Dragan Bender News, Discussion and Highlights

King4Day · Post #301 » by **King4Day** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 12:29 pm

Anyone know the latest with Bender? I though I heard he could return with around 11-13 games left (we have 15 left). I imagine in the next week we'll know (or see him). I really can't wait for him to get a chance to run with these guys. I would bet Dudley is the one who'll see his minutes go down.

Post #302 » by **bwgood77** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 1:34 pm

DarkHawk wrote:Anyone know the latest with Bender? I though I heard he could return with around 11-13 games left (we have 15 left). I imagine in the next week we'll know (or see him). I really can't wait for him to get a chance to run with these guys. I would bet Dudley is the one who'll see his minutes go down.

Apparently he was warming up before this last game. Sunk a bunch of consecutive 3s from the top of the key.

King4Day · Post #303 » by **King4Day** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 1:56 pm

bwgood77 wrote:
DarkHawk wrote:Anyone know the latest with Bender? I though I heard he could return with around 11-13 games left (we have 15 left). I imagine in the next week we'll know (or see him). I really can't wait for him to get a chance to run with these guys. I would bet Dudley is the one who'll see his minutes go down.

Apparently he was warming up before this last game. Sunk a bunch of consecutive 3s from the top of the key.

Glad to hear. I'm excited to see him get minutes. It may help the tank slightly too.

I expect him to come off the bench the rest of the way.

sunsbum · Post #304 » by **sunsbum** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:32 pm

Can't wait to watch some unicorn!

Post #305 » by **Qwigglez** » Tue Mar 14, 2017 7:32 am

It was fun watching Chriss's game develop his rookie year. I think next year we are going to see the same kind of development for Bender.

Steve Nashidis · Post #306 » by **Steve Nashidis** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 10:06 pm

I stop writing to this forum because i had heavily criticized about my comments on Bender.

I had told that Papagiannis will be a perfect pick for our team cause Bender is a bust at #4 .
So instead of tread up for Chriss , it will be more clever to keep Papagiannis on #13 because there are plenty of reasons to invest on his talent and trade down to Chriss. Its simple math. Give #4 and the bust pick of Bender and get Chriss and something good on return ( future pick or something else).

Neither admins , stop those bad comments about my opinion . Now , we see that Bender is a ghost in our team, no one cares about him and his contribution is worst than Papagiannis. But someone could tell that Bender is injured and lost his rookie year. I can accept this because i respect everyone's opinion and i hope Bender to help our team.

I love my team. I love suns fans because in my country there aren't many. But i cant be on silence when we are wrong. And from 2010 and now there are plenty of those stupid mistakes.
From Bledsoe,Thomas,Dragic we stuck with this this awfull unprofessional player,(Knight) loosing two all star players. Mcdonough still working for Boston.

--Sorry for my english. I try hard though.

---From tonights game boxscore of Papagiannis. http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400900423
Papagiannis. 11 rebs, 14 points

---From Dleague

Watch on YouTube

----Keep an eye to the finland star of Arizona State. Lauri Markkanen

carey · Post #307 » by **carey** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 11:17 pm

Bender is not a bust yet. Markkanen plays for U of A not ASU.

Christine-In-AZ · Post #308 » by **Christine-In-AZ** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:05 am

Wow! I think Papagiannis's caboose weighs more than an entire Tyler Ulis.

First time I've seen him in action...he does leave an impression. I'm happy with McD's move, and guessing I'll be even more pleased before this season is finished. Expecting Bender to get some good PT before we box things up in April.

Bogyo · Post #309 » by **Bogyo** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:58 am

Yeah, the way I see it Bender will almost count as a rookie next year. He did not get any playing time before the all star break (which I still can't understand AT ALL, he would have the same impact on the game overall as Chriss, with different tools), and was injured afterwards. Here is hoping he gets a good offseason, summer league, workout and games with his national team, and a good 20 minutes per game next year. Then we will see what he is capable of. This year he didn't even have the time to warm up - shame.

Christine-In-AZ · Post #310 » by **Christine-In-AZ** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 9:19 am

Bogyo wrote:Yeah, the way I see it Bender will almost count as a rookie next year. He did not get any playing time before the all star break (which I still can't understand AT ALL, he would have the same impact on the game overall as Chriss, with different tools), and was injured afterwards. Here is hoping he gets a good offseason, summer league, workout and games with his national team, and a good 20 minutes per game next year. Then we will see what he is capable of. This year he didn't even have the time to warm up - shame.

