It was a shock to say the least when the Cleveland Cavaliers selected UNLV freshman Anthony Bennett as the #1 overall pick in the draft a few months ago, over players like Nerlens Noel, Ben McLemore, and Alex Len.
Bennett does have an elite skill set for a player that stands 6’8, in that he can score from anywhere on the floor, including shooting a decent percentage from behind the arc.
In his lone season in college, Bennett was a double-double machine, invoking memories of the 2nd coming of former Rebel stand-out Larry Johnson more than 20 years ago, before morphing into one of the most entertaining and potent NBA stars during the 90’s.
Anthony starred this preseason, even scoring his first two points in the NBA on a dunk, as the newest member of Cleveland’s young core, led by Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, and Tristan Thompson.
But early on, through 4 games of the regular season, Bennett has struggled mightily with both his shot and conditioning, going 1-20 from the field to officially begin his NBA career, his only points coming on a lone 3 point shot, late in Wednesday’s game against Milwaukee.
Now we aren’t even mentioning the word “bust” just yet, since Bennett does have an excuse for being noticeably out of shape following a tough offseason shoulder surgery, but fans in Cleveland surely can’t be too happy as their prized top pick has contributed virtually nothing to begin the season.
Bennett is averaging a disappointing 1 ppg and 3.2 rebounds in just 12.5 minutes as the Cavs have begun the season 2-3.
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
