The Guys We're NOT Talking About

[Coolbreeze44]

I'm for staying in the pot provided he can get meaningful minutes this year. If not, we will never find out what he can be anyway. But looking at our roster, how does he get those meaningful minutes?

[Big O [enjin:13874644]]

By earning them. We can sit here and guess at minutes for each player, but I truly hope that Flip sets a rotation based on this coming years performance in practices and games. Sure trade AB if you get value in return, but otherwise hang on to him and work on building up his confidence.

[Monster]

I'm for staying in the pot provided he can get meaningful minutes this year. If not, we will never find out what he can be anyway. But looking at our roster, how does he get those meaningful minutes?

That's the point Q and I have been making. If you keep him you basically have to go all in on the guy or at least give him some sort of shot and keep him beyond this year or what is the point?

It's like when this team traded for Beas they picked up his option they went all in. I want actually a fan of adding Beas at the time but I admitted it was obviously a reasonably worthwhile gamble.

"enormous potential" for Bennett? Like someone over at the KFAN board said if Bennett was an UFA how much would he get on the open market? Bennett's potential needs to be put in perspective of other guys on the league that werent picked as high at this point. I'm sure there are some guys put there that you could say have as much potential as Bennett that are a lot cheaper and possibly available. Some people wanted to take a shot at Cliff. Alexander. What kind of potential does he have?

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I'm for staying in the pot provided he can get meaningful minutes this year. If not, we will never find out what he can be anyway. But looking at our roster, how does he get those meaningful minutes?

That's the point Q and I have been making. If you keep him you basically have to go all in on the guy or at least give him some sort of shot and keep him beyond this year or what is the point?

It's like when this team traded for Beas they picked up his option they went all in. I want actually a fan of adding Beas at the time but I admitted it was obviously a reasonably worthwhile gamble.

"enormous potential" for Bennett? Like someone over at the KFAN board said if Bennett was an UFA how much would he get on the open market? Bennett's potential needs to be put in perspective of other guys on the league that werent picked as high at this point. I'm sure there are some guys put there that you could say have as much potential as Bennett that are a lot cheaper and possibly available. Some people wanted to take a shot at Cliff. Alexander. What kind of potential does he have?

Not nearly as much as Bennett.

[Monster]

I'm for staying in the pot provided he can get meaningful minutes this year. If not, we will never find out what he can be anyway. But looking at our roster, how does he get those meaningful minutes?

That's the point Q and I have been making. If you keep him you basically have to go all in on the guy or at least give him some sort of shot and keep him beyond this year or what is the point?

It's like when this team traded for Beas they picked up his option they went all in. I want actually a fan of adding Beas at the time but I admitted it was obviously a reasonably worthwhile gamble.

"enormous potential" for Bennett? Like someone over at the KFAN board said if Bennett was an UFA how much would he get on the open market? Bennett's potential needs to be put in perspective of other guys on the league that werent picked as high at this point. I'm sure there are some guys put there that you could say have as much potential as Bennett that are a lot cheaper and possibly available. Some people wanted to take a shot at Cliff. Alexander. What kind of potential does he have?

Not nearly as much as Bennett.

What's the reasonable ceiling for Bennett that you are hoping for?

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I'm for staying in the pot provided he can get meaningful minutes this year. If not, we will never find out what he can be anyway. But looking at our roster, how does he get those meaningful minutes?

That's the point Q and I have been making. If you keep him you basically have to go all in on the guy or at least give him some sort of shot and keep him beyond this year or what is the point?

It's like when this team traded for Beas they picked up his option they went all in. I want actually a fan of adding Beas at the time but I admitted it was obviously a reasonably worthwhile gamble.

"enormous potential" for Bennett? Like someone over at the KFAN board said if Bennett was an UFA how much would he get on the open market? Bennett's potential needs to be put in perspective of other guys on the league that werent picked as high at this point. I'm sure there are some guys put there that you could say have as much potential as Bennett that are a lot cheaper and possibly available. Some people wanted to take a shot at Cliff. Alexander. What kind of potential does he have?

Not nearly as much as Bennett.

What's the reasonable ceiling for Bennett that you are hoping for?

I don't know about a player comp, but I hope his work with his jumper pays off and he can hit 3's, get some monster dunks off the PnR and rebound the ball. He needs to play like Tristan Thompson, but be a better shooter (I don't think he's gonna be that level of defender though). I think next year he should shoot for 10-8 in decent MPG's, show better overall court awareness and a few 15-10 type games sprinkled in. That may not be realistic, but that's what I think he could do if given the time to prove it. If Bjelica comes over though I just don't see the time for him to prove anything unless we get hit with the injury bug again. I've said it before, but I'd basically give Bennett every shot he can get until they have to decide on his option in October and then go with AP if he doesn't earn the option to be picked up.

Edit: If he shows good improvement I think you pick up his option and see if he can keep getting better because he is a very talented player. The best ceiling player comp for me is probably Paul Millsap. Millsap averaged 8-6 his sophomore year in 20 MPG's and he was a little more ready made for the NBA than Bennett given he played in college for 3 years. They basically have the same physical makeup so AB just needs to play smarter and more confident and I think he is capable of playing like Millsap. I know I'll probably get laughed off the board for that, but that is the potential I see in Bennett. Millsap also took several years before he hit his all-star level so that gives me hope for other guys who need a little more time to develop.

