Ranking all of Steph’s teammates: #105 — Keith Benson

On June 25, 2009, the Golden State Warriors drafted Steph Curry. Ten years and 16 days later, the Oklahoma City Thunder traded Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets. With that move, Curry became the NBA leader in longest tenure with his current team. No player in the NBA has played for their team for as long as Curry have.

During that time, Curry has had 106 teammates who have appeared in at least one game. Some played in exactly one game, while others played in hundreds. Some never actually played in a game that Curry was active for, while others formed historically time great partnerships with him.

And I’m ranking all 106, one a day, over the course of three months.

Players are ranked — and stats are shown — based only on their time as Curry’s teammates. How good/bad they were in other organizations doesn’t matter. How good/bad they were on pre-2009-10 Warriors teams doesn’t matter.

To see all of the rankings thus far, you can click on the “Ranking Steph’s teammates” tag at the top of the article.

#105: Keith Benson

Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

Games: 3 (T-100th out of 106)
Points per game: 0.0 (T-105th out of 106)
Rebounds per game: 1.0 (T-93rd out of 106)
Assists per game: 0.0 (T-102nd out of 106)

Yesterday we documented Dewayne Dedmon, who started his career by doing nothing with the Warriors, but has since gone on to become a quality NBA player.

Today it’s all about Keith Benson, whose NBA story starts the same but ends in a fashion that’s a bit less rosy.

A 6-foot-11 center, Benson was drafted 48th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks, but was cut before the lockout-shortened season began.

A few months of D-League play later, and Benson signed a 10-day contract with the Warriors, where he racked up the following stats: 3 games, 9 minutes, 0 points, 3 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, and 0 blocks.

He never played in the NBA again.

Still, give Benson props for tenacity. He signed with the Hawks again prior to the 2012-13 season, but was once again cut in camp. And then he did the same with the Miami Heat in 2015-16, and doubled down by repeating that action in 2016-17.

He ended up spending that 2016-17 season in the D-League, where he averaged 20.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game, but the NBA never came calling again.

Benson spent the 2019-20 season playing in Australia’s NBL against players like former Warriors center Andrew Bogut, and NBA prospect LaMelo Ball.

Maybe the 31-year old will get another chance in the NBA, but it certainly appears that his NBA career will be confined to nine minutes of action, no points (one of just two players on this list who didn’t score), and (for now), being the 105th best teammate that Steph Curry has had.