CLEVELAND (92.3 The Fan) – Cleveland Cavaliers forward and number one pick in the NBA draft, Anthony Bennett, has struggled in his first three games as a professional.
Bennett has yet to net his first field goal (0-for-12) and the questions are mounting regarding his slow start.
Coach Mike Brown tried to calm Bennett’s nerves with a little advice for the struggling rookie.
“AB, go out there and have fun and be the animal you were in college,” Brown said he told Bennett. “You know what, when you were in college, you played with a swagger… Just go out there and be yourself. Just attack. If you’re open from three, just shoot with confidence. Don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine.
“Just try to be the man that you were last year with the confidence, aggressiveness and assertiveness that you had offensively and let the chips fall.”
Brown is not concerned about Bennett’s confidence level. He feels Bennett just needs to relax and have fun on the floor.
“The more the sees the ball go into the hoop, the more he’s going to grow,” Brown said. “But he’s probably putting more pressure on himself than we are as a coaching staff and his teammates are, which is good. I mean, he’s the number one pick in the draft. He should put pressure on himself.
“He’s a talented player. We’ve all seen it… In time, it will come and show that its there.”
Ahead of schedule: While the Cavs offense continues to struggle, Mike Brown’s concept of defense seems to taking hold with the Wine and Gold. Brown is impressed with the way his squad has picked it up, despite how little time they have spent together as a team.
“They are ahead of my schedule of where I thought they’d be defensively,” Brown said. “We’ve made some mistakes. But defensively, we’re probably a little ahead of the game… Overall, the stuff that we’ve been preaching to the guys has been better than not.”
Long-Term Bynum Outlook: In what is sure to be a running theme for the season, Brown updated the status of center Andrew Bynum prior to Monday’s game with Minnesota.
“It’s going to be the same thing for a while. Going into each game seeing how he feels,” Brown said when asked what the plan for Bynum was.
The seven-footer did not play in the second half of the back-to-back in Indiana against the Pacers. That could remain the case in all back-to-back scenarios, though Brown would not say that definitively.
“That could change,” Brown said. “Right now, obviously we have a long term approach that we’re taking with him. Stuff has changed from time to time on a daily basis. I don’t want to commit to one thing and next thing you know, we’re stuck in a box because I said. We’re just taking it literally one day at a time.”
Speaking of which, Bynum is still adjusting in his return to the floor. The Cavs center indicated to reporters prior to the game that he feels his explosiveness may never return. Instead, Bynum said he is relying more on his positioning and footwork on the floor.
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