Utah Jazz center Enes Kanter has grown frustrated with his role, and told the local press this week that he’s seeking a trade.
The big fella is putting up 14 points and 7.8 boards a night, while playing career-high 27 minutes per game this season. The soon-to-be free agent is not happy with the way head coach Quin Snyder has utilized him.
Kanter, 22, hopes to be shopped by the Feb.19 trade deadline.
Per the Salt Lake Tribune:
Kanter expressed his frustration after Wednesday’s 87-82 loss to the Mavericks, a game in which Kanter left with an eye injury and did not play in the fourth quarter despite his claim that he was healthy enough to play. […] “It was not my eye at all. I don’t know what it was, but it was not my eye at all. So we’ll see what’s going to happen,” Kanter said after the game, declining to elaborate further.
But for the third-overall pick in the 2011 draft, the frustrations are about more than one night. Kanter grew tired of empty promises of playing time during his time under Tyrone Corbin and remains frustrated by the inconsistency of his role.
The Jazz and coach Quin Snyder have tried to balance time among their four primary big men — Kanter, Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert and Trevor Booker. Snyder has admitted in the past that it has been hard to find time in some games for all four, and said matchups and performance would dictate who got minutes most nights.
