Should Anthony Bennett Be On The Phoenix Suns’ Radar?

The Phoenix Suns may have a disgruntled power forward at the moment, but between Markieff Morris, Mirza Teletovic and Jon Leuer, the team runs three-deep at the 4 position — and that’s before mentioning training camp addition Cory Jefferson. But if the opportunity presents itself to add another power forward to the mix, should Anthony Bennett be on the Suns’ radar?

As Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported yesterday, the Minnesota Timberwolves were making progress on negotiating a buyout with Bennett, the former No. 1 overall pick from the 2013 NBA Draft. Yahoo!’s Shams Charania reported Tuesday morning that the buyout had been completed.

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Through his first two seasons in the league, Bennett has come nowhere close to living up to his billing as a first overall pick. In his rookie season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the former UNLV star averaged a meager 4.2 points and 3.0 rebounds in 12.8 minutes per game, shooting 35.6 percent from the field and 24.5 percent from three-point range.

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Bennett was thrown in with Andrew Wiggins in Cleveland’s trade for Kevin Love after only a year with the team, and in his second NBA season in Minnesota, he marginally improved his numbers to 5.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game. Though he shot a more respectable 42.1 percent from the floor and 30.4 percent from downtown, Bennett failed to prove himself as another promising piece of the Wolves’ long-term future.

It’s interesting that the Timberwolves are ready to give up on him after only 57 games, but at the same time, Bennett has “draft bust” written all over him so far in his young career. Between Nemanja Bjelica, Kevin Garnett, Shabazz Muhammad, Adreian Payne, Tayshaun Prince, Damjan Rudez and Andrew Wiggins, there aren’t many minutes to go around at the 3 or the 4.

The problems with Bennett have been well documented to this point. Through his first two seasons, Bennett has struggled with his weight, conditioning, injuries and being a tweener. He’s not quick enough on his feet to defend small forwards, but at 6’8″, he’s not quite big or long enough to defend power forwards either.

Thanks to his rookie scale contract as the top pick in the draft, Bennett is due to make $5.8 million in 2015-16, with a $7.3 million team option in 2016-17 and a $9.5 million qualifying offer the following season. Even with the salary cap going up, it was probably unlikely the Wolves were going to pick up his option next year in such a limited role.

However, that’s not to say that Bennett is worthless, and for the right price, the Suns might as well give him a shot.

For one thing, Bennett’s status as a “draft bust” is due in large part to the Cavaliers blowing yet ANOTHER top five pick. Bennett was projected as a top 10 pick, sure, but no one expected him to be the top pick. Is it his fault the Cavs front office blew their No. 1 selection on Bennett, placing a mountain of unfair expectations on him in the process? There’s a reason the pick got Bill Simmons to do this:

After all, a look back on the 2013 NBA Draft is a nice reminder that the talent in that draft class wasn’t exactly elite. If anything, the first round was one giant crapshoot. Had Bennett been drafted to the right environment, without the pressure of living up to his billing as a No. 1 pick, this might have been a completely different conversation.

Bennett will never be the kind of star you’d expect from a No. 1 selection, but he still has the chance to be a serviceable forward in this league. At the 2015 Pan American Games this summer, Bennett looked to be in great shape, helping lead Team Canada to the silver medal while averaging 15.6 points and 10.4 rebounds per game over the competition.

For a team like that might not be able to afford to be picky with a disgruntled power forward, a young, moldable player like Bennett could be a low-risk, high-reward acquisition at the right price.

True enough, the Suns hold all the cards with this Markieff Morris situation and even if the team is looking to trade him, they’d need him to come out and play good basketball for a few months in order to salvage his trade value first.

But a little added depth at both the 3 and the 4 never hurt anyone, so if the Suns were able to sign him for around the minimum salary, would it really be the worst thing in the world?

For one thing, No. 1 overall picks playing for the Suns is a pretty rare occurrence. Phoenix has never had the top selection in an NBA draft, and the only three No. 1 picks to ever play for the franchise weren’t exactly overwhelmingly good during their limited time in the Valley.

There was Joe Barry Carroll, the top pick from the 1980 NBA Draft, who played one year in Phoenix and averaged 3.4 points per game in just 11 appearances for the Suns in 1991.

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Then there was Danny Manning, whose career was stunted by injuries after being the top pick in 1988. Manning played in Phoenix from 1994-99, winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award in the 1997-98 season by averaging 13.5 points per game.

And then there was Shaquille O’Neal, the first selection from the 1992 NBA Draft, who played with the Suns from 2008-09. We all remember how that turned out.

Bennett would become just the fourth No. 1 pick in NBA history to don the purple in orange — if the Suns were to express interest and manage to sign him, of course. But there are obstacles, since he’d have to clear waivers first. The Philadelphia 76ers, Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz and Cleveland Cavaliers have the cap space to absorb his $5.8 million contract before he hits waivers if they have any interest.

It’s also worth noting that Bennett’s reps are seeking the buyout, per Woj, because they want him to receive regular minutes on another team without a frontcourt logjam. He’d be hard-pressed to earn minutes on a Western Conference team that considers itself a contender for a playoff spot like Phoenix, which is why a tanking team like the Sixers or Blazers might make more sense.

But if there’s even a remote possibility the Suns could lock down Bennett on a minimum contract, they shouldn’t hesitate. One more body at training camp never hurts and it’s not like Jon Leuer or Cory Jefferson are non-expendable as third string power forwards.

At age 22, Anthony Bennett is precariously close to the edge of his NBA career. But because of his youth and the offseason progress he’s shown this summer, the NBA shouldn’t give up on him yet. You can be sure that plenty of other teams out there will avoid doing so too.

It’s unlikely the Suns snag him in the end, and it certainly won’t be the end of the world if they miss out on him. But a little extra insurance in case the Markieff Morris situation goes south wouldn’t be a bad idea, so if the Suns wound up signing him, they’d have little to lose other than a minimum scale contract.

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