Dark Faze wrote:He's a terrible defender with no true position. Those stats are irrelevant. Just look at Mike Beasley and Derrick Williams if you want to think that stats transition to the NBA 1 for 1.
Bennett is certainly not a terrible defender. Dat has been saying this lately and it's not an accurate picture of his ability. I actually watched several UNLV games and I usually came away thinking his defense was good, certainly not terrible. He's probably not going to make any All NBA defense teams, but he can certainly be a solid NBA. And he was not a bad defender at UNLV.
Bennett struggled on occasion playing low post defense at the 5.
That is an entirely different thing from being a bad defender. He's actually a solid multi-positional defender that helped anchor one of the best defenses in D1 this year. UNLV was actually an elite D when he, Khem Birch, and Mike Moser were all healthy. Bennett is a good on ball perimeter defender that can stay in front of much smaller slashing perimeter players and he's also a powerful player that was comfortable muscling for position with college bigs playing Center. The only big I saw give him problems physically was Colton Iverson, a 23 year old 7 foot goon with 20 pounds on Bennett. Bennett has the natural strength to be a low post defender in the NBA and he's going to get bigger and stronger as he ages. Not bad for a guy who will be a PF/SF hybrid in the NBA.
Bennett also has a knack for blocking shots on the perimeter and coming up with big plays. You can't call him a terrible defender if you've seen him pick entry passes, hound a ball handler on the perimeter, or block 3 pointers and trigger fast breaks.
And it goes without saying that Bennett can eat the glass on defense. He was averaging something like 11 RPG before he got hurt.
The only defensive weaknesses that regularly jumped out at me were his tendency to get caught watching the ball and his rotations from the weak side. He's a bit of a gambler from the weak side and he can be slow to help out when he doesn't gamble. He's a perimeter oriented player who didn't have a great comfort level playing team D in the traditional big man role. But Bennett was also playing out of position at the 5 because of Mike Moser's injury, he will not be playing this kind of defensive role in the NBA. Bennett himself was also injured, and he was freshman learning the position on the fly. It was natural for him to struggle. It was a knowledge and effort issue IMO, not an issue of ability. The right system and the right teammates and the right coach could have him playing good defense for a great defensive team. You saw him doing it when he was playing his natural position at forward for a great UNLV D.
If guys who used to be total trash on defense like ZBo and Boozer can be a big part a top two defenses, then Bennett will be fine. Plus Bennett can cover the ball on the perimeter, giving you a little versatility in who you can stick him on that ZBo and Boozer certainly doesn't have.
Bennett has an NBA position too. If Carmelo can play PF full time for a solid defensive team, Bennett can play PF. He's a true face up PF that can play SF in big lineups if he goes to a team like Memphis that has two good bigs already. He's like a more talented Paul Millsap. Handles of a guard, shooting range past three, and a total bear in the lane that can tear the backboard down when he goes up with two hands. And focusing only on his D ignores the fact he's one of the best offensive players in the class and has tremendous offensive potential in the NBA. He's one of the top inside-outside scorers in the class that also has an NBA body and excellent athleticism. He's one of the few players who would be a lotto pick in most draft classes.
If I had any faith in this organization's ability to develop talented but immature young bigs, I would pick him third overall after McLemore and Noel go.
