Dragan Bender News, Discussion and Highlights

[RaisingArizona]

It's very likely Chriss option gets declined too if it hasn't already (haven't heard anything yet) so that would be two top 10 picks in the 2016 draft which had their 4th year option declined. That alone wipes away any goodwill McD had left from the Booker/Warren draft. Now it might be looking a bit too far forward and it might be a white hot take but I truly believe there's legitimate reasons to decline JJ's 4th year option too if he doesn't show us enough this season.

I can see it, too and it scares me. This btw, is why I am a big proponent against tanking. Nobody in the draft is guaranteed to pan out. We've had 3 whole drafts with little to no production from our picks. (Len, Bender + Chriss, and JJ)

Sadly, those are the 3 drafts where we actually had top 5 picks. Ayton is the 4th but I feel good about him.

You know, there are Suns fans who would argue that we intentionally took the highest risk and least likely to produce early prospects so we can continue to tank and end up with Ayton

We're safe with Ayton, I **** hope anyways, but eventually a broken clock will be right! That many shots in the lottery will eventually pay off. I just don't want us to play again--for awhile at least.

[Maze]

He just rubs me as a guy who doesn't care. Nonchalant attitude. I'm really surprised our 4, 8, and 34th pick all busted within 3 years but here we are.

I hate to sound so cynical, but I knew all the time Chriss & Bender wouldn't pan out.They were the 2 players that seemed
the most "off brand" to me going into the 2016 draft...and the Suns took both of them.Ironically, I had the most faith in the lil
guy Ulis.Thought he'd make a great back up pg.Too bad none of them worked out

[RaisingArizona]

Gambo was also saying Chriss and Bender were who Watson wanted. God help us if that was the determining factor in drafting them. Good God.

[thr3ep01nte4]

Bender's fourth year option has been declined. Bust confirmed.

[lilfishi22]

I can see it, too and it scares me. This btw, is why I am a big proponent against tanking. Nobody in the draft is guaranteed to pan out. We've had 3 whole drafts with little to no production from our picks. (Len, Bender + Chriss, and JJ)

Sadly, those are the 3 drafts where we actually had top 5 picks. Ayton is the 4th but I feel good about him.

You know, there are Suns fans who would argue that we intentionally took the highest risk and least likely to produce early prospects so we can continue to tank and end up with Ayton

We're safe with Ayton, I **** hope anyways, but eventually a broken clock will be right! That many shots in the lottery will eventually pay off. I just don't want us to play again--for awhile at least.

Unfortunately, we're playing again in the 2019 draft and THANK GOD we still have our ticket to the dance. We could've easily sold that pick for trash

[lilfishi22]

Gambo was also saying Chriss and Bender were who Watson wanted. God help us if that was the determining factor in drafting them. Good God.

He just rubs me as a guy who doesn't care. Nonchalant attitude. I'm really surprised our 4, 8, and 34th pick all busted within 3 years but here we are.

I hate to sound so cynical, but I knew all the time Chriss & Bender wouldn't pan out.They were the 2 players that seemed
the most "off brand" to me going into the 2016 draft...and the Suns took both of them.Ironically, I had the most faith in the lil
guy Ulis.Thought he'd make a great back up pg.Too bad none of them worked out

Two post. One gif

[SwingMan1938]

Not surprising in the least.

The kid's testicles clearly haven't dropped yet and he's been nothing if not shiftless in his "development" - he can't even decide whether to s#!t or get off the pot, so somebody else had to do it for him.

Right sport for the physique, bass ackward mentality for it.

I'd still like to know just why Bender hasn't spent one single second up in Prescott despite being the one who most desperately needed it from the day he arrived in 2016? Oh well.

The 2019 plan is simple: Big in the draft, Rubio in FA.

[bwgood77]

Goodbye, old friend.

Read on Twitter

Ahhh...not happy about it but I imagine Igor was on board with it and have said that if he was ready to give up on him (which seems rare for Igor) it's probably not a good thing. I was hoping Igor would want to work with him.

Kind of pointless to now though.

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

Well in that case, it sounds like Igor wasn't ready to give up on him. I'm really hoping Sarver's not deciding these moves. This one makes little sense.

[No Koko]

He just rubs me as a guy who doesn't care. Nonchalant attitude. I'm really surprised our 4, 8, and 34th pick all busted within 3 years but here we are.

Yup.

You could tell from the moment he was drafted he had zero dreams or ambitions of ever becoming an all star or even anything close to it. He just doesn't care enough to want it. I can respect guys like Jackson, Chriss, and Len who all at least gave half of a **** about living up to where they were drafted, but Bender deserves to be booed if he ever gets to play for another team in Talking Stick Resort Arena IMO. I would never consider booing any of those other guys.

