Anthony Bennett is known in the basketball community as the biggest NBA bust of all time. After only four years in the NBA, he was already left jobless and overseas. Bennett started as Canada's basketball prodigy and ended as one of the worst picks of all time. But let's look at how the former number one pick rose and fell during his short basketball career.
College and High School Career
High School
Anthony Bennett had a solid high school career in starting at Harold M. Brathwaite Secondary School in Brampton Ontario, After turning 16 Bennett transferred to Mountain State Academy which shut down a year after so he transferred to another prep school called Findlay Prep in Nevada. While there, he became the No.1 Forward and the No.7 player overall in the high school class of 2012 according to ESPN'S ESPNU100. During his high school, he received many D1 offers but narrowed it down to Oregon or UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
College
Anthony Bennett had a very good College year while playing the PF and sometimes the SF position. He averaged 16.1 PPG, 8.1 RB, and 1.0 assists a game while having a 53 FG% and a 37.5% three-point FG percentage. During his college season, he got a shoulder injury which lead to him having restricted minutes and getting eliminated during the second round of the NCAA to California. After one year of college basketball Anthony Bennett declared for the 2013 NBA draft class.
Where it All Went Wrong
When Bennett came out of college there was a lot to like about him. He was seen as athletic, strong, and a polished player with a lot of potential but nowhere close to be worth a first pick. The 2013 draft class was/and still is a pretty weak draft class outside of Giannis and Victor Oladipo and there wasn't much interest in the class.2 So when the Cavaliers drafted him even Bennett himself was surprised he went first even being quoted to say “I had no idea. When they said my name, that’s when I knew.” Many NBA executives projected Bennett to not even go top 5 but despite the bold pick people still saw him being able to potentially live up to the hype. The problems started to emerge during the summer league. Due to the shoulder injury, he sustained earlier during his college career he was unable to show off his talents in the summer league. Furthermore, during his rookie season, it took Bennett over 50
minutes of playing time to even score his first bucket and over half a season to score more than 10 points during a single game (Bennett would only score double digits a total of 16 times his entire NBA career). During games it was clear he wasn't trying and during practices, Bennett would never show initiative to improve his game. After only one year with the Cavs, he would be traded to the Timberwolves during the ^(Bennett is no.15)
Kevin Love trade. While at the Timberwolves he didn't do any better averaging only 5.2 PPG and was waived after only 1 year. The Raptors decided to take a chance on him and yet again he would underachieve by averaging 1.5 PPG. According to reports, the Raptors would continually try to help Bennett improve his game but, they would be often rejected. In the final year of his NBA career, he would sign with the lottery team Brooklyn Nets as the last chance to redeem his career. He would do a little bit better averaging 5.0 PPG. After another disappointing year with no sign of improvements, the Brooklyn Nets finally let go of the former no.1 overall pick. After four years the former no.1 pick Anthony Bennett was out of the NBA. Bennett's career in the NBA is most likely over but, after a solid performance in the Olympic qualifiers for team Canada, the future looks better for Bennett.
Works Cited:
Anthony Bennett College stats: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/anthony-bennett-1.html