NBA Player Profile: Enes Kanter

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Known for his vast array of post moves, both inside and out, and for his soft touch around the basket, Oklahoma City center/power forward Enes Kanter's road to the NBA was an unconventional one. Just as he was preparing for his freshman season at the University of Kentucky in November of 2010, he was declared permanently ineligible by the NCAA for receiving excess benefits from a club he played for in his native homeland of Turkey two seasons prior, and Kanter would sit out the entire 2010-11 season.

The following summer, Kanter was drafted 3rd overall by the Utah Jazz. One problem: He would have to play behind established big men Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson. Kanter would see his minutes increase ever so slightly in his second season, and he put up solid numbers in a backup role. He averaged 7.2 points and 4.3 rebounds in just over 15 minutes per game, but the Jazz would miss out on the playoffs in the final week of the season. With the free agent departures of Millsap and Jefferson in 2013, Kanter became Utah's starting center for the 2013-14 season, and he responded with a breakout season, averaging 12.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.

Despite his individual success, Kanter was seen as a defensive liability and a black hole on offense, and the Jazz won only 25 games that season. With his rookie contract set to expire in 2015 and with fellow young big man Rudy Gobert waiting in the wings, the Jazz traded Kanter to Oklahoma City at the 2015 trade deadline. in 26 games to close the 2015 season, Kanter filled in for an injured Kevin Durant and averaged 18.7 points and 11.0 rebounds per game, earning himself a juicy four year contract worth $70 million.

Kanter would proceed to play a prominent bench role in Thunder's run to the conference finals in 2016. This season, his per-minute rates were outstanding, as he's averaged 24.3 points and 11.3 rebounds per 36. He is at his best coming off the bench and in big lineups sharing the paint with fellow big Steven Adams. When the Thunder visited the United Center and Jan. 9 (see video above), Kanter produced a 20-point, 11-rebound night on perhaps the NBA's biggest stage, as Chicago has led the league in attendance for years, and his performance was instrumental in OKC's trashing of the Bulls that night.

In an interesting if not dark tidbit in Kanter's personal life, his parent had publicly disowned him in 2016 for his support of a Pennsylvania-based religious leader that was said to have been part of a coup that had attempted to overthrow Turkey's president, Tayyip Erdogen. Said Kanter's father: "With a feeling of shame I apologize to our president and the Turkish people for having such a son."

Kanter is the type of player that chirps a lot and has a tendency to rub people the wrong way, but personally, I love his presence on the basketball court. He's not going to just back down down when superstar players talk shit to he or his teammates (looking at you, Kevin Durant), for Kanter has been through much greater trials and tribulations in his lifetime.