Fansided

Timberwolves to buy out Anthony Bennett’s contract

By Tom West

Jan 31, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Anthony Bennett (24) boxes out Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) at Target Center. The Cavaliers defeated the Timberwolves 106-90. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 31, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Anthony Bennett (24) boxes out Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) at Target Center. The Cavaliers defeated the Timberwolves 106-90. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports /
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After two seasons of failing to perform as a number 1 overall pick, the Minnesota Timberwolves have reached an agreement to buyout Anthony Bennett’s contract.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are full of young talent with the likes of Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, but 2013 first-overall draft pick Anthony Bennett will now officially be out of the picture. Yet, despite having some promise as a physical and slightly versatile forward, it’s not surprising that Bennett is now set to become a free agent.

Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports broke the story after the speculation as to whether or not the Timberwolves would remove Bennett has been building over the last few days. Now, they have reached an agreement to buyout his $5.8 million contract.

An interesting element of this story, though, is that it was actually Anthony Bennett himself who supposedly wanted the buyout. As Charania pointed out, Bennett wanted to leave the Timberwolves in order to decide his future with a new NBA team.

From the very beginning of his NBA career, Bennett stunned the basketball world after the Cleveland Cavaliers used their 2013 first overall pick on him. Instead of selecting the likes of Victor Oladipo, Nerlens Noel, Giannis Antetokounmpo or Rudy Gobert, the Cavaliers, for some bizarre reason, went with Bennett.

Bennett is a strange player in terms of his ability at both ends of the floor and as an athlete. He’s strong, but not fast enough to compete with highly agile wing players on defense. He can rebound, but 8.7 boards to go along with only 0.6 blocks per 36 minutes isn’t enough to make him a defensive specialist. At the other end of the floor, he lacks the shooting ability (only o.3 threes per game and shot 31.4 percent from 16 feet out last season) to be a consistent option in any offense.

As a result of his overall short comings, Bennett recorded a career high of just 15.7 minutes per game last season.

15.7 is hardly a number that screams “first overall pick”, is it?

Now, as Charania suggested, the Portland Trail Blazers are an expected favourite to sign Bennett when he becomes a free agent. They lost a great deal of their frontcourt talent after LaMarcus Aldridge signed with the San Antonio Spurs and Robin Lopez joined the New York Knicks, meaning that out of all the teams in the league, Portland may actually be desperate enough for a new big man to give Bennett another shot to redeem himself.

After two weak seasons and his contract buyout, it will take a near impossible turnaround for Anthony Bennett to prove that he was worthy of going first overall. However, if he works hard and improves his range with a new team, maybe he can at least create a small role off the bench somewhere else.

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