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Report: Jazz center Enes Kanter wants to be traded

Utah Jazz center Enes Kanter said he wants to be traded ahead of next Thursday's deadline. Kanter, 22, was the No. 3 pick in the 2011 draft and is averaging 13.8 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting 49.1 percent in 27.1 minutes this season.
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Utah Jazz center Enes Kanter said he wants to be traded ahead of next Thursday's deadline, Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Kanter, 22, was the No. 3 pick in the 2011 draft and is averaging 13.8 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting 49.1 percent in 27.1 minutes this season.

Falk reports that Kanter's frustrations boiled over after he did not play in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's loss to the Mavericks. While he left the game with an eye injury, Kanter said he was healthy enough to return.

"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.

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Jody Genessy of the Deseret Newsreports that Kanter did not travel with the team back to Utah, as it was the final game before the All-Star break.

Kanter has split time in Utah's frontcourt with Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert and Trevor Booker. Gobert, in particular, has earned more playing time during his second season with the Jazz. He has averaged 8.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.9 blocks in 26.9 minutes since New Year's.

The Jazz are 19-34 and the No. 12 seed in the Western Conference. They are 9.5 games behind the Phoenix Suns for the final playoff spot.

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- Paul Palladino