Hehe -- Anthony Bennett Buyout

[Carlos Danger]

90% chance we look back on this no different than we do DWill. Immense talent without the ability to capitalize on it.

The only difference is that DWill played 1400 minutes his first year, 1900 minutes his second year and came back for a third year for another 160 minutes before being dealt. So...about 3500 minutes over 2+ years to get a good idea he's not good. Compare that to Bennett who's only played 1500 over two years/two teams. I know most have made up their minds on AB and they are probably right. But...part of me still thinks that's a pretty small sample. That said, obviously he's not impressing during practice or something because the Cavs completely gave up on him early and Flip never really seemed too high on him here. Anytime a team goes out and trades for two guys (Payne and KG) that play your position - it's not a vote of confidence.

On the flip side of that argument Williams proved to be a much more effective and healthy player over the same time period. To me Bennett's reasonable upside is a Patrick Patterson type talent and he has a LOOOONG way to go to even achieve that.

IDK. Sometimes guys just need to play even when they don't look good. Look at LaVine last year. He was terrible at the beginning of the year, but he still got almost 2000 minutes. By the end of the year - he looked pretty good. That 2000 minutes is 500 more than AB's played in his entire two years. I would have liked AB to get more minutes in what was obviously a tank season. But - obviously Flip saw enough in practice to keep him on the bench and make moves for Payne and KG.

[Porckchop]

This move isn't made with the idea that the organization is comfortable with the pf position as a whole . They probably feel (like I do) they're still a year or two away from seriously competing. So run with the players they have and maybe make a play for a free agent next year or maybe they get lucky and have a chance at Ben Simmons in the draft .

[Monster]

90% chance we look back on this no different than we do DWill. Immense talent without the ability to capitalize on it.

The only difference is that DWill played 1400 minutes his first year, 1900 minutes his second year and came back for a third year for another 160 minutes before being dealt. So...about 3500 minutes over 2+ years to get a good idea he's not good. Compare that to Bennett who's only played 1500 over two years/two teams. I know most have made up their minds on AB and they are probably right. But...part of me still thinks that's a pretty small sample. That said, obviously he's not impressing during practice or something because the Cavs completely gave up on him early and Flip never really seemed too high on him here. Anytime a team goes out and trades for two guys (Payne and KG) that play your position - it's not a vote of confidence.

On the flip side of that argument Williams proved to be a much more effective and healthy player over the same time period. To me Bennett's reasonable upside is a Patrick Patterson type talent and he has a LOOOONG way to go to even achieve that.

IDK. Sometimes guys just need to play even when they don't look good. Look at LaVine last year. He was terrible at the beginning of the year, but he still got almost 2000 minutes. By the end of the year - he looked pretty good. That 2000 minutes is 500 more than AB's played in his entire two years. I would have liked AB to get more minutes in what was obviously a tank season. But - obviously Flip saw enough in practice to keep him on the bench and make moves for Payne and KG.

Lavine was healthy that's something Bennett hasn't been able to do which is a MAJOR reason he hasn't got on the court more.

[Carlos Danger]

Lavine was healthy that's something Bennett hasn't been able to do which is a MAJOR reason he hasn't got on the court more.

Timing is everything. AB was healthy most of the year but only getting about 15 minutes/game. Then they finally moved Thad Young which would have opened up more time for him. Then he got hurt. That's was an incredibly crappy break. I thought we'd finally get a chance to see him play more minutes/consistently. At the end of the day - I can't say he didn't get a shot though. As someone else wrote, we were a terrible team with a big hole at PF. Had he performed, there would not have been a need to trade a 1st for Payne.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

90% chance we look back on this no different than we do DWill. Immense talent without the ability to capitalize on it.

The only difference is that DWill played 1400 minutes his first year, 1900 minutes his second year and came back for a third year for another 160 minutes before being dealt. So...about 3500 minutes over 2+ years to get a good idea he's not good. Compare that to Bennett who's only played 1500 over two years/two teams. I know most have made up their minds on AB and they are probably right. But...part of me still thinks that's a pretty small sample. That said, obviously he's not impressing during practice or something because the Cavs completely gave up on him early and Flip never really seemed too high on him here. Anytime a team goes out and trades for two guys (Payne and KG) that play your position - it's not a vote of confidence.

On the flip side of that argument Williams proved to be a much more effective and healthy player over the same time period. To me Bennett's reasonable upside is a Patrick Patterson type talent and he has a LOOOONG way to go to even achieve that.

IDK. Sometimes guys just need to play even when they don't look good. Look at LaVine last year. He was terrible at the beginning of the year, but he still got almost 2000 minutes. By the end of the year - he looked pretty good. That 2000 minutes is 500 more than AB's played in his entire two years. I would have liked AB to get more minutes in what was obviously a tank season. But - obviously Flip saw enough in practice to keep him on the bench and make moves for Payne and KG.

