Dragan Bender News, Discussion and Highlights

darealjuice · Post #1001 » by **darealjuice** » Sun Jun 17, 2018 6:40 am

Good to see Bender working on his ball handling

Revived · Post #1002 » by **Revived** » Sun Jun 17, 2018 6:58 am

I hope Bender gets bigger and stronger. I’m not sure if his frame will even let him but he needs to hit at least 240 lbs or close to it imo.

Post #1003 » by **lilfishi22** » Sun Jun 17, 2018 11:09 pm

JMac is probably the resident expert when it comes to packing muscle, naturally... I'm sure Bender can add more mass but maybe JMac can give his thoughts

Revived · Post #1004 » by **Revived** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 1:44 am

NTB wrote:
Spoiler:

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His explosiveness looks similar to Noah who is making a comeback. Would not mind if we can pair this combo together if Noah gets bought by the Knicks and is willing to come here on a vet min deal to mentor Ayton, Bender and the rest of the young guys.

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JMac1 · Post #1005 » by **JMac1** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:06 am

lilfishi22 wrote:JMac is probably the resident expert when it comes to packing muscle, naturally... I'm sure Bender can add more mass but maybe JMac can give his thoughts

Of course he can. Eat 1 - 1.5 gms of protein per pound of his body weight everyday. Get 60 percent of your daily allotted carbs around your workout. Watch the cardio, it’s a muscle killer. Scheduled eating. Be sure your glycogen is coming from your food and not your muscle....eat, eat and eat.

He has to do it during the offseason. They play way too much basketball to do it during the season.

Edit: I have high hopes for Bender. There is just something about him waiting to break out.

Post #1006 » by **lilfishi22** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:29 am

JMac1 wrote:
lilfishi22 wrote:JMac is probably the resident expert when it comes to packing muscle, naturally... I'm sure Bender can add more mass but maybe JMac can give his thoughts

Of course he can. Eat 1 - 1.5 gms of protein per pound of his body weight everyday. Get 60 percent of your daily allotted carbs around your workout. Watch the cardio, it’s a muscle killer. Scheduled eating. Be sure your glycogen is coming from your food and not your muscle....eat, eat and eat.

He has to do it during the offseason. They play way too much basketball to do it during the season.

Edit: I have high hopes for Bender. There is just something about him waiting to break out.

I should have probably clarified my question to you. It's more around his frame and how much more mass he can put on without affecting his quickness/speed advantages which helps him move laterally and defend the perimeter.

JMac1 · Post #1007 » by **JMac1** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:40 am

lilfishi22 wrote:
JMac1 wrote:
lilfishi22 wrote:JMac is probably the resident expert when it comes to packing muscle, naturally... I'm sure Bender can add more mass but maybe JMac can give his thoughts

Of course he can. Eat 1 - 1.5 gms of protein per pound of his body weight everyday. Get 60 percent of your daily allotted carbs around your workout. Watch the cardio, it’s a muscle killer. Scheduled eating. Be sure your glycogen is coming from your food and not your muscle....eat, eat and eat.

He has to do it during the offseason. They play way too much basketball to do it during the season.

Edit: I have high hopes for Bender. There is just something about him waiting to break out.

I should have probably clarified my question to you. It's more around his frame and how much more mass he can put on without affecting his quickness/speed advantages which helps him move laterally and defend the perimeter.

I have no idea. That is a tough one....

sunskerr · Post #1008 » by **sunskerr** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:29 am

I'm willing to stick with Bender past his rookie contract, if he's still not very good provided he shows progress the next two years. In Feb he averaged 10 ppg and in April he averaged a double-double, and was our best fantasy player albeit it was only 5 games. In March he struggled but at least he finished strong.

JMac1 · Post #1009 » by **JMac1** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:17 pm

sunskerr wrote:I'm willing to stick with Bender past his rookie contract, if he's still not very good provided he shows progress the next two years. In Feb he averaged 10 ppg and in April he averaged a double-double, and was our best fantasy player albeit it was only 5 games. In March he struggled but at least he finished strong.

