How BAD Was Anthony Bennett Actually? 

Imagine you were Anthony Bennett and you see this pop up in your recommended

He definitely had talent. He had no fight in him. He realized quickly the league was very tough and he gave up.

Imagine Anthony Bennet is having a bad day then he decided to relax and watch RU-vid then this video pops out in the recommended.

I live up here in Canada and after Anthony Bennett got waived by the Toronto Raptors, one Canadian publication wrote an article on what really was going on with Anthony behind the scenes. The article said that Anthony reads the press clippings of what the media says about him and since most of it was negative, he would get emotional then shy away from playing plus training hard. The Toronto Raptors staff tried to stop him from reading articles about himself plus motivate him but he never listened which led to him putting little to know effort on improving his game. That was when Toronto got fed up and waived him.

Short Version How bad was he: Pretty bad Is he the worst 1st pick ever: Yes, close but yes

I remember guarding him in nba 2k14 rookie showcase, smh

i actually agree with griffin. you never know a player's true character. bennett might actually be a good player,but no matter how talented he is, if he didn't work at all, and if he broke under the pressure,he would always fail,not everyone has what it takes mentally to be great.

bennet is the prime example of scouts trusting the stat sheet instead of their eyes and intuition first.

Whoever decided to pick Anthony Bennett at no. 1 should receive a lifetime ban from the NBA.

actually forgot he existed till this video, that bad

I legit feel bad for the guy. Imagine being a late draft pick and having the skills of a late draft pick but having the expectations of a Lebron.

Greg Oden could've legitimately been a borderline superstar. There are various videos on RU-vid supporting that narrative. But dudes legs just completely gave out on him

This also tells us how good Kyrie is at leading teams on his own. He got the Cavs 2 1st picks in the draft.

He should’ve never been a 1st overall pick but Cleveland being Cleveland destroyed this kid’s career. If he went a little late then maybe he’s still in the NBA and also Cleveland didn’t use him on what he can do and just let him play like a guard out there.

Most lottery picks from 2008-14 were busts; when you look at it scouts were still stuck in the “Pre-Curry” NBA, over valuing the mid range and post skills. Curry really changed the whole league and how scouts scout talent since around 2016-present most lottery picks are solid role players or even superstars within 1-3years

Imagine to be constantly ridiculed like this. I hope he's okay.

Anthony Bennett is the prime example of playing on hall of fame difficulty for the first time

I really appreciate this take. Honestly, you cant say that people like Oden were easily a bust. They had a talent, they had a promising performance, but injuries were lingering too much. I also can't say Bargnani as one either, as he had a pretty long career and he had some good moments; although its clear he was not living up the expectations much longer. Bennett, ironically, never been injured, never had any bad circumstances, yet he gave up on trying and his productivity lost like its never been there. Yeah he might be the worst ever 1st pick.

This video was a little harsh on his time with the G League. He was a big that was shooting about 42% from three which is ELITE especially for his size and one of the reasons he was picked up by the Rockets that value floor spacing. He was waived due to him requiring knee surgery - not necessarily because he was bad. Definitely could've been a good depth piece on that Rockets team with Westbrook and Harden.

As a blazers fan, that was a rough montage so see Greg Oden, Sam Bowie, and Larue Martin all in a row

5:53 28 pts per minute? thats 1344 ppg. how is this guy not in the goat conversation

it's not his fault the Cleveland cavaliers picked him first

I’m going to be honest I played against Anthony Bennett in AAU He was on the team with a Guy that was 7ft5 but That’s besides the Point..He was the best player I ever had to check lol he was Damn Good in HS

You can call me a bust for a couple million.

We had how good is ______ actually, but not how bad lol

cleveland to wiggins: we have had enough

i still remember being astonished when i saw the cavs drafted him. some of these owners/gms are clueless

I thought he actually did pretty well his season with the Nets. He shot a lot of threes at a low percentage, but his two point percentage was in the upper 50s and he made it to the foul line a lot where he was decent free throw shooter. He also rebounded the ball really well. The main drawback was his defense. I expected him to make the rotation somewhere the next year and be a solid backup forward collecting 20+ minutes a game. I guess I was wrong.

Poor Pervis Ellison, he went from 'Never Nervous Pervis' to 'Out-of-Service Pervis'

0:51 THAT FLOP LMAO

One factor could be character. I don't really know what Bennett is like as a person. But the NBA has a lot of very aggressive and slick guys that can play mind games during matches. If he was socially shy that could be a big factor. It can eat away at your confidence if you don't know how to deal with diabolical bullying dudes and I'd wager there are plenty of those. You know the old quiet boy from Canada thing. Although Griffins explanation is probably more plausible.

