It was a shock on draft night in 2013 when David Stern announced Anthony Bennett was the first player selected in the draft. The Cleveland Cavaliers were on the clock with the top pick and surprised everybody by passing up players like Nerlens Noel and Ben McLemore in order to grab the UNLV forward. Since that draft night, Bennett endured two really bad seasons marred by injuries.
After completing his second season in the NBA, and first season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, it was reported on Tuesday the Wolves had come to terms with Bennett on a buyout from his rookie deal. The Wolves were fast approaching the decision on whether or not to pick up Bennett's $7 million, fourth-year option this fall. Instead, they decided to place him on waivers. Yahoo Sports is reporting that both the Philadelphia 76ers and Portland Trail Blazers are considering claiming Bennett off waivers with their available cap space.
Bennett has to clear waivers in the next 48 hours to become an unrestricted free agent. Four teams have the salary cap space or the trade exception necessary to absorb Bennett’s $5.8 million contract: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers, Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz.
Utah would need to waive a partially guaranteed contract to clear an additional $600,000 needed to claim Bennett. The Jazz have $5.2 million in salary cap space now.
Bennett was stuck behind several frontcourt players in Minnesota and wanted the chance to pursue his career elsewhere. His representatives are hopeful that no team claims him on waivers and that he will have the opportunity to pick his next destination as a free agent. Philadelphia and Portland plan to look carefully at the possibility of claiming Bennett, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Bennett is due $5.8 million this season, and the Blazers and Sixers are the most likely destinations if he doesn't make it through waivers. The Sixers are constantly looking for high-upside players they can develop and with Noel and Jahlil Okafor already on the roster, and they could try to develop Bennett as a backup to those players. The Blazers lost LaMarcus Aldridge this offseason, but managed to acquire Mason Plumlee, Noah Vonleh and Ed Davis to their frontcourt.
The Wolves have a crowded frontcourt, and with the lack of significant progress Bennett had in his one year in Minnesota, it just wasn't worth it to them to keep him on the depth chart. They already have two good young prospects in the frontcourt with No. 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns and 2013 draft pick Gorgui Dieng. They acquired Adreian Payne from Atlanta during the 2014-15 season, and signed Euroleague MVP Nemanja Bjelica this summer. Throw in veterans like Kevin Garnett and Nikola Pekovic, and the Wolves just didn't have the proper time to put toward making Bennett a priority.