He did log close to 450 minutes in November thru late January, but still too little and inconsistent of PT for him to really shake off his rookie-ness.

Bogyo · Post #311 » by **Bogyo** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 5:06 pm

ChrisInAZ wrote:
Bogyo wrote:Yeah, the way I see it Bender will almost count as a rookie next year. He did not get any playing time before the all star break (which I still can't understand AT ALL, he would have the same impact on the game overall as Chriss, with different tools), and was injured afterwards. Here is hoping he gets a good offseason, summer league, workout and games with his national team, and a good 20 minutes per game next year. Then we will see what he is capable of. This year he didn't even have the time to warm up - shame.

He did log close to 450 minutes in November thru late January, but still too little and inconsistent of PT for him to really shake off his rookie-ness.

Ooops I left out "consistent". Won't edit now. :oops:

I do know this stat, but those minutes were really inconsistent, plus he did not get any chance to really show his skills - unlike Chriss.
Still hard to comprehend for me. He was the 4th pick for a reason...

MrMiyagi · Post #312 » by **MrMiyagi** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:00 pm

Steve Nashidis wrote:I stop writing to this forum because i had heavily criticized about my comments on Bender.

I had told that Papagiannis will be a perfect pick for our team cause Bender is a bust at #4 .
So instead of tread up for Chriss , it will be more clever to keep Papagiannis on #13 because there are plenty of reasons to invest on his talent and trade down to Chriss. Its simple math. Give #4 and the bust pick of Bender and get Chriss and something good on return ( future pick or something else).

Neither admins , stop those bad comments about my opinion . Now , we see that Bender is a ghost in our team, no one cares about him and his contribution is worst than Papagiannis. But someone could tell that Bender is injured and lost his rookie year. I can accept this because i respect everyone's opinion and i hope Bender to help our team.

I love my team. I love suns fans because in my country there aren't many. But i cant be on silence when we are wrong. And from 2010 and now there are plenty of those stupid mistakes.
From Bledsoe,Thomas,Dragic we stuck with this this awfull unprofessional player,(Knight) loosing two all star players. Mcdonough still working for Boston.

--Sorry for my english. I try hard though.

---From tonights game boxscore of Papagiannis. http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400900423
Papagiannis. 11 rebs, 14 points

---From Dleague

Watch on YouTube

----Keep an eye to the finland star of Arizona State. Lauri Markkanen

I think the reason we chose Chriss and Bender was because we wanted more versatile bigs to pair in the front court with Len. Both are quick for their size, which will hopefully serve them well in developing into NBA defenders. Papagiannis seems to be a more traditional center who wouldn't have paired well with Len, but given how disappointing Len has been (in my opinion anyway), Papagiannis might have made for a good replacement. I don't think Bender can be classified as a bust, given that he hasn't played much and we drafted him knowing he wasn't going to be NBA ready day 1. Papagiannis hasn't exactly set the league on fire, but he, like Bender, are young and promising.

And as a University of Arizona fan, I'm already very impressed by Lauri Markkanen and think he should be a top 5 pick.

MrMiyagi · Post #313 » by **MrMiyagi** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:22 pm

Bogyo wrote:
ChrisInAZ wrote:
Bogyo wrote:Yeah, the way I see it Bender will almost count as a rookie next year. He did not get any playing time before the all star break (which I still can't understand AT ALL, he would have the same impact on the game overall as Chriss, with different tools), and was injured afterwards. Here is hoping he gets a good offseason, summer league, workout and games with his national team, and a good 20 minutes per game next year. Then we will see what he is capable of. This year he didn't even have the time to warm up - shame.

He did log close to 450 minutes in November thru late January, but still too little and inconsistent of PT for him to really shake off his rookie-ness.

Ooops I left out "consistent". Won't edit now.
I do know this stat, but those minutes were really inconsistent, plus he did not get any chance to really show his skills - unlike Chriss.
Still hard to comprehend for me. He was the 4th pick for a reason...

