FanPost

Is Enes Kanter Ready For The NBA? The Turkey National Team Doesn't Think So

Written by wendell maxey | 23 August 2011

“All the coaching staff and people around basketball think that it is too early for him to go there (to the NBA),” said Nihat Izic, an assistant head coach of the Turkey National Team told Beyond the Beat.

“He has the chance to play in the Euro League and then after that, when you feel you are ready, then you go to the NBA. He decided to go, and I’m not sure who gave him that advice. I don’t want to go there.”

Trusting Izic’s opinion on Kanter comes easily.

He’s known Kanter since he was a kid growing up in Turkey and hand picked him to be groomed for the national team. It’s part of Izic’s role – to plant and cultivate talented basketball players in Turkey – since being assigned by the Turkish Commission for Youth Basketball to develop such a program in 1994. In addition to serving as an assistant coach for the Turkey National team, Izic was the one-time head coach of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Cadets, and coached their Junior and Men's National teams. His coaching resume includes stints with Antalya, Bursa, and Fenerbahce in the Turkish Division I, and long before he was helping develop Enes Kanter, guys like Hedo Turkoglu, Mehmet Okur, and Ersan Ilyasova among many others have played underneath Izic...............

Izic believes it will take time and patience to get the most out of Kanter’s potential. Fans thinking the Jazz drafted an impact player just because he was selected in the Top 5 of the draft could be mistaken and Izic hasn’t seen anything lately that’s lead him to believe Kanter is ready for the NBA – at least not right now.

“I think he understands what kind of mistakes he makes now when he comes to the real world where big guys play basketball. Those two years of not playing hurt him a little bit and he’s a little lost in space. Sure, you can practice but without playing games in two years, that’s not easy to take care of five or six things on the court at once.”

So where does Kanter go from here?

Right now, back to practice to help Turkey prepare for EuroBasket 2011 in Lithuania.

 

comp article on link here

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