Dragan Bender News, Discussion and Highlights

[bhawk]

I'm just really hoping McD is in Watson's ear telling him to raise PJ Tucker's trade value by over playing him. Nothing else makes sense.

Maybe we're close to trading Dragan? Was he sick? Drunk? Still trying to make sense of this. A birthday is 'generally' important to a person. Watson had to know it was his birthday - right? Let's play this out...

INT: Team Bus on way to Indiana game.

Earl: Happy b-day, Drag.
Drag: Thanks, coach. I'm feelin' it tonight.
Earl: Let's see how the game flows.
Drag: I'll be ready.

INT: Indiana locker room. High fives all around for Ulis and Williams. Starter - Marquees Chriss - walks out with a Dragan cake. The "family" known as the PHX Suns start to sing happy birthday for the defeated Dragan Bender who is still sitting in his warm-ups.

Earl: Get you next time, kid.
Drag: F.U.

Free Agency 2020:

McD: We'd like to resign you.
Drag: Remember my rookie year and my 19th b-day when I got the DNP?

[carey]

Still dumbfounded by his DNP's, considering Chriss is playing every game.
Bender right now is better, way more polished and just understands how to play the game.

I don't know that he's better, but he's certainly not worse. I was really frustrated last night. If you can't find minutes for Dragan when you're up 18 with 4 minutes left, have Chandler and Warren out, and have Tucker closing in on 40 minutes then you're sitting him on purpose. After saying, "We have to find a way to get him more minutes and it has to happen now" you look like a damn fool.

[bhawk]

I'm just really hoping McD is in Watson's ear telling him to raise PJ Tucker's trade value by over playing him. Nothing else makes sense.

Maybe we're close to trading Dragan? Was he sick? Drunk? Still trying to make sense of this. A birthday is 'generally' important to a person. Watson had to know it was his birthday - right? Let's play this out...

INT: Team Bus on way to Indiana game.

Earl: Happy b-day, Drag.
Drag: Thanks, coach. I'm feelin' it tonight.
Earl: Let's see how the game flows.
Drag: I'll be ready.

INT: Indiana locker room. High fives all around for Ulis and Williams. Starter - Marquees Chriss - walks out with a Dragan cake. The "family" known as the PHX Suns start to sing happy birthday for the defeated Dragan Bender who is still sitting in his warm-ups.

Earl: Get you next time, kid.
Drag: F.U.

Free Agency 2020:

McD: We'd like to resign you.
Drag: Remember my rookie year and my 19th b-day when I got the DNP?

Correction: Bender turned 19 on Thursday, not Friday. I take it all back.

[LacosteM]

Still dumbfounded by his DNP's, considering Chriss is playing every game.
Bender right now is better, way more polished and just understands how to play the game.

I don't know that he's better, but he's certainly not worse. I was really frustrated last night. If you can't find minutes for Dragan when you're up 18 with 4 minutes left, have Chandler and Warren out, and have Tucker closing in on 40 minutes then you're sitting him on purpose. After saying, "We have to find a way to get him more minutes and it has to happen now" you look like a damn fool.

Ultimately it's a bad look for the organization when your young and upcoming 4th pick is getting dnp's in favour of PJ Tucker - 31 year old, undersized and declining veteran. If Watson continues his nonsense for more over 10 games, I imagine Ryan will have to intervene.

[gaspar]

You guys like Bender more than his own mother does. Dragan couldn't get much playing time in an Isreali league last year and can't get off the bench in the NBA right now for a reason. Dude is just not ready. The fact that his coach prefers playing PJ Tucker for 40 minutes is very telling.

[Bogyo]

You guys like Bender more than his own mother does. Dragan couldn't get much playing time in an Isreali league last year and can't get off the bench in the NBA right now for a reason. Dude is just not ready. The fact that his coach prefers playing PJ Tucker for 40 minutes is very telling.

What have you seen from him that would proove that he is not as ready (at least!) as Chriss? Was he worse on D when he was on the floor? Did he not make the right passes? Was his shooting (form) a lot worse - like 5% from 3PT land worse? Did he not hustle? He got outplayed by Chriss in summer league and pre-season?
I don't know mama Bender, and could care less, I'm just curious why our family joga instructor is not even remotley trying to give him 5 goddamn minutes in a game where PJ is playing 38 and we re up by 20 with 5 to go.

I'd be extreemly happy if you enlightened us!

[gaspar]

You guys like Bender more than his own mother does. Dragan couldn't get much playing time in an Isreali league last year and can't get off the bench in the NBA right now for a reason. Dude is just not ready. The fact that his coach prefers playing PJ Tucker for 40 minutes is very telling.

