Ex-No. 1 pick Anthony Bennett will play for his 4th team in 4 seasons

It’s no great surprise that teams are willing to wait on the development of high-lottery draft picks. These players usually come in with immense hype and potential that confers them as potential franchise saviors, although they’re also almost always raw enough to require at least a year or two of development. If that talent does not show up immediately, there’s a decent chance it will later. Plus, general managers and coaches often rely on continued faith in those players to hold on to their own jobs.

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Anthony Bennett, the first overall pick in the 2013 draft, has been the overwhelming exception to the rule. The Cleveland Cavaliers selected the Toronto-born forward after one promising season at UNLV in a draft that had no clear top choice. Bennett proceeded to put forth a terrible rookie season, after which he served as a second-tier piece alongside Andrew Wiggins in the trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves that brought that brought Kevin Love to the Cavs. The Wolves bought out his contract that summer, which freed him up to join the Toronto Raptors in the hope of rekindling his career at home. That didn’t work, either — Bennett requested a demotion to the D-League in December and was waived in February to make room for journeyman Jason Thompson.

It would not have been terribly surprising for Bennett to have to go to the D-League or overseas in pursuit of another NBA chance. However, it looks like a fourth team is going to give him a shot. As reported by The Vertical’s Shams Charania, Bennett has agreed to a deal with the Brooklyn Nets:

Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com adds that the Nets worked out Bennett at a veteran minicamp early in the offseason and liked what they saw.

The terms of the deal make sense for both Bennett and the Nets. Now entering his fourth season, Bennett cannot afford to wait around for another offer. The Nets are short on established frontcourt players (or really established players of any kind) and need any infusion of talent they can get. Without many draft picks on hand, general manager Sean Marks and new head coach Kenny Atkinson know they have a long rebuilding process ahead. They can afford to take a chance on a player once thought to have great potential, even if the odds that it works out are low.

To be clear, Bennett is unlikely to develop into an especially valuable player after three rough seasons. Though still just 23 years old, Bennett has never shot better than 42.1 percent from the field over a full season and logged all of 82 minutes in 19 appearances for the Raptors before his release. It’s arguable that he would be out of the league if not for his status as a No. 1 overall pick, a designation that can cause many teams to look for untapped potential. The 12-season career of Kwame Brown is proof enough.

At the same time, it’s important to remember that Bennett’s selection came as a big surprise in the moment, with few rumors even placing him as a legitimate option for the Cavaliers. Nerlens Noel’s midseason ACL tear at Kentucky robbed the draft of its most likely top prospect and put Cleveland in a position where any choice would carry risks. Even amid the shock of the pick, Bennett didn’t exactly seem like a wrong choice.

No matter where he’d been picked, Bennett still ranks as one of the most notable busts in recent draft history — many players picked after him have been much better and at least become rotation mainstays. But tabbing him as a failed No. 1 pick only tells so much of the story. We’re not dealing with an Anthony Davis-level prospect who fell flat on his face. More than anything, Bennett is representative of a draft that seems certain to go down as one of the weakest in NBA history.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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