Minnesota Sports Forum

bleedspeed177 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Cam did you hear Flip talk about Bennett after the trade was done and saying he took too many 3 pointers and said something like we are going to fix that or not going to let him shoot that many and he is a PF. I liked hearing that. I like that Bennett has a nice shot and has nice ball handling skills but he has a body type that should be banging around a decent amount in the post not pretending to be a perimeter type player. I think he should spend a year closer to the painted area before extending his game out.

I actually didn't like that comment by Flip...reminded me too much of Randy Wittman when he told Kevin Love not to shoot 3-pointers. Bennett was a true stretch power forward in college, scoring both inside and out (37.5 % on threes compared to 34.4% for Love). And if you watch his shooting stroke, you can see that he has the form to consistently hit 3-pointers. Yes, he should continue to use his size and long arms to score inside too, but the stretch power forward is an important part of the modern NBA game, and he is the only guy on our current roster with the potential to be an effective stretch forward. Wittman didn't let Love be Love, and Adelman didn't let Ricky be Ricky, and both players were held back by that poor coaching decision. Let's hope Flip doesn't make the same mistake with AB, but rather allows him to use all the skills he brings to the table.

I remember that too. I hope Flip said he is not going to let Bennett fall in love with shooting just from the outside.

That would have been a more appropriate way for Flip to address the situation, bleedspeed, saying he wanted to make sure AB had balance in his game. Unfortunately, what he said was "We're not letting him do that here"...very Wittmanian. I've been more than pleased with Flip during this off-season, but this blundering comment is puzzling to me

.http://www.thescore.com/nba/news/562340

Camden, thanks for clearing up your stance, and I agree with you that Bennett (rightfully) has more expected of him as the #1 pick in a draft as opposed to Pekovic being a lottery pick talent who went 2nd round due to his circumstance.

Really, what Bennett's success or failure in the NBA will come down to 2 things: 1) basketball IQ and 2) if he can control his weight. His skill set and size won't be what holds him back.

It seems people on this board have varying opinions of Bennett when it comes to basketball IQ. I'll be honest, I haven't seen but probably 10 minutes of Bennett all of last season... because I didn't care much to watch the Cavs (although I followed Kyrie in college and his rookie year in the NBA, not so much last year) and because he barely played. I'm actually surprised how many people are so convinced they know his basketball IQ one way or another. (I do believe some people have watched enough to make a legitimate claim to knowing, but I can't help but feel like some people are guessing...and I'm not sure who is who)

Bottom line, our hopes are really pinning on Wiggins. Bennett fulfilling his potential would be icing. And if I'm being completely honest, I'm not ready to put my eggs in the LaVine basket. I think he's got a long ways to go to be a factor, but I hope he does.

longstrangetrip wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Cam did you hear Flip talk about Bennett after the trade was done and saying he took too many 3 pointers and said something like we are going to fix that or not going to let him shoot that many and he is a PF. I liked hearing that. I like that Bennett has a nice shot and has nice ball handling skills but he has a body type that should be banging around a decent amount in the post not pretending to be a perimeter type player. I think he should spend a year closer to the painted area before extending his game out.

I actually didn't like that comment by Flip...reminded me too much of Randy Wittman when he told Kevin Love not to shoot 3-pointers. Bennett was a true stretch power forward in college, scoring both inside and out (37.5 % on threes compared to 34.4% for Love). And if you watch his shooting stroke, you can see that he has the form to consistently hit 3-pointers. Yes, he should continue to use his size and long arms to score inside too, but the stretch power forward is an important part of the modern NBA game, and he is the only guy on our current roster with the potential to be an effective stretch forward. Wittman didn't let Love be Love, and Adelman didn't let Ricky be Ricky, and both players were held back by that poor coaching decision. Let's hope Flip doesn't make the same mistake with AB, but rather allows him to use all the skills he brings to the table.

I remember that too. I hope Flip said he is not going to let Bennett fall in love with shooting just from the outside.

That would have been a more appropriate way for Flip to address the situation, bleedspeed, saying he wanted to make sure AB had balance in his game. Unfortunately, what he said was "We're not letting him do that here"...very Wittmanian. I've been more than pleased with Flip during this off-season, but this blundering comment is puzzling to me

.http://www.thescore.com/nba/news/562340

I invite you to listen to the radio spot and see what you think of what Flip said about Bennett. Go to the minute 76 thats where Flip talks about Bennett and within that minute about his shooting.

http://www.kfan.com/media/podcast-sunday-sermons-Sunday_Sermons/824-sunday-sermons-25203788/

SPOILER ALERT! lol

I took away from that the Flip meant that Bennett took too many 3 pointers and he wasn't going to get to take that many I don't think he meant he wasn't going to let him shoot them at all. Why would Flip say he took too many 3's? for example Bennett took 46 shots in SL and 16 of them were 3 pointers. Thats too many 3 point shots. In Bennett's defense he was playing for Blatt in SL who wants a stretch 4 in his system.