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

I don't know what Flip saw in Bennett. I honestly thought we were doing a favor to Cleveland by taking his bad contract. He arguably cost us a first round pick and maybe caused us to cut GR3 (who I liked better and would have been much cheaper). I would like to trade him for anything of value (If Flip could get us a heavily protected first rounder, I'd say he works miracles, but I'd take a 2nd rounder) However, if nobody is offering anything we should just hang on to him until we need his roster spot if we are already are on the hook for his salary this year in case lightning were to strike. Having seen so many busts and failed reclamation projects over the years, I think the odds of him having enough value to warrant the salary he is getting and the roster spot he is eating are small.

[Monster]

I'm for staying in the pot provided he can get meaningful minutes this year. If not, we will never find out what he can be anyway. But looking at our roster, how does he get those meaningful minutes?

That's the point Q and I have been making. If you keep him you basically have to go all in on the guy or at least give him some sort of shot and keep him beyond this year or what is the point?

It's like when this team traded for Beas they picked up his option they went all in. I want actually a fan of adding Beas at the time but I admitted it was obviously a reasonably worthwhile gamble.

"enormous potential" for Bennett? Like someone over at the KFAN board said if Bennett was an UFA how much would he get on the open market? Bennett's potential needs to be put in perspective of other guys on the league that werent picked as high at this point. I'm sure there are some guys put there that you could say have as much potential as Bennett that are a lot cheaper and possibly available. Some people wanted to take a shot at Cliff. Alexander. What kind of potential does he have?

Not nearly as much as Bennett.

What's the reasonable ceiling for Bennett that you are hoping for?

I don't know about a player comp, but I hope his work with his jumper pays off and he can hit 3's, get some monster dunks off the PnR and rebound the ball. He needs to play like Tristan Thompson, but be a better shooter (I don't think he's gonna be that level of defender though). I think next year he should shoot for 10-8 in decent MPG's, show better overall court awareness and a few 15-10 type games sprinkled in. That may not be realistic, but that's what I think he could do if given the time to prove it. If Bjelica comes over though I just don't see the time for him to prove anything unless we get hit with the injury bug again. I've said it before, but I'd basically give Bennett every shot he can get until they have to decide on his option in October and then go with AP if he doesn't earn the option to be picked up.

Edit: If he shows good improvement I think you pick up his option and see if he can keep getting better because he is a very talented player. The best ceiling player comp for me is probably Paul Millsap. Millsap averaged 8-6 his sophomore year in 20 MPG's and he was a little more ready made for the NBA than Bennett given he played in college for 3 years. They basically have the same physical makeup so AB just needs to play smarter and more confident and I think he is capable of playing like Millsap. I know I'll probably get laughed off the board for that, but that is the potential I see in Bennett. Millsap also took several years before he hit his all-star level so that gives me hope for other guys who need a little more time to develop.

Thanks for the reply it's well thought out and Millsap is a comp that makes sense. I am not going to laugh you off the board but I will say I saw Millsap play a few times his rookie year he looked like a baller and his stats for that year were something promising and he played all 82 games. Bennett is built more powerfully but Millsap is more agile. The biggest difference to me though is Millsap has always played hard bennett only shows flashes of that and you targeted that as something you want to see Bennett do. I just don't know if it will happen or if he can stay healthy.

The more I think about it the more my guess is there are only a few teams that have much interest in Bennett at his current price and considering most teams probably have pretty full rosters it makes it tough. It also a time where teams are valuing the rookies and FA is right around the corner. If any team was really wanting Bennett he would probably be gone by now. My guess is Flip is just gonna sit on Bennett hope he stays healthy, works on his game, maybe shows something in his work with team Canada and in training camp. Maybe he generates some buzz and a team makes a minor move for him. He will have to really blow the doors off the Wolves I would think to get that option picked up. Flip can be patient at this point we aren't in any position to make any remotely significant moves and the only thing to add to the roster that would make it more balanced right now would be another ball handler.

[bleedspeed]

I think we give AB the summer and October to figure it out. Khans2k5's comp of Millsap seems about right. Last year in summrr league he looked promising. He looked healthy and ready to have a breakout year. He did more of that in the preseason. He played pretty good in the open against the Griz. Then he had set backs and fell off track. If he is working his butt off I am for giving him more time. We are hearing it is confidence and watching him that seems to be a big part of it. Who wouldn't have some confidence issues after what he has gone through in his career. I don't know if you have to keep the option because basically we could match his contract if he does breakout.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Drew, how are we doing with talking about Shabazz. Dieng and Payne? :)

Ok, back to AB. It's killing me knowing that it's likely that Flip doesn't extend, but the points made here are well taken. Flip's timing is unfortunate...if he still is on the fence about AB, he only has training camp, 6-7 pre-season games, and maybe one game in October to make up his mind (big blunder by AB to skip SL, I think). AB was impressive in SL and pre-season last year (11 and 7 in 20 minutes in 4 pre-season games). If he does that again, is that even enough?

And if Flip doesn't extend, you guys are right...AB gets put in inactive/bench hell and only plays if we have a lot of injuries, or gets traded for nothing. Conversely, if Flip does extend him, he's likely to give AB minutes at the expense of Payne and Bjelica. I think this is one of Flip's toughest decisions, maybe his toughest. With a gun to my head, I extend him and give him significant minutes at PF for at least 20 games, even if that means Payne and Bjelica don't see the court much in the early season. But if I had to bet what happens, I'm guessing Flip doesn't pick up his option, trades him for nothing to a team that has a big need at PF and is willing to take a chance, and AB plays very well for his new team. That's going to be tough for me to watch.