Anthony Bennett‘s camp thought the Raptors never gave him the opportunity to develop and feels coach Dwane Casey doesn’t trust young players, Sportsnet’s Michael Grange writes. GM Masai Ujiri acknowledged Bennett didn’t get as much of a chance in Toronto as the Raptors thought he would, and Casey admitted he probably could have done a better job of finding minutes for the former No. 1 overall pick, as Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun notes. Still, Grange contends minutes were available for Bennett had he shown he deserved them and believes that while Bennett went on four D-League assignments, he could have approached them more vigorously. See more from the Atlantic Division, with Bennett poised to come off waivers from Toronto at 4pm Central today:
- Jimmer Fredette is expected to rejoin the Knicks D-League affiliate now that his 10-day contract with New York is up, reports Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. The Knicks reportedly have no intention of re-signing the former BYU star to the NBA roster.
- Knicks team president Phil Jackson hasn’t given any indication that he wants to leave the team, interim coach Kurt Rambis said to reporters, including Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork.com (ESPN Now link).
- Nets GM Sean Marks insists owner Mikhail Prokhorov is on board with a slow rebuild, with Marks telling Brian Lewis of the New York Post that Prokhorov’s willingness to take a patient approach with the roster was clear while he was interviewing for the GM job. The owner reportedly believed as of a few weeks ago that the team could quickly return to contention this summer and said in January that, “I’m sure for the next season, we’ll be, I hope, [a] championship contender.”
- Marks also spoke of a desire to find players for next season via 10-day deals the rest of the way this year and said that while he’s open to hiring a coach who runs a system unfamiliar to him, he’ll insist on someone he already has a relationship with, as Lewis relays in the same piece.
- The Celtics assigned rookie R.J. Hunter to the D-League today, the team announced (Twitter link). That’s trip No. 3 for last year’s No. 28 pick.
It was curious why the Raptors wanted Bennett during the offseason, then buried him on the bench all season.
Depth never hurt anybody…the Cavs signed Mo Williams and outside of starting a few games in the beginning of the year, he has rode the bench basically all year. I think Toronto, to some degree, hoped Bennett would enjoy playing in Canada and could play at a level that his draft status warranted. Plus Toronto probably exceeded their expectations a bit and its hard to warrant giving minutes to a guy who isn’t as good as the guys above him when the team is fighting for a good playoff spot.
Jimmer played 5 minutes… scored 7 points. His PER 36 is amazing.. 50 points per 36?
Seriously…who’s out there that’s going to be so much better than Jimmer ?
Seriously…who are they going to find that’s so much better than Jimmer ?