Friday Bolts – 7.10.15

Tom Ley of Deadspin: “So, the Thunder can overpay a dreadful defensive center with a max contract and dump a handful of players—including their only competent backup point guard—in order to avoid paying a huge tax, or let Kanter walk and get called out for being cheap by angry fans.”

Zach Lowe of Grantland from yesterday: “If you want more drama, you should root for Dallas to hit Enes Kanter with a max offer sheet. The Thunder are only $2 million below the tax, so matching a max contract would cost them the equivalent of almost $40 million. Only three teams have the room to offer Kanter north of $15 million: Philly, Portland, and Dallas. The first two don’t seem interested — both have a ton of bigs already — and Dallas couldn’t survive defensively playing Kanter and Nowitzki together. The Thunder may be ready to dig in with Kanter, as the Suns did with Eric Bledsoe’s restricted free agency a year ago. Every bit of savings matters. The Thunder could lighten the load by dealing D.J. Augustin, Steve Novak, and Perry Jones III, and you can bet the remaining teams with some cap room are watching.”

I wrote about the Enes Kanter situation here, which includes (hopefully) some clarity on why they’re giving him max money, but wouldn’t do it for James Harden.

Here’s another thought I had that didn’t fit into that: Kanter will probably be the Thunder’s sixth man (I’m pretty confident in this), which means all the cries about his defense are a little misguided. How often were people griping about Jamal Crawford’s defense when he was providing the Clippers a scoring punch off the bench for 25 minutes a game?

Tim Bontemps of the NY Post: “That situation turned out to be the chance to coach Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka with the Thunder — one of the four or five teams that will enter next season with a legitimate shot at winning the NBA title. But it wasn’t just the obvious reason — that the Thunder possess a loaded roster — that convinced Donovan. It was that when Donovan sat down with Thunder general manager and longtime friend Sam Presti to discuss the job, he felt the same kind of connection he did with Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley.”

A podcast “This American Life” style on the KD8s.

Anthony Slater: “That, of course, can be sliced if the Thunder sheds a few contracts. OKC has reportedly been shopping both Perry Jones and Steve Novak since before the draft. Combined, those two are making $5.78 million next season. Erasing that would erode the tax bill down to a far more manageable $11.14 million. But then there’s the Josh Huestis equation and whether the Thunder wants to make good with its 2014 first round selection and hand him a roster spot. Or whether OKC is willing to ship away some more coveted pieces, like backup point guard D.J. Augustin (should Cameron Payne pan out) or Dion Waiters, who is making $5.1 million in the final year of his rookie deal. But a decision on Kanter must first be made. Do the Thunder match? We’ll know in the next 72 hours.”

Berry Tramel: “Everyone’s excited about the Spurs, and I don’t blame them. But Golden State just won the NBA and went 83-20, counting the playoffs. That’s the third-most wins in NBA history, behind the 1996 Bulls (87) and the 1997 Bulls (84). And the Warriors kept their team together. But the Spurs do have Aldridge, an offensive dynamo and a solid big man in other aspects of the game. The Grizzlies kept Marc Gasol and don’t seem to be included to stop gritting and grinding anytime soon. The Rockets grew up a ton in the 2015 playoffs. The Clippers rose from the grave Wednesday night when Jordan boomeranged back to LA. That’s a gauntlet to survive the West. Finish third, which a team like the Thunder could do even with 61 or 62 wins, and you might have to beat, say, the Clippers, the Spurs and the Warriors in succession. Or the Grizzlies, the Rockets and the Spurs. Whoever.”