By Dan Ferrara, NBA International
While the NBA world is stunned by the superhuman numbers that Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook has been putting up this season, the team’s surprise resurgence extends beyond the MVP frontrunner and triple-double machine. In fact, the Thunder are proving that they’re much more than Westbrook and are a team to fear even without superstar Kevin Durant, thanks in large part to their two friendly giants in the middle.
Indeed, Steven Adams and Enes Kanter have made their friendship no secret, and they have also become one of the NBA’s most capable big man duos as well. Whether they’re seen off the court hugging each other around a tree at a Thunder Green Week event, reading to children at Read To Achieve events or playing bingo with elderly fans to celebrate the holidays, Kanter and Adams have seemingly become inseparable these days. And their off-court shenanigans have translated to on-the-court dominance, as they are showing the Thunder they were worth the $170 million investment the franchise made in the pairing.
On paper, they’re an ideal fit – Adams, from New Zealand, is a defensive-minded center who can patrol the paint with the starters while Westbrook and Oladipo mainly take care of the scoring. Then Kanter, from Turkey, can provide a much-needed scoring boost off the bench when those guards take a break. What the Thunder didn’t anticipate was the possibility of these two players becoming more like each other.
It was a gleeful scene inside the visitors locker room at Madison Square Garden after the Thunder topped the Knicks 112-103 in a late November game. Kanter scored a season-high 27 points to help lead the Thunder to victory, yet he was asked a question about Adams, who had a double-double, before anyone asked him about himself. A smile instantly broke across his face.
“Man, he’s just so willing to learn,” Kanter said of Adams. “Last year, we worked a lot during the season on his post moves and offense – the one thing about him is that he’s such a good locker room guy, he’s helping me out on defense and I’m helping him out on offense. Whenever he gets a post move on the block, I get so excited and I’m raising my hands and I’m like, ‘Yeah, he just hit the post moves we just worked on!'”
It’s that sort of chemistry between their two big men that has helped the Thunder jump out to an impressive 15-9 start to the season, good for the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. It’s also no coincidence that Adams’ scoring average has risen from 7.7-8.0-11.5 points per game in the last three seasons, or that Kanter’s defensive rating has dropped from 110.4-106.5-105 in that same time period.
As the 23-year-old Adams grows into a more complete player and Kanter’s defensive efficiency continues to rise, the Thunder will become a much more well-rounded team, one devoid of holes. And that, even with one superstar on the roster as compared to two that they were accustomed to having, will help them stay in the playoff race with the ability to do damage in the postseason.