What have you seen from him that would proove that he is not as ready (at least!) as Chriss? Was he worse on D when he was on the floor? Did he not make the right passes? Was his shooting (form) a lot worse - like 5% from 3PT land worse? Did he not hustle? He got outplayed by Chriss in summer league and pre-season?
I don't know mama Bender, and could care less, I'm just curious why our family joga instructor is not even remotley trying to give him 5 goddamn minutes in a game where PJ is playing 38 and we re up by 20 with 5 to go.

I'd be extreemly happy if you enlightened us!

I haven't seen anything from Bender to prove that he IS ready right now. And yes, I think the fact that Chriss was 100 times better than Bender during the summer league and pre-season is a big part of the reason why Marquese is starting right now and Dragan is glued to the bench.

[Bogyo]

You guys like Bender more than his own mother does. Dragan couldn't get much playing time in an Isreali league last year and can't get off the bench in the NBA right now for a reason. Dude is just not ready. The fact that his coach prefers playing PJ Tucker for 40 minutes is very telling.

What have you seen from him that would proove that he is not as ready (at least!) as Chriss? Was he worse on D when he was on the floor? Did he not make the right passes? Was his shooting (form) a lot worse - like 5% from 3PT land worse? Did he not hustle? He got outplayed by Chriss in summer league and pre-season?
I don't know mama Bender, and could care less, I'm just curious why our family joga instructor is not even remotley trying to give him 5 goddamn minutes in a game where PJ is playing 38 and we re up by 20 with 5 to go.

I'd be extreemly happy if you enlightened us!

I haven't seen anything from Bender to prove that he IS ready right now. And yes, I think the fact that Chriss was 100 times better than Bender during the summer league and pre-season is a big part of the reason why Marquese is starting right now and Dragan is glued to the bench.

Wow... Let's just agree to disagree then.

[OnceUponADime]

You guys like Bender more than his own mother does. Dragan couldn't get much playing time in an Isreali league last year and can't get off the bench in the NBA right now for a reason. Dude is just not ready. The fact that his coach prefers playing PJ Tucker for 40 minutes is very telling.

Just because a coach prefers playing Tucker over Bender doesn't mean he's right. Coaches aren't always right. Hornacek never realized that Booker was better than the 2 guards we started last season until injuries forced Hornacek to play Booker and by then it was too late and cost him his job. Byron Scott continued to play worthless veterans over the young talent the Lakers have and it cost him his job. Luke Walton comes in and actually gives Randle, Russel, Nance Jr and Clarkson all opportunities to thrive and the Lakers turn in to one of the better up and coming teams in the league all of a sudden.

Coaches aren't perfect and they can be biased to a fault. Watson's fetish for Tucker could end up costing him his job down the line.

[OnceUponADime]

You guys are dumb. Watson is likely going to give Bender a speech, saying something along the lines of "Enjoy the process young man, don't party too hard because tonight I'm going to double your minutes! Love you fam." 4 minutes is my expectation.

You should set up a poll for how many minutes does Bender get on his birthday. Would be funny. Maybe increments of 2.

Or anyone. Villalobos? Damkac?

You were all wrong. Watson told Bender "Since it was your birthday, I'm giving you the night off tonight. Don't get used to this...grr...actually I mean, get used to this!"

[bwgood77]

You guys like Bender more than his own mother does. Dragan couldn't get much playing time in an Isreali league last year and can't get off the bench in the NBA right now for a reason. Dude is just not ready. The fact that his coach prefers playing PJ Tucker for 40 minutes is very telling.

I thought you previously liked that all the rookies got playing time even in the first game, saying Hornacek never would have done that. Do you think Dragan has played bad in his minutes? Chriss great enough for disparity in minutes? This is our highest upside pick in years, if not ever. The only reason for him to get zero minutes, even I garbage time is because he's in the dog house. I'm not talking more than 10 minutes a game now. Even 5, particularly in blowouts for a little game time experience. If no rookies got time or one pf was clearly better than the other I might feel differently, but that's not the case.

[bwgood77]

What have you seen from him that would proove that he is not as ready (at least!) as Chriss? Was he worse on D when he was on the floor? Did he not make the right passes? Was his shooting (form) a lot worse - like 5% from 3PT land worse? Did he not hustle? He got outplayed by Chriss in summer league and pre-season?
I don't know mama Bender, and could care less, I'm just curious why our family joga instructor is not even remotley trying to give him 5 goddamn minutes in a game where PJ is playing 38 and we re up by 20 with 5 to go.

I'd be extreemly happy if you enlightened us!

