Anthony Bennett: The Biggest Bust of the NBA?
When LeBron James left Cleveland for Miami in 2010, the Cavs were quite broken. They needed to rebuild. In charge of this rebuild was Chris Grant, who was the GM of the Cavs during those days. During this rebuilding process, Cleveland made a mistake which is regarded as the biggest failure of a franchise in the NBA draft history.
During NBA draft 2013, Cleveland had the first pick and they had an opportunity to choose anybody they liked. They went with Anthony Bennett, which was a shock to everyone, but one of the most interesting facts is that when Cavs office sat down for voting, the results were in favor of Anthony Bennett 9-1.
The only person in the room who was not in favor of Bennett was Chris Grant.The outcome of this decision taken by Cavs was that Anthony was an immediate bust that season and Chris Grant took all the blame on him and after a year was eventually removed as Cavs GM and was replace by David Griffin.
According to David Griffin, Grant doesn't deserve the blame for drafting Bennett because Griffin and others within the organization fell in love with Bennett’s college highlight reel while ignoring everything else.
So, why was Bennett a bust?
Before we talk about his NBA stats let's talk about his pre-NBA career.In high school, Anthony Bennett was the 7th ranked player in the Class of 2012 and that was pretty good.Then he went to UNLV for 1 year where he averaged 16.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks.These were some okay numbers but not enough to select somebody as the first pick. So there was something wrong and weird about this 2013 1st pick.
Now let us see what Anthony Bennett did in the NBA.In his rookie year, he averaged 4.2 points, 0.2 blocks, and 0.3 assists.He shot 63% from the free throw line, 25% from behind the arc and 35% from the field.Even in 2015-2016, he has shot under 30% from the field.He is never averaged more than 5.2 points and never averaged over 4 rebounds.We can clearly say he is "The biggest bust in the NBA history"
So what exactly was the problem with such a poor performance by Anthony Bennett?
This is what David Griffin has to say about Anthony Bennett which will clear all your thoughts-"The issue with Anthony was, he had no desires to push himself.All his life he enjoyed pleasures and was best for himself but when he was knocked down and needed a lot of extra effort, dedication, and hard work, he was out!"
He was the first pick in the 2013 NBA draft. He got money and fame both after the draft. A lot was expected of him but still, this was not enough motivation for him to work hard(Truly a bust!).
He had his rookie season with Cavs and was then traded to Minnesota.He had no success in the NBA and was also removed by Brooklyn Nets in January last season. No other team was interested in him.He then played for Fenerbahce in the Turkish Basketball Super League where his poor performance continued.
He is truly the biggest bust of NBA.