He's poor on defense but it's never really been asked of him to develop on that end. UNLV was one of the top defensive teams in the NCAA last year....
These two statements together don't make much sense to me. All coaches care about effort and development on the defensive end, and that must especially be true for Bennett if UNLV was one of the best defensive teams in the NCAA last year. Everyone else managed good defense, except him, because the coach never asked him?
I don't buy it.
I was just saying he was never benched for playing poor defense. UNLV played in a zone defense and Bennett struggled keeping an eye on his man and a decent weakside cut would make him look horrendous.... it would happen 3-4 times a game. If defense was a big part of his game tasks, don't you think Dave Rice would yank him? I do, but it never happened at UNLV because Bennett was their only offense. They needed his offense so badly, they gave him backup minutes at PF when they started him a center. And if you continued to read my post, I said he's not nearly as bad as people think he is on defense, he has great tools, just some big mental lapses spoiled the whole basket. Mike Moser and Khem Birch missed extended periods of time, Anthony Marshall is a crazy chucker PG who never passed, and Bennett had to carry the load offensively. I spend half my time in Vegas for work so I've followed UNLV closer than most..... he's so good offensively, it's pretty scary what he could do with Kyrie and Dion.
Just a side note, but isn't Canada going to have a good Olympics team at some point with Wiggins/Bennett/Thompson and whatever else they have?
No, you actually said "he's poor on defense." If you're now minimizing that, and saying he really isn't poor on defense, that's fine. I was just going off your own statement.I was just saying he was never benched for playing poor defense.
This doesn't make any sense to me either. You first say they would have benched him if defense was a big part of his tasks, but then you say there's no way they'd bench him because he was their only offense. So he still sounds like a guy who is great on offense but poor on defense, despite the obvious fact that his coach wanted him to play much better defense. He just couldn't afford to bench him despite poor defense because they needed him too badly on offense.If defense was a big part of his game tasks, don't you think Dave Rice would yank him? I do, but it never happened at UNLV because Bennett was their only offense.
From Mike Prada:
Anthony Bennett said he's only currently scheduled to visit with the top five teams in the draft. Still TBD if he visits others.
Anthony Bennett also said he was cleared for shooting and should be 100% by August. Would still miss Summer League.
Anthony Bennett got measured today. He said his wingspan was "7'1 or 7'2," and his standing reach was 8'9. As a point of comparison, Otto Porter's wingspan is 7'1.5 and his standing reach is 8'9.5.