I never saw any significant improvement from Williams. He was the same guy from day 1 in the league and only improved his body and his shooting percentages which most players do from year 1 to year 2. The difference between Bennett his rookie year and now is a lot bigger in my opinion and his play is trending in the right direction whereas Williams' was already plateauing. The D-League exists for a reason. If you think he needs to play and you have a log jam, you send him to the D-League to play. Cutting a guy like Bennett for money is dumb. Glenn has plenty of money and we can't use the extra cash on anyone anyways. The only reason to cut him is if you think he can't be a rotation player which is fine if Flip thinks that, but he better be prepared for some backlash if none of the other guys pan out and Bennett does because he was doing a guy a favor and not using his own tools to help Bennett get there for us.

[mjs34]

Another quality move by a top franchise. Worst team in the league, but we can afford to throw away young talented players. This is a huge strike against Flip. He has failed on three attempts to bring in a decent power forward and wasted two first round picks in the process.

Please save the "doing him a favor" BS. Kahn made the same type of moves and it never got us anywhere. Players are going to do what is best for them, without giving a second thought as to how we dealt with another player the agent might represent.

I would have thought with our injury history, we would be a little more cautious on short staffing our roster. Again!

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Another quality move by a top franchise. Worst team in the league, but we can afford to throw away young talented players. This is a huge strike against Flip. He has failed on three attempts to bring in a decent power forward and wasted two first round picks in the process.

Please save the "doing him a favor" BS. Kahn made the same type of moves and it never got us anywhere. Players are going to do what is best for them, without giving a second thought as to how we dealt with another player the agent might represent.

I would have thought with our injury history, we would be a little more cautious on short staffing our roster. Again!

You'd think a "young talented player" could find playing time on a 60-plus loss team, right? Or perhaps, just maybe, he's a young unproductive player. There are hundreds of them around the NBA and D-League. That's the more accurate description for Bennett. Talent means nothing if it doesn't translate into positive production. Bennett has physical ability, but he's shown zero signs of sustainable basketball intelligence (personal judgement).

Also, we have Garnett, Towns, Dieng, Bjelica and Payne as our group of bigs, and that's not including small ball forwards in Muhammad and Prince or the wildcard that is Pekovic. Cutting Bennett doesn't impact this season at all, especially when guys like Jeff Adrien (yes, I know he's in NOLA) are swimming in the free agent pool waiting to get picked up during the season if need be.

All we did was cut a guy that wasn't going to make a career in Minnesota. He didn't play well here. He wasn't worth his salary. He was set to be behind five bigs for minutes. So, we trimmed the fat and sent Bennett packing. Good riddance.

[mrhockey89]

It's almost that time! October basketball is just around the corner!

I don't really understand how anyone on this board can act like Bennett is this huge loss. Bennett, at least to this point, is a classic case of "guy has the body to play and be effective, but it's not between the ears". Could that change? I suppose, but he's nowhere near that point right now.

And if he's got such promise, then why weren't we able to get "anything" for him in return, even cap space? You can't tell me (with a straight face) that Flip and friends didn't shop him to every team in the league before deciding to cut him. With any luck, he'll be picked up off waivers (unlikely), and we'll be absolved of him more completely.

It's clear the intention is to compete sooner than later. With guys like Bjelica who are already essentially in their prime, Rubio who's entering his prime, the 'old guys' who still have a little something left, and our other young guys improving, we need minutes to the guys that need it... i.e. Bjelica, Towns, Shabazz, etc. Bennett wasn't going to get any run on this team except for garbage time if you look at the roster. Who was he going to play over? KG? No. Towns? No. Dieng? No. Pek? No. Bjelica? No. Shabazz? No. Payne? Perhaps, but we weren't going to keep both of them and it's clear Flip likes Payne more and sees more of a role for Payne (defensive specialist energy guy).

The only loss here is needing to potentially eat salary, and the 1% chance he turns into something we regret losing. Other than that, we're clearing the roster spot to be used by someone who can actually produce a positive impact on the floor.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

It's almost that time! October basketball is just around the corner!

I don't really understand how anyone on this board can act like Bennett is this huge loss. Bennett, at least to this point, is a classic case of "guy has the body to play and be effective, but it's not between the ears". Could that change? I suppose, but he's nowhere near that point right now.

And if he's got such promise, then why weren't we able to get "anything" for him in return, even cap space? You can't tell me (with a straight face) that Flip and friends didn't shop him to every team in the league before deciding to cut him. With any luck, he'll be picked up off waivers (unlikely), and we'll be absolved of him more completely.

It's clear the intention is to compete sooner than later. With guys like Bjelica who are already essentially in their prime, Rubio who's entering his prime, the 'old guys' who still have a little something left, and our other young guys improving, we need minutes to the guys that need it... i.e. Bjelica, Towns, Shabazz, etc. Bennett wasn't going to get any run on this team except for garbage time if you look at the roster. Who was he going to play over? KG? No. Towns? No. Dieng? No. Pek? No. Bjelica? No. Shabazz? No. Payne? Perhaps, but we weren't going to keep both of them and it's clear Flip likes Payne more and sees more of a role for Payne (defensive specialist energy guy).

The only loss here is needing to potentially eat salary, and the 1% chance he turns into something we regret losing. Other than that, we're clearing the roster spot to be used by someone who can actually produce a positive impact on the floor.

Well said, hockey.

[mrhockey89]

Camden, I think it's safe to say we won't be seeing tomorrow's headline as "Spurs land Anthony Bennett via waiver claim"