Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden0916 wrote:

Phenom's_Revenge wrote:Bennett may resemble Derrick but that doesn't mean he will be him. That's foolish. Since he isn't the prize of the deal, I have no problem taking the chance on him.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it ain't a damn mongoose. You'd be foolish to ignore the many similarities between the two players.

We have to take Bennett for salary purposes so it's not like he's a guy Flip is exactly pushing for either. I wonder how much of a problem you'll have with Bennett if the Wolves accept his option and he never improves significantly, but we'll be stuck with his $6M and $7M the two years after 2014. Then he goes from a wildcard with potential to a sizeable burden.

But hey, we like reunions around here. Bring back D-Will!

I'm not much of a fan of reunions actually but you seem to be very passionate about Anthony Bennett. That's great but I'm just going to take a wait and see approach with him and probably wont get too excited either way. This topic seems to be getting way overblown.

Camden0916 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote: He lost weight, fixed his breathing issues and did a lot of things well in SL with the exception of his shooting and 1 on 1 defense. D Will never got better at anything. That has to be enough to warrant that Bennett isn't going to be another D Will in this league.

What did he do in SL that was proof of anything? He rebounded well, I'll give him that. Inefficient shooting and he got beat on defense way too often, especially for a second year player. Did he set good screens and run the floor hard? Are we giving him an 'atta boy' for that? I need to know these things he did well in SL that some of you are so high on.

What did D-Will do last off-season? Had his jaw surgery, got cut up and lost some of his bulk to give SF a real shot. He looked improved. He looked lean and in shape. If you're going to give Bennett credit for getting in shape, you have to give D-Will credit for doing the same.

Also, let's not act like Bennett is a high IQ basketball player, because he's not. He's a ball-stopper and his shot selection is less than desirable. Has no clue how to play help defense either.

But Williams isn't a good comparison for Bennett... Alrighty then.

I agree with you Cam that Williams deserves credit for working hard on his body losing weight and also he had some physical issues he worked out. Comparing Williams and Bennett is a good comparison on many levels. You don't like Bennett its a. Reasonable stance and someday you may get to post here "I told you so" about Bennett. Having said that here are a few things I'll mention as to why I do actually like him some of it is comparing to Williams.

You mentioned setting screens...Williams was brutally bad at that. His rookie year actually many of the Wolves players weren't that great but good grief. That was oone place he improved quite a bit after his rookie year in addition to his man post defense. Bennett seems to have a better overall feel for the game. In SL play I saw him often directing players on both ends of the floor being vocal. His help team D actually looked at least decent. Let's keep in mind that Willians sucking like he. Did as a #2 pick is more unexpected than the norm. Its more likely for those guys to be at least good players than basically busts. Bennett is more likely (playing percentages) to be a worthwhile player than a bust. I'll also mention here that people complain about Bennett floating around the 3 point line. Well his SL coach is David Blatt who likes stretch 4s. Bennett being out there may have been by design as well. Also in SL I don't think I ever saw Bennett playing any SF so that's a good thing.