Report: Wolves dangling Anthony Bennett as trade bait

Anthony Bennett, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 draft, has had two largely disappointing seasons in the NBA. The first with Cleveland was bad enough that the Cavs were willing to give him up after just one season as part of last summer’s blockbuster trade with the Wolves that also sent Andrew Wiggins to Minnesota in exchange for Kevin Love.

Bennett was either injured or ineffective for much of his year in Minnesota. And now it appears the Wolves are ready to move on from him just as quickly as Cleveland was. Per a tweet from ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Wolves have made Bennett available in a trade prior to Thursday’s draft.

I’m not sure what the Wolves would get for Bennett at this point, though he is still just two years removed from being the top pick and could have some suitors who liked him coming out of college.

Though it’s not terribly surprising that the Wolves would reportedly consider trading him, it does send a pretty clear signal that at least that portion of last summer’s trade — the part that was going to be the wild card from the start — has not worked out how Minnesota had hoped.