It's a matter if you think a skilled 22 year old will finally make it or not, it's really that simple
He is not skilled.
He averaged less than 4 RPG, less than 1 APG, shoots under .40% for his career and less than .5 SPG and .5 BPG. What skills exactly does he possess.
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/2991473/anthony-bennett
The whole premise of my post is that Bennett still has potential. The tools are there. His production has obviously been horrible. If his stats weren't horrible, there's no way you could trade a lowly 16th pick for him. Bringing up how horrible is stats are seems to miss the point entirely.
It's like last year when I'd say, "We should go after Ben McLemore... he's been a major disappointment... he theoretically could be available for dirt cheap, but everything I see about him suggests those shots will eventually start falling", and people would respond by saying, "no way... McLemore is horrible... look at his stats!". Yeah, no kidding... that's the point. Teams don't usually abandon a #6 pick after a single season. His garbage stats were why he was theoretically available. Then Ben goes from averaging 8.8 points on 37%/32%/80% shooting to 12 points on 44%/36%/81% shooting... Finishes out the final month this season averaging 16 points, 3.1 assists, 3.6 rebounds, 1.8 steals on 49%/35%/75% shooting... The 22 year old has a future. Theoretically we could have snagged him for very little. Too late now. Now the Kings have Stauskas who was even worse as a rookie and people once again are saying, "he's horrible!"... I mean, he could shoot in College. Players take time to develop. YOu can't call them busts after a single season.
Bennett has busted for two season, though and I can't fault anyone for writing him off. I feel like there's at least some partial excuse for Bennett's 2 years of futility (as pointed out in my original post). There are some explanations for his struggles. I still there's reason to believe he can develop into something. The question is, do you think he has more potential at this point than whoever we're going to get with the 16th pick? I think he probably does.
Ultimately hopefully that doesn't matter and Ainge cons some team into trading down to #16. But it'll be interesting to revisit this thread in a few years to see how #16 is doing in comparison to Anthony Bennett. Maybe they are both out of the league by then.