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SIAP: Anthony Bennett cut by TWolves

I saw something on this yesterday but did not post a comment here. I think this one ranks very near the top of all time ridiculous #1 picks wasted.
 
Imagine if the Cavs had taken Nerlens and let him heal like Philly

That would make the Cavs a likeable team. I agree, would have been nice. Then I would not have to do my ABL in the playoffs each year as far as who wins the title . (A)nybody (B)ut (L)ebron.
 
Imagine if the Cavs had taken Nerlens and let him heal like Philly
Yep, the article I linked says that if they could do that draft all over with the same players, Noel would likely be #1.
It was a completely boneheaded move by the Cleveland GM (who has since been fired and not hired by anyone else) to take Bennett #1. Nobody had him going at #1. When Cleveland wasted that #1 pick on him, all the other teams cheered.

On a UK related note, I remember when Bennett chose UNLV over UK and I was disappointed. I think we may know now why he didn't want to come to UK. It seems to me that he's just not a very motivated guy, and also that's he's just not that great. He should probably still be in college right now. If he were, he might have a chance in the league with more seasoning. But at this rate, he's gonna have to really go over and above to prove himself to a team. And it seems that's unlikely for Bennett.
 
He brought the thunder in the World Games. He certainly was not worth a #1 pick, but he has to be able to provide some value.

Spurs, maybe?
 
Are we glad we didn't get him or would he have been a different player under Cal?
 
Yeah, he's not just a scrub. I'm guessing, as another said above, it's an attitude issue or a personality conflict. And it may be that he's a tweener, at 6-7 or 6-8 and trying to play power forward. But that's the crazy thing. I didn't see him in the world games, but you'd think the TWolves wouldn't just cut him loose like that unless they thought he had no trade value. They STILL have to count him against the salary cap this season, even if another team picks him up. They're treating him, right or not, like a scrub.
 
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Are we glad we didn't get him or would he have been a different player under Cal?
Just my opinion, but I think his biggest issues (motivation and attitude) are the reasons he didn't come play for Calipari.

I hope nobody takes this the wrong way (or wants to lynch me), but Bennett reminds me of one Alex Poythress in many ways. They have similar size, strength, and athleticism, and even similar abilities. Can you imagine if Alex had tried to come out after his freshman season? He wouldn't have been drafted #1, but he'd be in the same place as Bennett right now, in my opinion. I'm not sure what the issue is, but it's something internal somehow. Flashes of athletic brilliance followed by a disappearing act for large portions of the game.

In regard to Alex, I think the light came on for him a bit in that Final Four run year before last, but he seemed to regress a bit without the same kind of playing time last fall- and then he got injured, so we don't know how he might have finished. I'm hoping and expecting that, assuming that knee is back to 100%, he will be ready to avoid that disappearing act we've seen. Darius Miller was similar for 2 1/2 seasons. He really didn't find consistency until December of his senior year when MKG gave him the starter's spot.

As for Bennett, the deck is stacked against him at this point. I have a feeling someone will pick him up, but what he's lacking is entirely up to him, in my opinion.
 
Bennett was very good at UNLV his one year there. 16 and 8 and over 1 block a game...I think he would have done well at UK that year and sure as hell helped our team. I agree with others that it must be more attitude/personality as I think he would get more of a shot. Someone will pick him up.
 
This sort of makes sense in that the Twolves can only have 15 active guys. Bennett clearly wasn't part of the plan, but if they kept him, there would be some expectation (from him and others) of working him into the rotation. As it is, they kept veteran guys like Garnett, Tayshaun, and Andre Miller, guys who are mainly there as practice players, the type of guys who are at the points of their careers where they can say "cool, if you want to pay me to be a sort of part-time assistant who rarely gets any PT, that's OK by me".

It's still surprising, with so much money floating around the NBA after the huge salary cap increase, that no one was willing to take Bennett in a trade. No, he's not worth the nearly 6 million he would cost, but that would only be a 1 year thing. He's still only 22 years old, and he still has a good physique (when in shape, which he seems to be now) and decent NBA-level athleticism, even if his skills mark him as a tweener.
 
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Looking forward to T-Wolves opening night Oct 28 at Lakers. Kat/Wiggins against Randle and old man Kobe on ESPN. Wolves schedule shows only get 4 ESPN games and 1 TNT game this year. Look forward to the Sacramento games also against WCS, Cuz Rondo.
 
I don't get it. Dude's not an awful player. He played really well in the world games this past summer with Murray playing with team Canada, was probably the 2nd or 3rd best player on the team behind Murray and Nicholson. I dunno if it's because he's such a tweeter at the 3/4 or what, but he's definitely good enough to stick in the NBA at least.

It's really weird.
He's not awful. But he's not worth $6 mil/yr or whatever he's earning. If you can buy out that contract and get more production for less money you should do it. He'll get picked up once he clears waivers, probably for the league minimum.
 
The 2013 draft will go down as one of the worst drafts in history (if not the worst). 4 of the top 5 pics in the draft are complete busts to date.

1. Anthony Bennett - 4.7ppg/3.4rpg
2. Victor Oladipo - 15.8ppg/4.2rpg
3. Otto Porter - 4.7ppg/6.2rpg
4. Cody Zeller - 6.7ppg/5.0rpg
5. Alex Len - 4.7ppg/5.0rpg
 
The 2013 draft will go down as one of the worst drafts in history (if not the worst). 4 of the top 5 pics in the draft are complete busts to date.

It's not a great class but it's hardly the worst draft ever. Nerlens (6), Trey Burke (9), Michael Carter-Williams (11), Giannis Antetokounmpo (15), Gorgui Dieng (21), Rudy Gobert (27)....
 
