Brooklyn Nets Aren’t Taking A Chance On Anthony Bennett For $1 Million A Year

by Lindsey HorstingJuly 24, 2016, 1:48 pmNews >

Anthony Bennett was the No. 1 pick in the 2013 NBA draft picked up by the Cleveland Cavaliers and has significantly underachieved his expectations since entering the league. Despite this, he isn’t a risk at just over $1 million a year for the next two years.

Bennett is the third lowest paid player on the Nets roster. Third year guards Joe Harris and Sean Kilpatrick are the lowest each making just over $980 thousand a year. If anything, it will be exciting to see how much the Nets can get out of Bennett for so little.

Bennett’s career high in the NBA was his second season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He averaged 15.7 minutes, 5.2 points and 3.8 rebounds.

Last season in Toronto Bennett only played 19 games before getting demoted to the D-League playing for Toronto’s affiliate team Raptors 905.

Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!

A week of sports news in your in-box.
We find the sports news you need to know, so you don't have to.

The Wall Street Journal names Bennett the biggest upset in a No. 1 draft pick in recent history, certainly since Greg Oden, the numbers don’t lie it is true.

Bennett most recently played with the Men’s Canadian national basketball team in an attempt to qualify for the Rio Olympics. He averaged 19 minutes per game and 6.8 points per game shooting 56 percent from the field. In the final game of the tournament against France with five and a half minutes left in the game Bennett scored a three to bring the team Canada within five points. When he’s on top of his game, he’s not only good, he’s clutch.

In 2015 during the Pan Am Games Bennett averaged 15.6 points, 10.4 rebounds per game over five games with team Canada.

Bennett’s potential is great and he is in better physical shape than he has been in the past. We know he can put up big numbers, we’ve seen him do it when he was at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Brooklyn Nets GM Sean Marks said the organization selected a few players during free agency whose “trajectory” to becoming great was evident. Marks didn’t explicitly state Bennett’s name, but everyone was thinking it.

Bennett is patient with the ball, with good size for rebounding and is a decent mid-range shooter. If he can get back to playing how he used to it would be the Nets’ best free agency deal.