Thank You, Anthony Bennett

I’ll never forget June 27, 2013. It was the night of the NBA Draft, and I was sitting with friends in my buddy’s man cave, enjoying some food and drinks at his expense as we waited for the show to begin. The Cavaliers had secured the first overall pick in the draft for the second time in three years, and there was a lot of debate over who they would select in what seemed like one of the weaker drafts in years.

I had yet to begin blogging about all things Cavalier, but I was still quite the hardcore fan at this point. I’d read all of the analysis men like Chad Ford and Jonathan Givony put out. I had looked at mock drafts from dozens of different sites, including the hundred put out by Bleacher Report, and had analyzed every sort of analytics-based projection system on every potential draft pick’s future that I could find. In short, I had a good idea of who would be available and who I wanted the Cavaliers to pick with both of their first-round picks.

At the time, there was a group of six players who were considered to be the top tier of the draft; Nerlens Noel, Anthony Bennett, Otto Porter, Alex Len, Ben McLemore, and Victor Oladipo. Noel had begun to establish himself as consensus first pick while playing at Kentucky, but a torn ACL had thrown the door wide open for another player to assume the top spot. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert allegedly favored Oladipo, while many thought that a center such as Noel or Len would fill an important slot for the team. Others were intrigued by McLemore’s combination of shooting and athleticism. My personal pick was Porter, who I felt could fill the small forward spot for the Cavaliers, but the only player I was strongly opposed to was Bennett, a tweener forward who was coming off shoulder surgery and had conditioning issues.[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]the only player I was strongly opposed to was Bennett, a tweener forward who was coming off shoulder surgery and had conditioning issues.[/pullquote]

While there had been some rumbling that the Cavaliers liked Bennett, I dismissed it due to the presence of Tristan Thompson, whom I have caped for since he was drafted. Then, David Stern came to the podium to announce the first pick in the draft, and this happened.

When Stern paused for that brief moment, you could see that he was going say a name that began with an A or O. In that split second, I was sure the Cavaliers were about to select Alex Len. When he announced Bennett’s name, I proceeded to yell out an intelligible scream and curl up into a ball as if I’d been punched in the gut. Sure, this wasn’t a great draft, but why take a tweener forward ? After watching Derrick Williams fall flat on his face two years before, and Michael Beasley’s inability to guard anyone—among many other things—causing him to become a fringe player in the league, I couldn’t have been lower on that type of player, let alone one coming of off surgery and with obvious conditioning issues. I proceeded to begin working my way through the five stages of grief, and as I left my buddy’s house, I remember saying something along the lines of “He’ll at least be a better version of Mo Speights, right?” Not only was I wrong, but I couldn’t have imagined how wrong I was.

The point of this article isn’t to rehash Bennett’s horrific rookie season with the Cavaliers. His problems are well-documented, and are a significant part of why Chris Grant in the Cavaliers’ former general manager. He’s a career 38.8% shooter who has played for three teams in three seasons, and was released by his hometown Toronto Raptors on March 1st after becoming the first number one overall pick to play in the D-League. He is also the first number one pick to fall out of the league in less than three seasons.[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]He is also the first number one pick to fall out of the league in less than three seasons.[/pullquote]

While the Cavaliers, Timberwolves, and Raptors aren’t without blame for Bennett’s failure, the prevailing sense has been that a low basketball I.Q. combined with a shaky work ethic are what really led to Bennett becoming arguably the worst number one pick in NBA history. Despite all of that, he wound up being a large part of the success the Cavaliers are having today.

Fast-forward to August 23, 2014. The Cavaliers had once again won the NBA Draft Lottery and had selected Kansas swingman Andrew Wiggins with the first overall pick. They had hired David Blatt to coach their young team built around Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, Tyler Zeller, Wiggins, and Bennett. Then all of a sudden there was the ultimate change of plans. LeBron James had announced on July 11 that he had decided to return to the Cavaliers after spending the previous four seasons with the Miami Heat. With LeBron James comes the expectation of title contention, and the Cavaliers quickly began to make moves to put themselves in that realm. The biggest of these moves came when they traded Bennett, Wiggins, and a first-round pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love that fateful August day.