Looking forward to T-Wolves opening night Oct 28 at Lakers. Kat/Wiggins against Randle and old man Kobe on ESPN. Wolves schedule shows only get 4 ESPN games and 1 TNT game this year. Look forward to the Sacramento games also against WCS, Cuz Rondo.

Don't forget Russell for the Lakers. I'm interested to see how he looks for real after a pretty below average summer league.
 
It's not a great class but it's hardly the worst draft ever. Nerlens (6), Trey Burke (9), Michael Carter-Williams (11), Giannis Antetokounmpo (15), Gorgui Dieng (21), Rudy Gobert (27)....
There are a few guys in there. IMO, when it is all said and done, it will be similar to the 2000 draft. You will have a handful of guys that will put up decent numbers, maybe a couple that might make all-star team, but that's about it.
 
how often is it that a draft produces no All-Stars?

That will happen with the 2013 draft.
I just glanced back to 1980 and the worst draft in terms of all star appearances:

2000 - Kenyon Martin (1 all-star), Jamal Magloire (1 all-star), Michael Redd (1 all-star)

Every class up to 2011 has had at least 3 all stars. 2012 has had 2 all stars, but it is still early for that class.
 
how often is it that a draft produces no All-Stars?

That will happen with the 2013 draft.
Too early to say for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if Nerlens, Giannis, or Gobert make an all-star appearance. Maybe they won't, it depends a lot on continuing to improve, but those three look like young stars.
 
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2013 is going to really have to dig for the depths to match the historically awful 2000 draft. Not only did the 2000 draft lack star talent, it also produced shockingly few players who were able to hang around for the long-term. Only 4 guys from that draft (Jamal Crawford, Hedo Turkoglu, Mike Miller, and DeShawn Stevenson) went on to play 800 or more games. Compare that to the 2 years before and the 2 years after: 98- 9, 99- 11, 01- 12, 02- 5 (so far, but that number will probably double next year as 5 active guys are within 60 games of reaching that mark).

Basketball Reference uses a rating called Win Shares, implementing all of a player's stats and taking into account how many games his team won, allocating parts of those wins to each individual player. The 98 draft had 7 guys top 50 for their career, 99 had 14, 01 had 13, and 02 had 7. 2000 had 4 (3 of the 4 guys who played 800 or more games, plus Michael Redd), and the guy with the highest rating was Turkoglu, who would have rated 7th in 98, 8th in 99, 8th in 2001, and 3rd in 02 (though again, some of those guys are still active, and it's likely that number drops to 5 or 6).

It's hard to find any measure in which the 2000 draft isn't at or near the absolute bottom. 2013 probably isn't going to amount to all that much compared to a normal draft, but I doubt it ends as poorly as 2000.
 
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The number of guys taken from outside of the US, particularly in the first round really stands out. As a side question, how's the kid from Murray State that was drafted that year doing?
 
That would make the Cavs a likeable team. I agree, would have been nice. Then I would not have to do my ABL in the playoffs each year as far as who wins the title . (A)nybody (B)ut (L)ebron.
They also wouldn't likely have Kevin Love now, so I think it worked our pretty well for Cleveland.
 
Greek Freak and Rudy Gobert are dang good players. Rudy Gobert is a potential Defensive player of the year winner. Jazz went from the worst defense to the best defense just by trading Kanter and inserting Gobert into the starting line-up. Greek Freak is still so raw and has so much potential. His ceiling is higher than anybody else's. Otto Porter struggled his rookie year but if the end of his second year showed anything's that he could become a pretty good player. Oladipo, Noel, Steven Adams, MCW will be starters for awhile. Some good role players as well
 
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I think the #1 Draft Pick moniker keeps people jaded on him. If he was drafted 10th, this wouldn't be an issue, he'd probably still be on Cavs.
 
I think the #1 Draft Pick moniker keeps people jaded on him. If he was drafted 10th, this wouldn't be an issue, he'd probably still be on Cavs.
The rookie salary cap is generally viewed as a raw deal for the guys at the top of the draft. If a guy pans out within the first 3 years, he ends up severely underpaid (in comparison to NBA standards), and has no choice but to sign an extension with the team that drafted him in order to get the really big contract as soon as possible. That's why you almost never see an All-Star caliber player hit free agency before his 7th or 8th year.

In the case of Anthony Bennett, the rookie salary scale probably got him the reverse way. If he was a guy drafted in the 10-20 range, with a 2-3 million dollar salary number for this season, someone would probably at least give him a shot. But at 6 mill a year, the reaction has obviously been "ehh...no thanks".
 
That's true. The money makes it hard. That's why I don't want the Rockets to bother now, but in 2-3 years, absolutely. Definitely think he still has a place in the NBA, and I'd take a shot on him even if he fails with his 3rd team (Although, he never really "failed" with the TWolves). Lot potential on him in a few years when his price plummets.

He could very well light it up on the next team, though. He had a great summer.
 
I think the #1 Draft Pick moniker keeps people jaded on him. If he was drafted 10th, this wouldn't be an issue, he'd probably still be on Cavs.
#1 picks are suppose to be can't miss, all-star type talent. He was a #1 pick and didn't live up to it.
 
Apparently everyone knew that BUT the Cavs. By no means was that a smart pick. But it's also not like that draft class was any good. I guess in retrospect, Nerlen's was the best pick (or maybe Oladipo), but he was coming off of a bad injury.

Still Anthony Bennett would be fine if he was drafted 4th or lower. That #1 pick put him on a level he couldn't get to. Kind of sad too, it's not like he made the choice.
 
Victor Oladipo is definitely not a bust. I'd say the Magic are pretty happy with him, especially considering the quality of the draft. The dude averaged 17, 4, and 4, while playing good D.
 
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