It seemed like that, when Enes Kanter got to the Blazers, they attempted to establish him as a post-scoring threat right away. Maybe it was just that first game against the Nets, but it totally felt like they wanted to make Enes Kanter post-ups a significant part of the Blazers’ bench offense. Then, in subsequent games, it wasn’t featured as much, and Kanter was just getting his points through pick-and-rolls or collecting offensive rebounds near the basket.
I’ve been wanting to unveil my new “Paturk Ewing” nickname for Kanter, but I’m not sure if the time is right. Maybe the time is righter now that Nurkic is out and Kanter is featured a bit more. But I’m also horrible at knowing anything about historical NBA players, so I don’t even know if Ewing was a good post player, or a good defender, or what. All I know is he got dunked on by Scottie Pippen that one time, so he maybe wasn’t a good defender. Or maybe he was, and the reason that everybody got hyped over that dunk was that Pippen postered a guy who was thought to be un-posterable. I don’t know.
What I do know is that I want at least five (5) dedicated Kanter post-ups per game in the playoffs. If they’re successful, up that to ten (10). Paturk Ewing should not and cannot be denied his post touches.