There are 'no expectations' in Anthony Bennett's Toronto homecoming
It might not have all the trappings of a fairly tale come to life, but there's something nice about former No. 1 pick Anthony Bennett getting a chance to right his NBA career with his hometown Toronto Raptors. The Raptors and Bennett aren't framing his time in Toronto as his last chance, however. Instead, the team is making it clear that Bennett feeling comfortable is a top priority.
Raptors coach Dwane Casey recently told Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports that there's no pressure on Bennett, and that the team isn't expecting anything in particular out of the big man as he tried to find his niche:
And that's probably best for both Bennett and the team. It's by no means his fault that he was drafted too highly by the Cleveland Cavaliers, but his draft slot brought expectations that Bennett wasn't able to fulfill. Now that he's been able to hit the reset button on his career, perhaps he can work his way back into an NBA rotation.
"He came in refreshed a little bit," Casey said. "The [pressure] is off. Just come in and play basketball. There are no expectations. We don’t expect him to come in and be the so-called No. 1 pick. Coming back to Toronto having to live up to that, I thought that would be the biggest hurdle. It hasn’t been.
"All that pressure has been lifted by being bought out, almost hitting rock bottom so to speak. Now he’s getting another chance to come out and play."
