The Minnesota Timberwolves waived former No. 1 pick Anthony Bennett before the start of his third season in the NBA, but interim head coach Sam Mitchell said they didn't give up on him. From the Star Tribune's Jerry Zgoda:
Q. Why give up so soon on Anthony Bennett? Isn’t he the kind of raw talent that the best franchises develop?
A. I wouldn’t say we gave up on him. Look at the sheer numbers at that position and even take K.G. out of the equation and we have three, four guys who can play power forward. We just felt we had an overabundance of people at that position. It wasn’t us giving up on A.B. I think A.B. came to us. His representative felt like they’d have a better chance somewhere else with a fresh start. We never approached A.B. with that (a contract buyout).
Two thoughts:
1) Mitchell is right, in a sense. The Wolves' reason for doing this was obvious -- Kevin Garnett is expected to start at power forward, with Nemanja Bjelica, Adreian Payne, and Damjan Rudez on the roster behind him. Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng could conceivably see some time at the 4, too, and Minnesota sometimes liked to go small with Shabazz Muhammad and Andrew Wiggins at the forward spots last year. Mitchell is confirming reports that waiving Bennett was his agent's idea, not the Wolves', and they want along with it because of the logjam.
2) Minnesota totally gave up on Bennett, who cleared waivers and has reportedly signed with the Toronto Raptors for the minimum. It could have easily waived Rudez or Tayshaun Prince in order to keep him around. Instead, it decided there was no point in seeing if Bennett could develop. The Wolves chose to pay him a reported $3.65 million not to play for them rather than paying him $5.8 million to play for them. This has never happened with someone drafted first overall. He's only 22 years old.
The truth is that Minnesota decided it didn't need Bennett. The front office didn't have to accomodate his representative's request for a fresh start. The Wolves could have kept him on the end of the bench, paid attention to how he practiced and given him spot minutes here or there to see how he handled himself. If they still saw potential in him, that's what they would have done. Obviously, though, they didn't think that was worth their time.