I remember shaking my head when the Cavs drafted him. Reminded me of a Browns draft

I remember playing 2k14, Anthony Bennett is beast on that game.

Anthony Bennett has an estimated net worth of $8 million. I think he wins at life! Haha!

He's technically one of the greatest basketball players in the world, if you think about how hard it is to get into the NBA in the first place

Bowie wasn't the 1st pick the 1st pick was olajuwon, he was the 2nd pick and Jordan the 3rd

Just imagine if Cavs drafted Giannis at #1.

I just watched Bennett career sim then I searched Bennett highlights and then I saw this

Imagine having a team made up of Anthony Bennett, Kwame Brown, Darko Milicic, Hasheem Thabeet, Greg Oden, Joe Alexander, Adam Morrison, Michael Olowokandi, Jimmer Freddette and Robert Sacre......LOL.

I saw Anthony Bennett drop like maybe 10 straight points in his rookie season for the Cavs. The guy looked promising as hell. Who knew that was the last time he would play well.

I still remember that time he was playing at Golden State and he totally left his heart there.

He's the best dude in 2k14

I agree for the most part with this video. However, it is difficult to say that if he were drafted later he would have FOR SURE been out of the league sooner. Maybe a team would have drafted him in the late 1st or 2nd round and given him time to develop in the G-League. I mean this video said a lack of PT negatively impacted his career. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that he could have become a role player if this were to have happened. (Yes, I know I'm just speculating and we can't know for certain)

I remember seeing him play at UNLV and thinking he was going to be a beast in the league lol that's why you have to do more than just basketball evaluations when you draft these guys

Boy that's Dr. J ain't it @7:59 🤣🤣🤣🤣

He could be a solid late 2nd round pick role player

Just proves you have to work hard even if you’re talented.

I was playing 2k14 until now I just modified the game to the latest rosters and added cyber faces "Great hands are Gift but average hands (I forgot the line)" I just heard this from the PA announcer in the game but it was a quote for me it was like Bennett was gifted great hands unlike Giannis at that time who has the average hands and lots of space to improve now he became a star, MVP

7:02 Yes without a doubt!

Even at 60th pick I would regret drafting him.

He is definitely one of the players that should be the reason why the one and done is no longer a thing. He definitely needed more time to develop in college.

He was actually doing well with the rockets until he got injured. That's why he was waived

there is a video on youtube where they ask him how he got to the g league. that must have been very shameful.

Atleast he earned lots of money than I will do for the rest of my life..

8:00 minutes mark you mentioned LaRue Martin but that's the draft picture of the great Julius Erving!

Can you do one about Michael Beasley? Enjoyed the video!

It's always weird to see a video about an NBA player being 'bad'. The fact that he made it to the NBA is already so damn special, there are only a few thousand people who ever played in the NBA and these would all make everyone look like a fool on the court. I get it, for NBA standards bad, but gotta respect everyone who made it that far to begin with.

For me personally, he did improve his game while he was with the Brooklyn Nets. The saddest thing about it all is that due to his reputation as #1 pick, no NBA team will pick him so soon, but hope he makes a comeback someday. I'm happy the guy is still playing overseas

Ahh yes. I remember reading this kid actually want to go to Florida but he would have been academically Ineligible(neither Florida nor Kentucky, the two programs aside from unlv recruiting him the hardest, ever saw his transcripts so you can read between the lines there). So some people at Findlay told him if he committed to unlv they’d cook his grades for him.

good detailed vid, but at 7:58 mark thats a picture of Dr. Jay, not LaRue Martin, this youtube vid "Worst No. 1 Overall NBA Draft pick & the four picks after LaRue Martin" at the 0:54 used the same pic and mentioned "Julius Erving (Dr. Jay) and Bob McAdoo are the only two from the 72 draft to make to the hall of fame."

Should have never went to the NBA so fast

This whole video can’t be taken seriously because they failed to mention he was hurt at the beginning of the season which caused him to be out of shape and they hurried him back. Bad franchise

Good stuff

Thank you for always taking the time to do so much research! I can’t imagine how long it takes you to make a video and I have no idea why you don’t have more subs. Your videos are amazing, thank you!

I remember his fan base calling him a “BEAST” & saying stuff like I was a hater for not seeing the “GREATNESS” in him...I hardly hear from that fan base these days,wonder what happened?

