking second in the Northwest Division, but they finished ninth in the Western Conference. Kanter was a significant upgrade at the center position for the Thunder compared to Steven Adams, the only other 5 listed on the roster. Now, he has big shoes to fill in the absence of Aldridge.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com.