I haven't seen anything from Bender to prove that he IS ready right now. And yes, I think the fact that Chriss was 100 times better than Bender during the summer league and pre-season is a big part of the reason why Marquese is starting right now and Dragan is glued to the bench.

Wow... Let's just agree to disagree then.

I think a good number of fans value the highlight reel stuff more than the things that don't show up in the box score like court awareness, making the right pass, knowing where to be and rotating on D, etc, which is fine. We all have different opinions.

[gaspar]

You guys like Bender more than his own mother does. Dragan couldn't get much playing time in an Isreali league last year and can't get off the bench in the NBA right now for a reason. Dude is just not ready. The fact that his coach prefers playing PJ Tucker for 40 minutes is very telling.

Just because a coach prefers playing Tucker over Bender doesn't mean he's right. Coaches aren't always right. Hornacek never realized that Booker was better than the 2 guards we started last season until injuries forced Hornacek to play Booker and by then it was too late and cost him his job. Byron Scott continued to play worthless veterans over the young talent the Lakers have and it cost him his job. Luke Walton comes in and actually gives Randle, Russel, Nance Jr and Clarkson all opportunities to thrive and the Lakers turn in to one of the better up and coming teams in the league all of a sudden.

Coaches aren't perfect and they can be biased to a fault. Watson's fetish for Tucker could end up costing him his job down the line.

Oh please stop riding Walton's dick so hard. The only difference compared to last year is that the Lakers don't have Kobe's farewell tour and their 30 year old chuckers are shooting at unsustainable rate this season so far (which I'm sure will change soon). Their young players aren't getting anymore opportunities than they did under Scott.

Lakers mpg last season:
Russell 28.2
Randle 28.2
Clarkson 32.3
Nance 20.1

Lakers mpg this season:
Russell 27.2
Randle 28.4
Clarkson 26.7
Nance 20.7

Russell, Randle, Clarkson and Ingram are getting whole 2 minutes per game more than Warren, Booker, Len and Chriss... They have 4 30+ year olds in the top-8 players in mpg. Lou Williams and Nick Young are consistently getting crunch time minutes over Russell and Clarkson. Zubac is completely out of rotation...

[gaspar]

I thought you previously liked that all the rookies got playing time even in the first game, saying Hornacek never would have done that. Do you think Dragan has played bad in his minutes? Chriss great enough for disparity in minutes? This is our highest upside pick in years, if not ever. The only reason for him to get zero minutes, even I garbage time is because he's in the dog house. I'm not talking more than 10 minutes a game now. Even 5, particularly in blowouts for a little game time experience. If no rookies got time or one pf was clearly better than the other I might feel differently, but that's not the case.

think a good number of fans value the highlight reel stuff more than the things that don't show up in the box score like court awareness, making the right pass, knowing where to be and rotating on D, etc, which is fine. We all have different opinions.

I don't think Bender's play warrants this constant whining about his playing time. And please save me this talk about Bender's court awareness, passing and defense. For me that's been the biggest disappointment in his game. For someone with supposedly very high BBIQ he's been really bad at moving the ball so far. During the preseason he couldn't even make a simple swing pass on the perimeter without turning the ball over and was consistently getting blown by on defense.

[kennydorglas]

You guys like Bender more than his own mother does. Dragan couldn't get much playing time in an Isreali league last year and can't get off the bench in the NBA right now for a reason. Dude is just not ready. The fact that his coach prefers playing PJ Tucker for 40 minutes is very telling.

Just because a coach prefers playing Tucker over Bender doesn't mean he's right. Coaches aren't always right. Hornacek never realized that Booker was better than the 2 guards we started last season until injuries forced Hornacek to play Booker and by then it was too late and cost him his job. Byron Scott continued to play worthless veterans over the young talent the Lakers have and it cost him his job. Luke Walton comes in and actually gives Randle, Russel, Nance Jr and Clarkson all opportunities to thrive and the Lakers turn in to one of the better up and coming teams in the league all of a sudden.

Coaches aren't perfect and they can be biased to a fault. Watson's fetish for Tucker could end up costing him his job down the line.

Last year was the same thing with TJ. People actually thought he was worse than PJ.
It's amazing because Bender is just -0.27 pts in RPM worse than Tucker (and RPM usually kills most rookies)
Just think about it for a second.

[TeamTragic]

You guys like Bender more than his own mother does. Dragan couldn't get much playing time in an Isreali league last year and can't get off the bench in the NBA right now for a reason. Dude is just not ready. The fact that his coach prefers playing PJ Tucker for 40 minutes is very telling.

