Minnesota Sports Forum

60WinTim wrote:I'm still gunning for both of them...

I'm in for 1 asset (1st rounder or Bennett) for Young. Either one works for me I can be swayed either way but it seems pretty obvious the deal is not going to get done for less than 1 asset.

longstrangetrip wrote:I'll answer the Shabazz/Bennett question...I'll take Bennett, and it isn't even close. I'm a big fan of the draftexpress profile videos. I think they do a great job highlighting a player's strengths and weaknesses, sometimes brutally pointing out weaknesses. Here is Bennett's:


http://www.draftexpress.com/article/Anthony-Bennett-Scouting-Report-Video-4260/

If you have 15 minutes, I highly recommend watching this. I know this is AB playing against college players, but so many of his strengths easily translate to the NBA level. And his biggest weakness, defensive intensity, is easily correctible. Scorers like AB don't need to prove themselves to get minutes in college and high school, so they can be lazy on defense. But he will have to work hard on defense in the NBA to get minutes, and this video even says he has great defensive potential.

Shabazz' pre-draft video OTOH points out the weaknesses we all know he has. No right hand, not a good passer, not a good defender. I like Shabazz' potential as a scorer off the bench, but his ceiling is much lower than Bennett's because of this limited versatility.

BTW, I watched Wiggins' draftexress video yesterday also, and it left me a little less excited about him...still excited, but less so. Don't get me wrong. I know Wiggins is a better prospect than AB, but if I were to base my opinion solely on these scouting videos, I wouldn't be so sure.

Bennett the GOAT.

Bennett the HOFer.

Bennett the next Barkley.

Bennett for MVP.

Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Defensive intensity is not easily correctable. You either have it or you don't as a player. If we end up keeping him, I think he's shit out of luck defending both forward positions, but I would like to see him compete and fight for position at least. Baby steps for Baby Fat Bennett.

Keep in mind Bennett is going to make anywhere from $5-7M the next several years, assuming his option is exercised. That's a pretty penny for a guy that may not even be a rotation player. As I've said before, Bennett could go from a "wildcard former No. 1 pick with star potential" to a "bad contract, burden" in the matter of one season.

The cap projections are saying the cap is going up to 80+ million after 2015-16. 5-7 million is nothing when you consider that jump. Nobody is saying any of the Bennett titles you are giving him. They're just saying don't be so stupid as to profile a guy after 1 year in the league when he was clearly a top 5 talent in his draft class. The history of #1 picks are on his side for not being a bust as you are already proclaiming him to be. I don't care about his defensive intensity when his long-term front-court mate is going to be Dieng with Ricky and Wiggins defending on the wings. Someone has to be a scorer and he can be that guy if you give him time. He's a scorer and rebounder which is exactly what we lost in Love and I predict he will be much better at those two things long-term than Thad. He has the potential to be a serviceable stretch 4 which is pretty much necessary when Ricky is your PG to stretch the floor. He was the only option at UNLV and he still put up good numbers. 16 and 8 in 27 MPG's with 53 and 37 percent shooting splits is pretty good. His PER 40's were 23.7 and 12 with a steal and almost 2 blocks per game. I think when a guy gets embarrassed like that in his first year, it only makes him work harder to shed the bust label and I think he'll be a starter worthy player going into the 2015-16 season. It seems pretty short sighted to give up on a 21 year old so quickly instead of showing you have the confidence in yourself to develop him into a real player (talking about Flip). I see no problems having too many young guys when you have a line full of veterans able to start in front of them or come off the bench behind them helping them along the way.

When people say something like "______ is easily correctable" no matter what it is I think that's a unrealistic statement.

athleticism is easily correctable though

Can we please stop talking about Bennett at UNLV? Dominating (16 & 8 in 27 minutes) the Mountain West against guys that couldn't match up with him physically isn't as impressive as his supporters are making it out to be. D-Will dominated the Pac-12 and still sucked in the NBA. But oh right, nobody likes that comparison. Gotcha.

I just asked Wolfson to find out where Bennett was on Flip's big board for 2013. If it's already known and published somewhere, someone please find it for me. I honestly don't think Flip is a Bennett fan and there's nothing wrong with that. If that is in fact the case, then how is it short-sighted to give up on a player when you (Flip) didn't like him that much to begin with?

The truth is, Bennett may never be the player Young already is. People can criticize Young all they want to, but he's been a solid NBA player for a while now, and in my opinion, that's selling him short. Bennett may never be that.

Keep in mind Young just turned 26 about a month ago. I keep seeing people say he won't improve or that he can't grow his game. That one makes me chuckle a bit. Same people that say 26-year old Young can't improve have said that they expect 25-year old Love to improve. Regardless of the difference in talent level, both can and likely will improve. To say otherwise is just to knock two proven professional basketball players.

Cam, I hear your frustration in us bringing up Bennett's college record, but I see it as quite relevant. Yes, it was the Mountain West, but there are some good teams in that conference, and he also played well against Pac 10 and other stronger conference teams. I think you need to use every bit of information you can in evaluating a player's potential, and for Bennett, that includes UNLV, this NBA rookie year, and this year's SL. Some may want to throw out UNLV because of the conference, some may want to throw out his rookie year because of physical ailments, and some may want to throw out SL because, well, it's SL. But they are all we have to go on in evaluating this guy who may become a T-Wolf, and we need to look at every data point available.

I definitely get why college career needs to be taken into consideration, but all of his supporters (including yourself) are so willing to bring up his 16/8 at UNLV, but then run away from his rookie year and give him every excuse possible. Bennett hasn't proven anything in this league other than him being a passenger on the struggle bus and a steady customer at Krispy Kreme.

Camden wrote:I definitely get why college career needs to be taken into consideration, but all of his supporters (including yourself) are so willing to bring up his 16/8 at UNLV, but then run away from his rookie year and give him every excuse possible. Bennett hasn't proven anything in this league other than him being a passenger on the struggle bus and a steady customer at Krispy Kreme.

Just like you are running away from D-Will's first year in college...

Didn't McHale limit Love's minuets his rookie year because he was fat and gassed all the time? NO!!! I am not saying Bennett is KLOVE!!! But he can make changes, IF he has Love's drive. Derrick Williams was a lazy sob, I don't know if that is the case with Bennett or not