5:50 28 points per minute! damn he's the GOAT

Got a chance to meet him when he played with the Agua Caliente Clippers. Nice guy. Wish him nothing but the best

I am amazed that no one could unlock his former potential. Does anyone know what was stopping him from getting better? Plenty of teams tried and failed. From what it sounds like he simply didn’t take care of himself and therefore was unable to sustain his play. A couple times up and down the court when you have zero fitness can really tucker you out particularly if you then need to take your large frame as well as body someone and then leap into the air and slam a dunk. Do that two or three times and you get his stat line. What a shame.

Still pretty damn good considering he was an nba player

I actually attended his high school in Canada, Harold M. Braithwaite

3:55 You mean Rudy Go Bert

To be fair to Cleveland, that draft had no standout players at the time. I remember Nerlens Noel being expected to be go number 1, even though he had no offensive game and recently had torn his ACL..That shows how the draft really had no standout players.

7:09 Kyle Kuzma is that you?

Dude had like an 8minute highlight of "lowlights" before scoring his first point

Oden was a beast back then. It's just that he had a terrible injuries and never recovered from it. It's always the injuries

I would love to see a 30 for 30 about his career one day.

Great video. In all fairness, Sam Bowie was the #2 overall (after Hakeem) in 1984

dislikes are from Bennet and his fam

2:49 I thought they are in the nets and checked the date u uploaded the video xd,hhhhhh

Watching his college highlights and seeing his size and shoulders it’s no damn way this dude shouldn’t be a 12 ppg scorer in the NBA... I thought he would be ok but like the GM said.. he couldn’t handle adversity

Answer: Very Bad

They say he was bad but in my career 2k13 that boy scoring like crazy

I'm from Las Vegas and watched him many times at UNLV and he was absolutely a beast UNLV was smashing along his lead I have no idea what happened....

I worked with Bennett in Minnesota. He was a good dude. Best of luck to him.

You're not telling the full story about that G League stint, he looked AMAZING. Iirc he got injured during camp or something and they waived him.

He had incredible talent and upside. He was just soft. Didn't have the drive to dedicate himself enough to be great. I play co-ed softball with a guy that was a VERY good safety at NCSU (not too long ago) and got drafted to the NFL. He just wasn't that kind of guy. It wasn't his passion and he simply wasn't enjoying the grind. If he had that killer instinct, he could have been a good pro, but he just didn't have it in him. He is a hell of guy and a good friend, but seeing him effortlessly do things that most people can't every weekend...it makes me kind of sad, but I'm glad he is happy with his decision.

In the first round 8 players are were not part of any NBA team in 2020/2021 season. It starts with Bennet at 1st and the next one was at number 14th (so only 2 players in the lottery are not playing currently), while last 5 were very late in the draft. I think when very bad teams recieve 1st pick, and there isn't a clear first option, they should fire their current scout (if he doesn't have immaculate record) and hire some scouting savant proven in the league. The smart thing for Cavs to do in this draft was to try to get some young talent + a pick in the lottery, since they were taking projected 10th pick as 1st anyway. It was bad decision not to trade down if they were locked in at Bennet. By picking him as 1st pick in history from Canada, they put immense pressure on him, and that might have halted his developement - we sometimes forget that these are just kids (think of yourself at 18/19 years old), and Bennet shown lack of confidence on the court first minute of his first game. He might have developed to at least solid roleplayer when chosen as the 10th pick without any real expectations or pressure, slowly developing his game.

I think he might’ve done better if he was picked where he was expected to. If he was looked at more as a project, the team that drafted him wouldn’t be so quick to give up on him. After one year they were already ready to send him to the G-league and change his position.

I just find it crazy that you can change your whole families life with an opportunity and not work hard and expand upon it.

Why at 6:30 when you were talking about people being cut because they most likely 2nd round picks or undrafted u put a pic of Fred vanvleet lmao

I remember not hearing about him until he get picked first! Lol I was like wtf is that?🤣🤣🤣

The picture you use at 7:59 while talking about LaRue Martin is actually Dr. J.

Sam Bowie was pick 2, Olajuwon was first.

Can't we just leave mans alone?? Who actually cares about Anthony Bennet at this moment?

FYI, Sam Bowie was the #2 overall pick, so shouldn't be included in the list of "busts" at 7:47.

I never even heard of him until this RU-vid recommendation.

I went to the restroom to see this video. Was it worth the miss?

I really thought Bennett was going to turn it around after leaving Cleveland. I thought his confidence had plummeted and he hadn't been ready for the expectations of being the #1 pick (in most drafts this guy probably wouldn't even be top 5) and would benefit big time from a change a scenery. But it seemed he remained essentially the same below-average player. Crazy to think the guy is only in his late 20s now.

Good video.

“In the NBA, superstars are hard to come by.” Both superstars shown now play on the same team lol