I missed all three exhibition games, but from what I took his performances were mediocre. Anyone (specifically Sepanol, et all who follow the Turkish national team well) know what the PF/C situation for Turkey is like? Is there a good chance well be able to see Kanter square up with the likes of the Gasol Brothers, Nowtizki etc.? I mean his performances weren't awful, and judging that Asik and Erden have injury problems is it a reasonable conclusion to make that we will all see him play at the end of August?
Lets make a simple calculation, the limit is 12 men. So the guys who will certainly be in the squad are :
Kerem Tunceri, Ender Arslan
Omer Onan, Hidayet Turkoglu, Emir Preldzic
Ersan Ilyasova, Oguz Savas
That leaves 5 players fighting for the remaining spot.
If Semih Erden and Omer Asik recovers from the injury they will be in the team and that leaves 3 empty spots. (Which i doubt Semih Erden will be fully ready that gives Enes a pretty good chance of being selected)
If we consider the last 5 spot,
I think Baris Ermis (pg/sg), either Cenk Akyol or Sinan Guler will also grab their spots.
For the remaining 3 people i think Omer Asik will be ready and that leaves 2 spots available.
There are couple of young players which will probably be out of the roster but i m pretty sure Enes will be selected for one of these 2 spots because Omer Asik is the only real center in the team and playing the Center position gives Kanter a leverage in this case. Also as much as he seemed rusty in the tournament, he has the highest draft pick for a turkish player ever that makes him the future of the National Team. So i dont think the coach will dare to upset Kanter and demotivate him with not selecting.
However, if Semih Erden makes a return to the team, that will make 4 C/PF on the team and i am not sure if the coach will spend the remaining spot for Enes.
If i should be optimistic i would say we are really lucky that Memo is injured and a spot for C position is open for Enes. Thats why i m pretty sure he will select Enes since there is no other center except not yet recovered Omer and Semih in the team.
But if i should be realistic i can say that it is hard to guess till the roster is revealed but there is a very good chance Enes will make the team. Because it may not make a sudden impact on the national team for this tournament but not selecting Enes will make him upset and he will probably reject to participate in the future Eurobasket tournaments . Thats why the coach should be really really dumb not to select Enes. He is a young and new coach and honestly i didnt like his coaching looking at the last 3 games but i dont think he is that stupid not to select Enes.