So if you are coaching AB. And you want to give him 1 thing to focus on. What would you tell him?

I would say rebound.

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Cam did you hear Flip talk about Bennett after the trade was done and saying he took too many 3 pointers and said something like we are going to fix that or not going to let him shoot that many and he is a PF. I liked hearing that. I like that Bennett has a nice shot and has nice ball handling skills but he has a body type that should be banging around a decent amount in the post not pretending to be a perimeter type player. I think he should spend a year closer to the painted area before extending his game out.

I actually didn't like that comment by Flip...reminded me too much of Randy Wittman when he told Kevin Love not to shoot 3-pointers. Bennett was a true stretch power forward in college, scoring both inside and out (37.5 % on threes compared to 34.4% for Love). And if you watch his shooting stroke, you can see that he has the form to consistently hit 3-pointers. Yes, he should continue to use his size and long arms to score inside too, but the stretch power forward is an important part of the modern NBA game, and he is the only guy on our current roster with the potential to be an effective stretch forward. Wittman didn't let Love be Love, and Adelman didn't let Ricky be Ricky, and both players were held back by that poor coaching decision. Let's hope Flip doesn't make the same mistake with AB, but rather allows him to use all the skills he brings to the table.

I remember that too. I hope Flip said he is not going to let Bennett fall in love with shooting just from the outside.

That would have been a more appropriate way for Flip to address the situation, bleedspeed, saying he wanted to make sure AB had balance in his game. Unfortunately, what he said was "We're not letting him do that here"...very Wittmanian. I've been more than pleased with Flip during this off-season, but this blundering comment is puzzling to me

.http://www.thescore.com/nba/news/562340

I invite you to listen to the radio spot and see what you think of what Flip said about Bennett. Go to the minute 76 thats where Flip talks about Bennett and within that minute about his shooting.

http://www.kfan.com/media/podcast-sunday-sermons-Sunday_Sermons/824-sunday-sermons-25203788/

SPOILER ALERT! lol

I took away from that the Flip meant that Bennett took too many 3 pointers and he wasn't going to get to take that many I don't think he meant he wasn't going to let him shoot them at all. Why would Flip say he took too many 3's? for example Bennett took 46 shots in SL and 16 of them were 3 pointers. Thats too many 3 point shots. In Bennett's defense he was playing for Blatt in SL who wants a stretch 4 in his system.

Thanks for the link, monster...you're right, it's a little different than the tweet about what he said. He maybe didn't say it as elegantly as he could have, but it's clear that Flip wants to put some limits on AB's 3-point shooting, not disallow them completely. I like Bennett's shooting stroke and we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he made a higher percentage of threes in college than Love, so I hope Flip gives him a chance to score both inside and out.

More encouragingly was the comment that the Cavs thought of Bennett as one of their best PnR defenders. With his size and length, he already has the potential to be a solid interior defender, so it's good to hear his perimeter defense can be effective too.

There's a very interesting thread over on rubechat with great relevance to the current Wolves roster. The thread starter graded the #1 picks for the previous 30 years, giving an incomplete to Wiggins and Bennett. While the thread provided some interesting discussion about the relative grades of some of the picks (e.g. should Brad Daugherty be a B- or a B+), the most interesting takeaway is this: The only true busts in the past 30 years have been centers. It seems that GM's fall in love with a college or foreign center who dominates strictly based on size, without really evaluating how his college dominance will translate to the NBA. First pick non-centers have been almost universally hugely successful, rating anywhere from occasional all-star to HOF'er. It's clear that much more careful due diligence goes into using a #1 pick on a non-center, and this is reflected in the results.

I see this as great news for the Wolves, as their roster has the past two #2's. Anthony Bennett had a horrible rookie year, but for him to end up as something less than an at least an occasional NBA all-star would be an exception of almost historic proportion. I'm not saying that he has no chance of being a bust...I'm just saying he would be an historic outlier if he does become one.

Good article on Bennett.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/puzzle-anthony-bennett-183827267.html

http://instagram.com/p/snro5vKVaw/

Bennett is already showing results

Volans19 wrote:http://instagram.com/p/snro5vKVaw/

Bennett is already showing results

Looks pretty good to me. I wish there were some before and after pics for these guys.

Guys, this is a mix of good and bad Anthony Bennett. I'd like to ask a question: Does a shoulder injury or breathing problems (or whatever excuse we're digging up) affect a player's shot selection? To me, that's a mentality/BBIQ issue... But maybe I'm just watching different video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6lt3Xw_8oMI