A 6'10" fit Perry Jones with no knees is still more useful to the NBA than a 6'7" overweight Anthony Bennett with knees.
Agree
Sure, if you think that knee regeneration is easier than getting into better shape (which, spoiler alert: it isn't)
When a player is injured you can send him to surgery. You don't know if it will fix the problem (permanently or at all) but you can be sure the surgery will happen.
When a player has issues with weight/conditioning, there is nothing certain you can do because it's generally all mental. You can lock the guy in the gym and tell him he's not allowed to eat burgers, but it's still up to him to hit that treadmill or drive past the McDonalds.
It's much easier to fix a bone than it is to change a person's mentality, especially if the mentality is a result of bad habits that person has picked up over years of living a certain lifestyle.
Secondly, Bennet's only 6'7" which is extremely undersized for a Power Forward - that puts him at a disadvantage from the start, even before the conditioning comes in to play. I can really only think of two guys in the last 10 or so, with measurements similar to Bennett, who have gone on to become been good NBA players. Those guys are Paul Millsap and Brandon Bass. Both of those guys have a relentless motor, a tireless work ethic, and have amazing physical conditioning. You pretty much need all of that (AND skill) to get by as an undersized PF in the NBA, because you need to pretty much work harder than everybody else to stay competitive.
On the other hand you can look at Jeff Green as the perfect example of a guy who (despite questionable motor, questionable work ethic and limited skill set) was able to be a very productive NBA player for years based almost entirely on his physical talent. Green can't dribble, can't pass, is a terrible rebounder and is only an "OK" shooter, and yet has been able to get substantial roles on teams pretty much as long as he's been in the league.
Perry Jones is very similar to Green in that he's not exceptionally skilled, and is basically all "physical talent" at this point - the difference is that Jones is even more physically gifted than Green ever was. This means that Jones has the potential to be a very productive NBA player, even if he never really develops, simply because of his ability to dominate physically. We've already seen that in the couple of big games he had.
In this league guys who are physically below average need to work twice as hard, while guys who are physically above average can cruise a little and still earn a paycheck. Neither Bennett nor Jones seems like the ultimate workaholic, so to me Jones is (by far) the more likely to actually become a decent rotation player.
Topic: Who has more potential Anthony Bennet or Perry Jones III (Read 8330 times)