A league source told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that the Oklahona City Thunder are determined to match the offer sheet.
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Flushed with cap space from LaMarcus Aldridge’s departure, the Blazers are have signed Oklahoma City restricted free agent Enes Kanter to a four-year, $70 million offer sheet, according to David Aldridge of NBA.com and Yahoo!
The Thunder has three days to match the deal that Portland offered, which would keep Kanter in OKC.
Before Kanter arrived, no Thunder center in the Oklahoma City era ever had recorded a 20-point, 10-rebound game.
Kanter is already a very good National Basteball Association big man but his potential is virtually limitless, and while it would be nice for Mavericks fans to get him as a plan B after Jordan backed out, it is more of a pipe dream than reality as the Thunder would be mad to let him walk away. He quickly proved to be an excellent pick-and-roll partner for Russell Westbrook and averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds on 57 percent shooting. However, he only played 10 games with Serge Ibaka and none with Kevin Durant because of injuries.
Kanter was the No. 3 overall selection in the 2011 National Basteball Association draft by the Utah Jazz, but he was forced to constantly fight for playing time with other bigs.
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Kanter, who is entering his fifth season, averaged 15.5 points and 8.9 rebounds last season for the Jazz and Thunder.
