OT Minnesota progressing on contract buyout with former No. 1 pick Anthony Bennett.

Wow. That I did not expect. He did fade rather for Canada after a hot-ish start, but still. As I said elsewhere, I would not be at all surprised to see us pick him up (Jay Triano connection). Trouble is, we're crowded with similar talent at forward.

 

and I think Olshey was interested in him during the draft.

 

Dumb, IMO

He may not have #1 overall stats, but he doubled his PER from year 1 to 2. If he continues to improve he'll be a solid average NBA player

 

We've got 17 players on the roster now. If we pick up Bennett, we'll have to let 3 guys go before the season starts. Who goes?
- Mike Miller (presumed we'll buy him out.)
- Phil Pressey (it'll be Pressey or Frazier.)
- Chris Kaman

- Cliff Alexander
- Luis Montero
- Tim Frazier

Tough call. I guess If we pick up another Big like Bennett, It comes down to Chris Kaman or Cliff Alexander. I guess I'd prefer roll the dice on another young Big, than have Kaman mentoring on the bench.

 

Future Blazer

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I wouldn't want him unless you think he can play the three. Too many good prospects already on the team.

But, if you did like him then I wouldn't hesitate to cut Pressy and Frazier (Miller will be gone). Neither one is going to see rotation minutes except for garbage and you can pickup a backup PG easily if something happens. If either Dame or CJ goes down then you want to be on the tank train anyway. Play Montero at PG.

 

Bennett is owed $5,803,560 in 2015-16. Team option in 2016-17 at $7,318,289. Qualifying offer of $9,513,776 in 2017-18. Ouch.

The $5.8M won't make a dent in this years team salary. Bennett's option for next year would need to be picked up by 11-2-15. That doesn't give us much time to make a 'long term' decision.

The Blazers are looking at having around $30M of cap space next summer. As we found out this summer, it's not very easy to spend all of that money. With the top free agents going for $15M - $20M, is Bennett worth taking up $7.3M (out of the $30M) of cap space next summer?

 

ahem...

 

Makes me wonder if Bennett is a slow starter, similar to how Leonard started slow?

Meyers was worse his second season than his rookie season, and looked like a lost cause and a wasted draft pick. It was not until the end of his third season before Meyers started to blossom.

If Bennett does not have any issues Triano would know about or suspect, I would pick him up.

 

great post. If we pick him up, my guess is Pressey, Montero, and Miller are gone.

 

I just don't think Bennett is worth it. He's a man without a position. I think he looked okay for Canada because they were playing him at C, and you can get away with that kind of shit when you're playing in the FIBA Americas, but...

 

Well, I'm sure they have more information than we do on him. I still don't see where he would fit in given all the bigs they picked up. Can't see him passing up Vonleh, Davis or Leonard for PF minutes and it doesn't sound like he is able to play SF.

If you didn't already have Davis I could see him making sense maybe as a quick scorer off the bench or small ball PF. Just not sure how you develop him with everyone else on the roster. Now, if you could figure out a way to trade one of the other bigs for Barnes . . .

 

I'm a little worried, though. The only way a player agrees to a buyout is if he knows another team is going to snap him up. Otherwise he loses money. And who's he been talking to all summer but Jay Triano.

 

If Blazers picked him up, how long before they could flip him if they wanted too? He could be a free asset.

We should also remember that Blazers may already have a good idea of what Montero and Alexander bring. If they aren't impressed with either, then it could open up some more roster spots. If Triano has some good info on him and NO pulls the trigger then I would look at this as another valuable piece to work with. It would give them more flexibility in trades for the future.

 

I tend to agree. Could he ever touch the level of Z-Bo? That's what I want to know.

 

His shot chart is at
http://vorped.com/1-nba/2014-2015/player/1523/anthony-bennett/shotchart/

 

Given his $ constraints & the guys that make up our team, the only way we should pick Bennett up is to help facilitate a trade for someone else who wants to roll the dice on him & then we CAN get something/some1 that we want out of the deal BUT there should be no scenario where he ever becomes an actual Blazer.

 

Davis is probably going to get most of his minutes at C, not PF.

Right now, it appears Alexander is the end of the bench project big. If Bennett is worth the gamble, give him Alexander’s roster spot.