Minnesota Sports Forum

I know at least for me, I'm not talking about a 4 minute bump for AB. I'm talking about a 14-16 minute jump. That is a huge difference in minutes that could reveal a totally different player. How does it make sense to have someone with a confidence issue play less and get pulled quicker than most of the rotation players on the team? How is it reasonable to expect someone to play more consistently when his time on the court (while being there in total minutes) is inconsistent spurts because he gets pulled so quickly? Why do we need to wait for him to get that shot? He's not a good bench player, but some guys play differently when they get the starting role and starters minutes so why shouldn't we at least give him the chance this year? Lavine has been consistently getting more run and has been worse than Bennett in his time on the court and didn't earn his time any more than Bennett. Bennett should at least get a shot this year. A confident Bennett could be a very good player in this league with how powerful he plays the game. We need to give him the opportunity to get that confidence back which won't happen with the quick pull approach coming off the bench.

I'll write the same thing that I write every year when there's a new young guy with promise people want to see play more...

Give him the minutes. So everybody can realize he's not cutting it and we can move on to the next guy with unfulfilled promise without looking back...

khans2k5 wrote:I know at least for me, I'm not talking about a 4 minute bump for AB. I'm talking about a 14-16 minute jump. That is a huge difference in minutes that could reveal a totally different player. How does it make sense to have someone with a confidence issue play less and get pulled quicker than most of the rotation players on the team? How is it reasonable to expect someone to play more consistently when his time on the court (while being there in total minutes) is inconsistent spurts because he gets pulled so quickly? Why do we need to wait for him to get that shot? He's not a good bench player, but some guys play differently when they get the starting role and starters minutes so why shouldn't we at least give him the chance this year? Lavine has been consistently getting more run and has been worse than Bennett in his time on the court and didn't earn his time any more than Bennett. Bennett should at least get a shot this year. A confident Bennett could be a very good player in this league with how powerful he plays the game. We need to give him the opportunity to get that confidence back which won't happen with the quick pull approach coming off the bench.

Let me get this right. So your logic goes something like this: LaVine has received minutes without earning them and hasn't done very good, therefore we should give Bennett more minutes. Huh? So if the additional minutes haven't resulted in better play from LaVine, than why would that same approach result in something different for Bennett?

And let's not forget, AB at 30+ minutes per game is now guarding players like Dirk, Randolph, Griffin, Ibaka....Let's see how those guys affect his confidence. And the refs won't help his cause either.

AB's confidence should come from beating up on opponent's backup PFs. Let's start there before force-feeding him starter's minutes.

Q12543 wrote:

Let me get this right. So your logic goes something like this: LaVine has received minutes without earning them and hasn't done very good, therefore we should give Bennett more minutes. Huh? So if the additional minutes haven't resulted in better play from LaVine, than why would that same approach result in something different for Bennett?

And let's not forget, AB at 30+ minutes per game is now guarding players like Dirk, Randolph, Griffin, Ibaka....Let's see how those guys affect his confidence. And the refs won't help his cause either.

AB's confidence should come from beating up on opponent's backup PFs. Let's start there before force-feeding him starter's minutes.

I think we need to realize that there is never "one right answer". Everyone has an opinion on how things should work. Nobody is "wrong". It's just an opinion. Wiggins got lots of minutes worked earlier in the year even though some people were arguing he was a disappointment. Wiggins turned out pretty good. Thad Young played like crap most of the year but kept getting regular minutes. The last several weeks, he's playing much better. All some are arguing is that Bennett might benefit from the same opportunity of playing through mistakes. There is nothing wrong with people holding out hope for Bennett. He's 21 years old - probably the same age or younger than many of the guys who will be picked in this year's draft.

Allright Kahns, I'll jump on board with that. I really would like to give him the whole season before I give up. Trade Thad for KG, give him heavy starter minutes the rest of the year, see what happens. Worst case scenario, he continues to disappoint and we cut him, right? This season has been a joke anyway.

Why should Bennett be the only young rotation player on the team not getting the same opportunity the other young guys are getting (i.e. starting and getting significant minutes) The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, so it totally makes sense to keep playing Bennett the same way that hasn't worked for 1.5 years. The playing versus backups argument is crap. How many guys get better by playing worse competition? You get better by playing better competition, learning why they are better and working to improve to get to their level. To be the best, you have to beat the best and Bennett doesn't even get to play the best. What about our current use of Bennett do you think could possibly turn the switch on in his head and help him turn it around? I don't see anything so I think it is time to try something else. It's too early to throw in the towel, but what we've been doing hasn't worked so it is time for something different in my opinion.

While I am not on the anti-Bennett bandwagon, I agree with Q -- a guy has to earn his minutes, and a lot of that is what they do in practice. I am reluctant to criticize Flip on his use of Bennett.

Someone was trying to compare Bennett and Love. Love earned his starting position. We have not seen that from Bennett.

Carlos Danger wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

Let me get this right. So your logic goes something like this: LaVine has received minutes without earning them and hasn't done very good, therefore we should give Bennett more minutes. Huh? So if the additional minutes haven't resulted in better play from LaVine, than why would that same approach result in something different for Bennett?

And let's not forget, AB at 30+ minutes per game is now guarding players like Dirk, Randolph, Griffin, Ibaka....Let's see how those guys affect his confidence. And the refs won't help his cause either.

AB's confidence should come from beating up on opponent's backup PFs. Let's start there before force-feeding him starter's minutes.

I think we need to realize that there is never "one right answer". Everyone has an opinion on how things should work. Nobody is "wrong". It's just an opinion. Wiggins got lots of minutes worked earlier in the year even though some people were arguing he was a disappointment. Wiggins turned out pretty good. Thad Young played like crap most of the year but kept getting regular minutes. The last several weeks, he's playing much better. All some are arguing is that Bennett might benefit from the same opportunity of playing through mistakes. There is nothing wrong with people holding out hope for Bennett. He's 21 years old - probably the same age or younger than many of the guys who will be picked in this year's draft.

Right - I agree in general - there is sometimes more than one answer. I just happen to think in this case that more minutes isn't one of them!

BizarroJerry wrote:Allright Kahns, I'll jump on board with that. I really would like to give him the whole season before I give up. Trade Thad for KG, give him heavy starter minutes the rest of the year, see what happens. Worst case scenario, he continues to disappoint and we cut him, right? This season has been a joke anyway.

(giving someone 16 minutes per game isn't giving up, but yeah, we'll see where things land after today).

60WinTim wrote:While I am not on the anti-Bennett bandwagon, I agree with Q -- a guy has to earn his minutes, and a lot of that is what they do in practice. I am reluctant to criticize Flip on his use of Bennett.

Someone was trying to compare Bennett and Love. Love earned his starting position. We have not seen that from Bennett.

I let the Love comment go, in case I took it out of context.

I didn't see the connection either. Truth be told, Love didn't "earn" 30+ minutes until he forced Rambis/Kahn's hands with the infamous 30/30 outing vs. NY.