The Celtics never tried to sign Enes Kanter after all

It’s been a busy few weeks for most Eastern Conference playoff teams in the trade and buyout market. The Raptors filled an injury hole at reserve point guard with Jeremy Lin while the Pacers added Wesley Matthews to help make up for the loss of Victor Oladipo. The Sixers (Tobias Harris), Raptors (Marc Gasol) and Bucks (Nikola Mirotic) all made notable additions on the trade front as well.

The Celtics have been the only East contender to stand pat despite dealing with some injury woes of their own, particularly on the front line with Aron Baynes (bruised foot). The veteran has missed nine straight games since February 3rd and could be on a minutes restriction next week if he is cleared to return to the lineup by team trainers. The Celtics have gone 4-6 in those 10 games he has missed, leaving the team with a serious size void in the middle on several nights against true bigs. Baynes has also been injury plagued all year long, missing 28 of Boston's 62 games to date. The Celtics are just 15-13 in those 28 contests.

Danny Ainge clearly prepared for the possibility of bringing on a buyout free agent by trading away Jabari Bird at the trade deadline and one of the names Ainge was rumored to be pursuing with that open roster spot was 7-foot-1 center Enes Kanter. However, the 26-year-old told Bostonsportsjournal.com on Wednesday night that he never heard directly from the Celtics before deciding to sign with Portland on February 13th after getting bought out from the Knicks.

“I did hear a rumor about it once I got released,” Kanter said the Celtics’ supposed interest. “I just let my agent handle that stuff.”

But did Kanter’s agent hear from the Celtics directly?

“No.”

The sell for Boston to get Kanter to sign would have admittedly challenging given the team’s propensity to play small alongside the presence of Baynes when healthy. However, as Boston continually gets beaten up on the glass (allowed 13 offensive rebounds to the likes of Jusuf Nurkic, Kanter and company in Wednesday’s loss) placing that phone call might have been worth doing, especially with Baynes’ injury woes popping up so often this year.

For what it’s worth, Kanter told BSJ he would have been open to the possibility of playing in Boston if he had been pursued.

“Obviously, Boston is definitely a good place for a good contender and has good players,” he said. “Me and my agent decided to go West and stick with Portland.”

The Blazers ended up being a fairly natural match for Kanter since he had originally signed an offer sheet with the team back in the summer of 2015 that was matched by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“The (Blazers') GM texted me. This was the team that offered my first contract four years ago,” Kanter explained.

The eighth-year veteran has fit in perfectly in Portland, pushing Zach Collins out of the rotation most nights to post 12.8 points and 7.5 rebounds in just 19 minutes per game. He’s shooting 58.8 percent from the field and averaging 3.5 free throw attempts per game, which would rank among Boston’s team leaders. The Blazers have gone 4-0 since he has arrived.

A lot has clearly changed in the past few weeks for the Celtics in the standings, but Baynes had been out for a week when Kanter made his decision to sign in Portland on February 13th. Given the C’s rebounding woes since he’s been out (25th in rebounding percentage in February), the opportunity for minutes was there for Kanter. Instead, Brad Stevens has been forced to lean heavily on Al Horford and an undersized Daniel Theis against true 7-footers and the results have not been pretty in recent weeks. With the benefit of hindsight, Kanter was a phone call that Ainge should have made.

The Celtics are still able to add a free agent at any point this regular season ahead of the postseason in their 15th roster spot but Friday is the last day any player can be bought out to make them eligible for the postseason roster. Barring a surprise release in the next two days, there will be few players available that could make a measurable impact like Kanter.