Well, I remember making the argument for drafting players with an elite skill in the top 5 and Bender didn't demonstrate any at draft time IMO. He did, however, flash a wide range of skills along with mobility. Combine that with being a very young 7 footer and Porzingis' rookie season (which definitely impacted some GMs thought process while evaluating Bender), you can see the risk being worth the reward. I also think we knew Bender had a greater chance of being taken before our second pick, so we pulled the trigger on him first. There are a couple of teams I could see wanting Bender after #4, especially given the "Next Porzingis" tag (KAT and "Porzingis" front court? Davis and "Porzingis"? Jokic and "Porzingis"?), including Sacramento at 8 (Boogie and "Porzingis"?). I think by taking Bender, Sacramento didn't have anyone they felt strongly about, so the traded down with us to multiply their assets.

NTB · Post #314 » by **NTB** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:36 pm

http://fansided.com/2017/03/10/dragan-bender-next-generation/

Jarlaxle0204 · Post #315 » by **Jarlaxle0204** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:07 pm

I really hope Dragan gets a chance to get out there with the youngins before the end of the season. He's the player I most want to see right now. I'm still incredibly high on him.

kennydorglas · Post #316 » by **kennydorglas** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:01 pm

NTB wrote:http://fansided.com/2017/03/10/dragan-bender-next-generation/

That's a beautiful shot chart by Dragan. At least one player on this team knows how to pick his spots perfectly.

Post #317 » by **lilfishi22** » Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:56 am

Steve Nashidis wrote:I stop writing to this forum because i had heavily criticized about my comments on Bender.

I had told that Papagiannis will be a perfect pick for our team cause Bender is a bust at #4 .
So instead of tread up for Chriss , it will be more clever to keep Papagiannis on #13 because there are plenty of reasons to invest on his talent and trade down to Chriss. Its simple math. Give #4 and the bust pick of Bender and get Chriss and something good on return ( future pick or something else).

Neither admins , stop those bad comments about my opinion . Now , we see that Bender is a ghost in our team, no one cares about him and his contribution is worst than Papagiannis. But someone could tell that Bender is injured and lost his rookie year. I can accept this because i respect everyone's opinion and i hope Bender to help our team.

I love my team. I love suns fans because in my country there aren't many. But i cant be on silence when we are wrong. And from 2010 and now there are plenty of those stupid mistakes.
From Bledsoe,Thomas,Dragic we stuck with this this awfull unprofessional player,(Knight) loosing two all star players. Mcdonough still working for Boston.

--Sorry for my english. I try hard though.

---From tonights game boxscore of Papagiannis. http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400900423
Papagiannis. 11 rebs, 14 points

---From Dleague

Watch on YouTube

----Keep an eye to the finland star of Arizona State. Lauri Markkanen

Maybe, maybe not but it's way too early to call Bender a bust and Papagiannis the "right pick" when he's played a grand total of 98mins in 11 games this season. Also, for sure don't use one good game as your evidence that we should've taken Papa over Bender.

Mods aren't going to tell people not to criticise your posts. Every post you and I make is up for judgement and criticism by other posters on this forum and if you think it shouldn't be, then forums aren't the safe space you're looking for.

Again, it's too early to call Bender a bust, especially when the guy you're rooting for and comparing to has only played 11 games so far this season.

sunskerr · Post #318 » by **sunskerr** » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:38 am

Nashidis is Greek. Of course he will support Papagiannis. I don't know anything about Papagiannis but I like a lot of what I saw from Dragan Bender this season in his minutes.

@Steve Nashidis we can understand your English. You're doing very well for someone who is learning. Keep it up!

Skillmatic · Post #319 » by **Skillmatic** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 9:16 am

Do you guys think Bender can play the 5 in the future if he is working on his body? Or will Chriss be a better fit at the 5 with Bender at the 4? This would allow us to let Len go.

Would love a lineup of Bledsoe/Booker/Jackson/Chriss/Bender with TJ of the bench.

MathiasPW · Post #320 » by **MathiasPW** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 12:01 pm

Skillmatic wrote:Do you guys think Bender can play the 5 in the future if he is working on his body? Or will Chriss be a better fit at the 5 with Bender at the 4? This would allow us to let Len go.

Would love a lineup of Bledsoe/Booker/Jackson/Chriss/Bender with TJ of the bench.

I'd say Bender at 5 because he has a longer reach and moves quicker and can alter shots just by stretching his arms in front of his man, and Chris at 4 as a weak side helper with crazy jumps to block whatever passes Bender.

Would you bring back Bender?