Enes Kanter is giving the Celtics exactly what they signed up for

The Celtics have taken it slow with Enes Kanter from the jump in Boston, particularly after a knee injury sidelined him on opening night against the Sixers. After keeping him out for three weeks to ensure a complete recovery, Kanter has only played 17.2 minutes per game over his 21 contests this year, the lowest MPG total of his career since his sophomore season.

Brad Stevens has been careful not to expose the 6-foot-10 center too much in tough matchups, limiting his time having to guard elite perimeter stretch bigs or face shifty point guards in pick-and-roll coverage. Kanter’s minutes load has started to go up lately though, particularly in the wake of Rob Williams’ hip injury as he remains the only healthy center on the roster now with true size and bulk.

The Celtics have emphasized maximizing Kanter's skillset by essentially using him solely as a post up and rebounding threat on offense, putting him in spots where he can play to his strengths. For a bargain-basement price of $4.7 million, Kanter has done just that during the first two months of the regular season.

The 27-year-old is not only putting up a career-high 15.6 rebounds per 36 minutes (a career-best) thus far, he’s actually leading the entire league in offensive rebounding rate, grabbing an absurd 18.2 percent of all available offensive rebounds when he’s on the floor. That presence combined with Kanter’s propensity to draw fouls down low (4.5 free throw attempts per 36 minutes) has given the Celtics exactly the kind of production they dreamed of for this spot after signing him for the room-level exception last summer.

Stevens has also done well to protect Kanter’s defensive flaws when he’s on the court, surrounding him by an elite group of mobile/heady defenders like Brad Wanamaker, Semi Ojeleye, Grant Williams, and Jayson Tatum when he’s on the court. That lineup management has actually allowed the Celtics to manage Kanter’s defense to the point where they are actually allowing 5.5 fewer points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court. Boston's offense is also three points better per 100 possessions when Kanter is out there as well — creating second-chance opportunities.

That’s not to say there aren’t still concerns with the big man. He’s shooting a career-low 56.5 percent at the rim in 21 games, which is about 10 points worse than his career-average in that range. His pick-and-roll defense still is an eyesore at times and the same goes for his ability to close out on the perimeter or stick with smaller players in switches. The Celtics have done a nice job however with adapting their defense to help protect him while taking advantage of having an elite defensive rebounder down low to gobble up most misses (40 percent of them in the last four games).

The end result for Boston has been surprisingly positive so far. Kanter’s net rating (+15.8) is the highest on the team, just ahead of Jayson Tatum (+13.8) among the regulars. He’s one of only three players on the team (Tatum, Theis) with which the Celtics are better on both sides of the court while he plays as well. And even though he’s struggling in the paint with his finishes, his mid-range shooting (57 percent from outside 16 feet) has been a welcome bonus as well.

The bottom line with Kanter is that the C’s needed his strengths (rebounding, scoring) to outweigh his defensive warts. There is no question that he has done that throughout the two months of the season. Combine that with some stellar defense from Daniel Theis with the starters and the C’s have found themselves a center rotation right now that trends more toward a strength than a weakness given what is being asked of the players involved. Kanter is playing his role well and isn’t stealing shots (just 6.3 attempts per game) from Boston’s young wings. There is still plenty to improve upon on the defensive end (which will be crucial in the postseason), but for now, it’s hard to find any kind of meaningful upgrade on Kanter in his price range. The Celtics had a tough hole to fill this summer with Al Horford and Aron Baynes out the door, but Kanter has done well to fill those gaps.