I'm not sure why the hate on Bender. He has barely played this season. Watson playing Tucker over ANYONE else on this team tells me everything I need to know about our coach.

[OGBAH]

Guys its the Pj farewell tour.... it has to be.. I mean come on...hope so

[Bogyo]

I haven't seen anything from Bender to prove that he IS ready right now. And yes, I think the fact that Chriss was 100 times better than Bender during the summer league and pre-season is a big part of the reason why Marquese is starting right now and Dragan is glued to the bench.

Wow... Let's just agree to disagree then.

I think a good number of fans value the highlight reel stuff more than the things that don't show up in the box score like court awareness, making the right pass, knowing where to be and rotating on D, etc, which is fine. We all have different opinions.

This (and the rest of the rubbish thrown out here) is the reason why I told him that lets just agree to disagree.
Ain't nobody got the time to argue with that!

[bwgood77]

I thought you previously liked that all the rookies got playing time even in the first game, saying Hornacek never would have done that. Do you think Dragan has played bad in his minutes? Chriss great enough for disparity in minutes? This is our highest upside pick in years, if not ever. The only reason for him to get zero minutes, even I garbage time is because he's in the dog house. I'm not talking more than 10 minutes a game now. Even 5, particularly in blowouts for a little game time experience. If no rookies got time or one pf was clearly better than the other I might feel differently, but that's not the case.

think a good number of fans value the highlight reel stuff more than the things that don't show up in the box score like court awareness, making the right pass, knowing where to be and rotating on D, etc, which is fine. We all have different opinions.

I don't think Bender's play warrants this constant whining about his playing time. And please save me this talk about Bender's court awareness, passing and defense. For me that's been the biggest disappointment in his game. For someone with supposedly very high BBIQ he's been really bad at moving the ball so far. During the preseason he couldn't even make a simple swing pass on the perimeter without turning the ball over and was consistently getting blown by on defense.

Have you watched him in regular season games? I'm not going to save myself from talking about what I see on the court. He vision and passing is miles ahead of Chriss, and heck, it's probably even better than Knight's as he seems to know where his teammates are. I don't know why you keep mentioning a couple of mistakes in preseason. We are past that, and we are not a good team.

Other rebuilding teams are astute enough to play their young guys and particularly their high picks so they can get used to the speed of nba game action. At some point, if this continues, the lack of playing time will allow you then to accurately assess that he is behind others such as Chriss or other rookies across the league, in his on court development, because he will not have had much of it.

[TeamTragic]

I thought you previously liked that all the rookies got playing time even in the first game, saying Hornacek never would have done that. Do you think Dragan has played bad in his minutes? Chriss great enough for disparity in minutes? This is our highest upside pick in years, if not ever. The only reason for him to get zero minutes, even I garbage time is because he's in the dog house. I'm not talking more than 10 minutes a game now. Even 5, particularly in blowouts for a little game time experience. If no rookies got time or one pf was clearly better than the other I might feel differently, but that's not the case.

think a good number of fans value the highlight reel stuff more than the things that don't show up in the box score like court awareness, making the right pass, knowing where to be and rotating on D, etc, which is fine. We all have different opinions.

I don't think Bender's play warrants this constant whining about his playing time. And please save me this talk about Bender's court awareness, passing and defense. For me that's been the biggest disappointment in his game. For someone with supposedly very high BBIQ he's been really bad at moving the ball so far. During the preseason he couldn't even make a simple swing pass on the perimeter without turning the ball over and was consistently getting blown by on defense.

Have you watched him in regular season games? I'm not going to save myself from talking about what I see on the court. He vision and passing is miles ahead of Chriss, and heck, it's probably even better than Knight's as he seems to know where his teammates are. I don't know why you keep mentioning a couple of mistakes in preseason. We are past that, and we are not a good team.

Other rebuilding teams are astute enough to play their young guys and particularly their high picks so they can get used to the speed of nba game action. At some point, if this continues, the lack of playing time will allow you then to accurately assess that he is behind others such as Chriss or other rookies across the league, in his on court development, because he will not have had much of it.

You want to see more Bender? As far as I recall when a certain forum member posts garbage that is not the consensus you back him up and say he is a good poster. I want to ask the below questions because I feel that you keep changing your mind:

Do you want to give Bender/Ulis playing time or just keep playing Len/Tucker for 45+ minutes?
Who is a better current fit for this team as this franchise looks to the future?

It would be great to get a final word as I feel that you think that everyone can play equal minutes. Not going to happen and for the record I would sit Tucker on the bench until we need a defensive stop.

Len I would give minutes just not more than 15 minutes in garbage time. He is not making this team better today or setting them up for the future.