Phoenix Suns fans love to hate him, but as this young Suns team continues through the rebuild, it is time that they one again become Tough Enough, and sign a player like Enes Kanter.
One of the Phoenix Suns’ biggest problems during the rebuild has been that they have not been tough. Toughness which they have exuded has been manufactured and phony, and too often have their young players not known how to get rough with an opponent the right way. The Suns get pushed around, they don’t know how to push back. They allow an opponent to get under their skin, but they do not know how to instigate in the same manner.
It’s good to have a methodical thug during the rebuild (as opposed to a thug who is trying to show strength by acting foolish rather than someone who’s sole intention is simply to get under the opponent’s skin). Someone that takes the pressure off of the younger players by taking some of the attention off of them – specifically those players who haven’t built up the “court cred” to really throw elbows the way the veterans do without drawing a referee’s undivided attention.
Throughout NBA history, some of the best teams have at least one of those players, sometimes more.
The Celtics and Lakers’ rosters were full of those players in the 80’s, so were the Pistons in the early 90’s starring Dennis Rodman and Bill Laimbeer. The first Chicago three-peat team didn’t really (then again, they had Michael Jordan so it didn’t really matter), but the Rockets had Kenny Smith, Mario Elie, among others who knew exactly how to get under the opponent’s skin.
The second Bulls three-peat team had Rodman, then the Lakers and San Antonio eventually each added Robert Horry who as we all know learned from Smith and Elie and became one of the dirtiest and most frustrating players in the league.
As Suns fans know, the Spurs also had Bruce Bowen.
Boston returned but this time with Kevin Garnett, then Golden State made it to the top of the mountain with Zaza Pachulia hip-checking and side-stepping players left and right.
When those players are the opponent are they dirty? Absolutely.
But when those players are on your team they are simply veteran savvy.
Enes Kanter is only only 26-years-old. He’s barely four years older than the core of the roster. He has playoff experience.
He also has a chip on is shoulder, and yeah, he’s a little dirty.
Kanter got into a scuffle with the Phoenix Suns last season, and took his beef to social media, duking it out with Jared Dudley, one of the franchise’s most beloved players of the last decade.
Phoenix Suns fans hate him – and that’s the point.
The reasons the 1992-93 Suns are so special is not just because they made it to the Finals, but because they were finally tough enough, a perspective about their play that had alluded them during their playoff runs of the late 80’s and early 90’s.
The addition of Charles Barkley and Danny Ainge toughened the team up enough that the soft Western Conference team from small city in Arizona, finally become the tough team that could take on the rough and tumble Eastern powerhouses.
Kanter won’t make the Phoenix Suns championship contenders. He doesn’t put them over the top.
He does make them tough though and can help give the roster an identity, something that other than young this team has not had in some time.
Adding a player like Kanter to the fold makes the Suns instantly relevant.
They won’t win games because of Kanter like they will with the addition of Deandre Ayton. But they will make their opponents take notice.
While Ayton, Devin Booker, and Josh Jackson look to grow in their ability to demand open shots, Kanter were create those shots by attracting the attention of the opponent’s through actions that get under their skin. Not by scoring a ton of points himself, but by ticking them off through rough and slightly dirty play.
Next: New Up for the Phoenix Suns Part 1: Who they should cut
Fans hate players like Kanter because he doesn’t play for their team.
When Kanter plays for the Knicks against the Suns, he’s dirty.
If he pulled the same antics with the Phoenix Suns, he’s savvy.
The same as Danny Ainge, and the very reason that I, in particular, want the Suns to find a way to acquire a player like Kanter, and give Phoenix an identity of toughness that will carry with the young roster for many years to come.