In the end, Oklahoma City didn’t have a choice.
If they didn’t match Portland’s four-year, $70 million offer sheet for Enes Kanter they would essentially be telling Kevin Durant “we aren’t willing to go into the luxury tax to get you closer to a title,” which would be a foolish with KD becoming a free agent next summer.
No team may have ever been in a more win-now place than OKC this year.
So the Thunder have matched the offer sheet and will keep Kanter, something first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo Sports.Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti informed Portland of his decision to retain Kanter on Sunday night, league sources told Yahoo. Enes’ deal includes a player option on the fourth year and a 15 percent trade kicker bonus....
Oklahoma City feels immense pressure to show star Kevin Durant a strong commitment to winning in the final year of his contract, and Kanter is an important part of the Thunder’s nucleus. The possibility of losing a young player of Kanter’s talent for no assets was extremely remote for the Thunder. Presti had planned his payroll and roster for the possibility of a maximum offer sheet, sources said.
The team has since confirmed it.
“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,” said Thunder GM Sam Presti in a statement. “He adds valuable depth to our roster, diversity to our frontcourt and the dimension that he brings offensively will positively impact our team.”
Marc Stein of ESPN breaks down the numbers.
Matching on Kanter takes OKC to 15 guaranteed contracts and moves 'em $13+ mil over the luxury-tax line. Tax bill would thus be nearly $25M
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 13, 2015
What matters most to OKC is that, even w/Kanter match, they're not projected to be tax team two seasons in a row, dodging repeater penalties
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 13, 2015
Even if Durant re-signs for the max, the Thunder will be under the tax line in 2016-17.
The Thunder need Kanter to bring them some offense in the paint and a five who can help space the floor and create driving lanes for Russell Westbrook and Durant (Oklahoma City’s offense was 3.5 points per 100 better when he was on the court for them last season). The Thunder have Serge Ibaka as their starting four with Nick Collison behind him. At the five there would be Kanter and Steven Adams in rotation — they can play for offense or defense — plus they have Mitch McGary behind them. That’s a quality rotation.
We need to note Kanter is a defensive liability — OKC’s defense was 6.5 points per 100 possessions worse when he was on the floor than when he was sitting. And they still had a terrible defensive rating of 107.5 per 100 when Kanter and Ibaka were paired.
But this was the only move the Thunder could make.