Anthony Bennett agreed to a buyout on Tuesday with the Minnesota Timberwolves and is now in the process of figuring out where he might play his basketball next season. Bennett is currently on waivers where if he is claimed the claiming team will pick up his salary as it was before the buyout and only four teams can afford to take on that salary. Two of those four teams, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Portland Trail Blazers, reportedly are considering whether they should claim Bennett, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.
The other two teams that reportedly have the cap room to claim Bennett are the Utah Jazz and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who would be using a trade exception to get him. As of right now the reports are that just the 76ers and the Blazers have interest with the Blazers being his most likely destination, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.
If Bennett is claimed off waivers he will be set to make more than $5.8 million this season with a team option in the 2016-17 season for more than $7 million. If Bennett somehow clears waivers he will become a free agent and will have a choice of which team to play for but his salary will also be reduced.
Bennett is coming off his best stretch of basketball this summer playing for Team Canada in the FIBA Americas tournament and two of his coaches from that team are on the Portland staff. Jay Triano is an assistant for the Blazers and is the head coach for Canada while David Vanterpool is an assistant in both places. The thought is that if Bennett could go somewhere with familiarity maybe his coaches from Canada could get him to play like he did this summer, in the NBA.
Bennett is still just 22 years old and was considered a consensus top ten talent in the 2013 NBA Draft, although almost nobody agreed with him going first overall. Bennett is all but guaranteed to be on a roster next season, at this point it is just a matter of whether he is claimed on waivers or hits free agency but as of right now it looks like the Blazers might want to grab him before anyone else has the chance to.