The Timberwolves’ willingness to take on Bennett as part of that trade was incredibly important to the construction of the Cavaliers’ current roster. By this point it was obvious that not only was Bennett not deserving of the first pick in the draft, but that he needed to show serious improvement just to solidify his place as an NBA player. While one could make the argument that Bennett’s $5.3 million salary was needed to make the trade for Love work, what if the Cavaliers had agreed to a package of Wiggins and Dion Waiters for Love instead? Waiters receives a lot of criticism in the NBA blogosphere, but there is no doubt that he is an NBA player. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Timberwolves’ willingness to take on Bennett as part of that trade was incredibly important to the construction of the Cavaliers’ current roster.[/pullquote] Trading Waiters instead would have had a butterfly effect on all of the Cavaliers’ moves since. Remember, the Cavaliers were able to trade Waiters and a second-round pick for J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, and a first-round pick for the Oklahoma City Thunder. David Griffin then flipped the OKC pick, along with another first-rounder from the Memphis Grizzlies, to the Denver Nuggets for Timofey Mozgov. If their roles were reversed, would Bennett have been enough of an asset to complete that deal? Absolutely not. Like the Cavaliers, the Thunder are title contenders who make moves for the here and now. They felt that Waiters could help improve their production at shooting guard and overall depth on the wing. Even if they were high on Bennett, the Thunder wouldn’t have had the time to wait for him to develop, nor would he have had much of an opportunity behind Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka. Rumor has it those guys are pretty good.

In fact, if Bennett hadn’t been the second player in the Love deal, there’s a chance that the Cavaliers would have had to go through the entire season with Mike Miller and Shawn Marion as their primary wings along with LeBron James. Considering both players were pretty much done last season, that would have been a disaster. The best case scenario probably would have the Cavaliers trading for one wing player who likely wouldn’t have fit as well as Smith and Shumpert have. They also would have likely dealt for a center who wouldn’t have been as good as Mozgov was last season. He, Shumpert, and Smith were critical in filling some glaring holes and helping to turn the season around for the Cavaliers after a 19-20 start. Without them, it’s entirely possible that the Cavaliers not only don’t make the NBA Finals, it’s hard to see them getting past the Chicago Bulls in the second round. Who knows where this team would be without those moves, but it’s hard to see any realistic path that would have made them the equal of what they are now.

Another benefit of trading Bennett was that his play essentially made him salary-filler. Instead of the trade being looked at as two number one picks for Kevin Love, it’s seen as Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love. Depending on your opinion, Wiggins has the potential to be anything from a very good player to a true superstar. But he’s not there yet. There’s no doubt that Love is a much better player than Wiggins at this point, and having a talented playmaker and rebounder in the prime of his career is a much better fit alongside LeBron James than an admittedly raw wing player who is likely a few years away from reaching his full potential.

Despite this, many still wonder if the Cavs should have traded Wiggins for Love. Given this scrutiny, how would the trade be looked at if the Cavaliers had drafted another player instead of Bennett in 2013. What if, instead of Wiggins and Bennett for Love, the Cavaliers had traded Wiggins and Noel, or Wiggins and Oladipo for Love? How would that trade be looked at? Kevin Love has faced tremendous scrutiny since joining the Cavaliers. How much worse would it have been if the Cavs had given up another quality young player in the deal? Enough for Love to try to escape it by signing with another team last summer? Would it have eventually cost David Griffin his job? Thankfully we’ll never know.

Despite the premise of this piece, it’s intent was not to heap even more criticism upon Anthony Bennett. By all accounts, Bennett is a good person, who simply wasn’t ready for the rigors of the NBA. This doesn’t make him a bad person, and doesn’t mean he’s deserves to hear the criticism that will likely follow him for years. But, at least for Cavs fans, this cloud has a silver lining.  For all of the scrutiny he has had to deal with, Kevin Love has been a huge part of the Cavaliers’ success over the past two season. His combination of passing, shooting, and rebounding make him a dangerous weapon that every opponent must plan for, even if it means opening things up a bit for LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. And to think, Love might have never even become Cavalier in the first place if it weren’t for Anthony Bennett.