Jazz, Enes Kanter Break Off Extension Talks

12:49pm: Ergul cited Kanter’s potential for growth this season with new Jazz coach Quin Snyder as well as the influx of TV money into the league as reasons why he and his client walked away from negotiations, as Ergul told Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter links). Ergul praised Lindsey and Snyder and pointed to Kanter’s satisfaction with the franchise’s direction, Falk notes, which suggests strong interest in a deal next summer.

12:11pm: The Jazz and Enes Kanter have decided against signing an extension by Friday’s deadline, agent Max Ergul tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. That sets the forward/center up to become a restricted free agent next summer. The Jazz continue talks with fellow extension-eligible Alec Burks, according to Wojnarowski.

“We have mutually agreed with Utah to concentrate on the season and look at our options again in the summer,” Ergul told Wojnarowski. “Enes likes Utah and the organization very much, and now he can concentrate on continuing to grow as a player and helping them win.”

Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey acknowledged extension talks with both Kanter and Burks a month ago and spoke of his desire for a long-term commitment to the two of them, suggesting that he’d continue to pursue that even if they weren’t able to close on extensions. Still, neither has the sort of star potential that’s usually associated with players who sign rookie scale extensions, as I noted when I examined the extension candidacies of both Kanter and Burks.

Fellow big men Derrick Favors, who signed a four-year, $48MM extension a year ago, and Rudy Gobert, who’s entering the second season of his rookie scale contract, complicate the notion of Kanter’s future in Utah, since there’s only so much playing time to go around. The Jazz have about $40.3MM on the books for 2015/16, and while deals for both Kanter and Burks would probably leave the team with significant leftover cap room, Utah has several other former first-round picks who’ll become extension-eligible in the years ahead, which threatens to put a squeeze on the club’s flexibility.

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