Enes Kanter's Blazers Offer Sheet Matched by Thunder: Latest Details, Reaction

The Oklahoma City Thunder decided to match Enes Kanter's offer sheet, signing the 23-year-old big man to a four-year, $70 million deal, per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. NBA.com's David Aldridge first reported the news.

Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti issued the following statement on Kanter, per NBA.com: 

"

We traded for Enes last season with the intention of keeping him as a member of the Thunder for several years to come, and we are excited that he will continue with us. He adds valuable depth to our roster, diversity to our frontcourt and the dimension that he brings offensively will positively impact our team.

"

Kanter tweeted out emojis to declare he would be back in Oklahoma City: 

The Portland Trail Blazers put the Thunder in a tough spot when they decided to throw a max offer sheet Kanter's way last Thursday. Either Oklahoma City let Kanter walk and risked him thriving in Portland, or it added Kanter to what is already a high-priced frontcourt.

Before the Utah Jazz traded Kanter to OKC in February, the former third overall draft pick was mostly thought of as a skilled center who had yet to reach his potential. In 265 career regular-season games for the Jazz, Kanter averaged 9.3 points and 5.9 rebounds a game, which aren't exactly extraordinary numbers.

Before he returned to Salt Lake City as a member of the Thunder, Kanter had some less than positive things to say about the Jazz organization, per Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune: "I don't want to make no comments on them. But right after I went to OKC, I was like, 'Oh man, this is how an NBA team is.'"

After the Jazz won 94-89, Trevor Booker, one of Kanter's former teammates in Utah, responded in kind, per the Salt Lake Tribune's Tony Jones:

Whatever Kanter's issues were with his former team, he seemed to relish the chance to play with the Thunder. He averaged 18.7 points and 11.0 boards a game in 31.1 minutes a night after the trade. According to Basketball-Reference.com, his 24.9 player efficiency rating was third-highest on the team—albeit in a very small sample size.

Both CBS Sports' Sam Vecenie and SB Nation's Mike Prada argued the Thunder were smart to keep Kanter as the franchise eyes an NBA title next year:

This move isn't without plenty of vocal detractors, though.

USA Today's Dan Wolken presented what is one of the bigger critiques of this signing:

On one hand, it seems odd the Thunder felt James Harden was too expensive for their tastes years ago, while paying $70 million to Kanter is acceptable.

On the other hand, the salary cap for the 2012-13 season was a little over $58 million. Going into next year, the cap will be $70 million, and the projections put it at $89 million in 2016-17 and then eclipsing $100 million in 2017-18.

The Thunder have a lot more money to throw around now. ESPN.com's Royce Young looked ahead to the financial implications of Kanter's max deal for 2016-17:

Simply put, you can't compare the Thunder's failure to re-sign Harden to Kanter's deal because the financial climates in both the NBA and Oklahoma City have radically changed.

A much fairer line of criticism is whether spending $17.5 million a year on a player who has offered little to no value on the defensive end make sense.

As much as Kanter did offensively during his short time with the Thunder, Oklahoma City still had a minus-0.7 net rating with him on the court, per NBA.com. With Kanter on the bench, the Thunder had a plus-2.9 net rating and allowed 7.1 fewer points per 100 possessions.

It's not as if those numbers represented an outlier in Kanter's career. Here's a look at his on/off numbers with the Jazz since his arrival in the league in 2011, courtesy of NBA.com:

Season	G	MIN	OFF Rating/Kanter On	DEF Rating/Kanter On	OFF Rating/Kanter Off	DEF Rating/Kanter Off
2011-12	66	874	94.9	103.1	107.0	103.7
2012-13	70	1078	102.1	98.4	104.2	106.6
2013-14	80	2138	99.2	112.0	102.3	105.7
2014-15	49	1326	104.2	108.0	101.7	99.1

Thunder fans will hope this tweet from CBS Sports' Matt Moore doesn't prove prophetic:

"

Now that I think about it… Bargnani honestly is the best Kanter comp.

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) July 12, 2015"

The other concern for Oklahoma City is fitting Kanter into a frontcourt that includes Steven Adams, Serge Ibaka and a healthy Mitch McGary.

Presumably the Thunder will play Kanter heavily after giving him this much money, which could mean taking playing time away from one or both of Adams, who's a better defender than Kanter and still only 21 years old, and McGary, who hasn't really had a chance to prove himself after missing so much time last year.

You can also throw Nick Collison in the frontcourt mix after he re-upped with the Thunder last February, which further muddies the waters.

There's no question this is a massive gamble for the Thunder, who are already taking a leap of faith by entrusting Billy Donovan with a team built to win the Western Conference right now.

The success or failure of re-signing Kanter could have far-reaching consequences that affect the franchise for years to come.