I’d say he isn’t very consistent. He has shown flashes, and being a 19/20 yr old last season, that’s pretty expected.

ImNotMcDiSwear · Post #1010 » by **ImNotMcDiSwear** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 4:02 pm

JMac1 wrote:
sunskerr wrote:I'm willing to stick with Bender past his rookie contract, if he's still not very good provided he shows progress the next two years. In Feb he averaged 10 ppg and in April he averaged a double-double, and was our best fantasy player albeit it was only 5 games. In March he struggled but at least he finished strong.

I’d say he isn’t very consistent. He has shown flashes, and being a 19/20 yr old last season, that’s pretty expected.

Exactly. Just need to stay patient. A lot of people seem to ignore the 36.6 3FG% on high volume, and few seem to recognize just how good he is as a passer. He's also got a lot of defensive potential. He defends some bigs very well (like Horford) and bruisers (like Randle) not so well. He can get out on shooters when he knows he has help behind him, which last year was close to never.

He's got a helluva foundation to build on, and I think the fit with him and Ayton will be perfect.

Post #1011 » by **lilfishi22** » Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:48 am

He's a fine role player. I have *some* hope he can still be an above average starter level role player so I don't mind sticking with him past his rookie deal assuming it's cheap which I think it will be.

NTB · Post #1012 » by **NTB** » Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:09 pm

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8on · Post #1013 » by **8on** » Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:10 pm

lilfishi22 wrote:assuming it's cheap which I think it will be.

that’s the beauty of drafting an 18 year old: salary control. if he ever reaches his potential, he’ll be on a bargain contract.

realEAST · Post #1014 » by **realEAST** » Fri Jun 22, 2018 11:28 pm

Bender is going to be very good do it all glue guy for this team and Kokoskov system.

You guys did pretty well last night.
Booker-Bridges-Jackson-Bender-Ayton seems so intereating, talented and well balanced to me. And there are interesting pieces on the bench.

Suns and Mavs along the Bulls are on my watch list for the next season.

NTB · Post #1015 » by **NTB** » Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:09 pm

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matt131 · Post #1016 » by **matt131** » Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:22 pm

NTB wrote:

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Lindsey Smith starts off by welcoming us back to the "couch set"...if only

Post #1017 » by **lilfishi22** » Thu Jun 28, 2018 11:57 pm

NTB wrote:

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The days of seeing Espo's pathetic face running these little interviews is now a dark and distant memory. Thank God for Lindsey Smith

Post #1018 » by **bwgood77** » Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:16 pm

Going through CleaningtheGlass stats, in this stat...

AST:USG
A player's assist-to-usage ratio estimates how pass-first a player is by looking at their AST% and comparing it to their Usage. This fixes the problem noted in the AST% section, that players with higher usage rates will have higher assist percentages just by having the ball more. So Ast:Usg does a better job capturing how good of a passer a player is.

it shows Bender is in the 78th percentile.

Revived · Post #1019 » by **Revived** » Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:21 pm

NTB wrote:

Read on Twitter

Bender doesn’t look like he’s gained any weight at all. Maybe even lost some actually.

I think the Suns should ask Dudley to take Bender under his wings and mentor him over the summer. He can’t continue looking like Thon Maker and playing the 4/5 spot.

ImNotMcDiSwear · Post #1020 » by **ImNotMcDiSwear** » Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:50 pm

Revived wrote:
NTB wrote:

Read on Twitter

Bender doesn’t look like he’s gained any weight at all. Maybe even lost some actually.

I think the Suns should ask Dudley to take Bender under his wings and mentor him over the summer. He can’t continue looking like Thon Maker and playing the 4/5 spot.

If you watched the interview, you'd know this happened right after the end of the season. So no, it would not appear that he gained a lot of weight.

Would you bring back Bender?