[No Koko]

Is there any reason why we shouldn't just send Bender down to the G League right now? I don't see what good sitting on the bench is supposed to do.

[Revived]

I'd still like to know just why Bender hasn't spent one single second up in Prescott despite being the one who most desperately needed it from the day he arrived in 2016? Oh well.

The Suns have been really bad at utilizing their G league team in recent years. So many successful teams in the league today use their G league teams to develop guys who play rotation mins for them. Philly, San Antonio, Houston, Golden State are few of many examples.

I don’t understand why they never sent Chriss or Bender there. I don’t understand why they don’t Jackson there now. Or even Melton who is basically catching rust sitting on the bench.

[lilfishi22]

I'd still like to know just why Bender hasn't spent one single second up in Prescott despite being the one who most desperately needed it from the day he arrived in 2016? Oh well.

The Suns have been really bad at utilizing their G league team in recent years. So many successful teams in the league today use their G league teams to develop guys who play rotation mins for them. Philly, San Antonio, Houston, Golden State are few of many examples.

I don’t understand why they never sent Chriss or Bender there. I don’t understand why they don’t Jackson there now. Or even Melton who is basically catching rust sitting on the bench.

It really feels like the last player to go down to the G-League is Archie Goodwin who had quite a few stints. I don't get why Melton isn't down there, he's basically been listed as inactive in the last few games so...

[Revived]

I'd still like to know just why Bender hasn't spent one single second up in Prescott despite being the one who most desperately needed it from the day he arrived in 2016? Oh well.

The Suns have been really bad at utilizing their G league team in recent years. So many successful teams in the league today use their G league teams to develop guys who play rotation mins for them. Philly, San Antonio, Houston, Golden State are few of many examples.

I don’t understand why they never sent Chriss or Bender there. I don’t understand why they don’t Jackson there now. Or even Melton who is basically catching rust sitting on the bench.

It really feels like the last player to go down to the G-League is Archie Goodwin who had quite a few stints. I don't get why Melton isn't down there, he's basically been listed as inactive in the last few games so...

Yeah Goodwin, DJJ and maybe Ulis are the main ones I remember. I think Alan Williams had maybe a stint or two there when he was recovering from surgery as well. But that’s really it.

[SuperSunsFan]

I can see it, too and it scares me. This btw, is why I am a big proponent against tanking. Nobody in the draft is guaranteed to pan out. We've had 3 whole drafts with little to no production from our picks. (Len, Bender + Chriss, and JJ)

Sadly, those are the 3 drafts where we actually had top 5 picks. Ayton is the 4th but I feel good about him.

You know, there are Suns fans who would argue that we intentionally took the highest risk and least likely to produce early prospects so we can continue to tank and end up with Ayton

We're safe with Ayton, I **** hope anyways, but eventually a broken clock will be right! That many shots in the lottery will eventually pay off. I just don't want us to play again--for awhile at least.

Are you sure we are safe with Ayton? I was team Ayton but I admit I believe Doncic is the real deal and truly a needle mover who impacts games positively in a meaningful way. Ayton's stats are worse than Doncic and on top of that Ayton's numbers were mostly padded and collected in inconsequential garbage time when games were already out of reach.

[No Koko]

Sadly, those are the 3 drafts where we actually had top 5 picks. Ayton is the 4th but I feel good about him.

You know, there are Suns fans who would argue that we intentionally took the highest risk and least likely to produce early prospects so we can continue to tank and end up with Ayton

We're safe with Ayton, I **** hope anyways, but eventually a broken clock will be right! That many shots in the lottery will eventually pay off. I just don't want us to play again--for awhile at least.

Are you sure we are safe with Ayton? I was team Ayton but I admit I believe Doncic is the real deal and truly a needle mover who impacts games positively in a meaningful way. Ayton's stats are worse than Doncic and on top of that Ayton's numbers were mostly padded and collected in inconsequential garbage time when games were already out of reach.

Doncic gets plenty of opportunities to do his thing. Ayton never gets the ball. His points are in garbage time because that is the only time his teammates are willing to pass it to him. We are perfectly safe with him, it is the rest of the roster that we need to worry about.

[SuperSunsFan]

We're safe with Ayton, I **** hope anyways, but eventually a broken clock will be right! That many shots in the lottery will eventually pay off. I just don't want us to play again--for awhile at least.

Are you sure we are safe with Ayton? I was team Ayton but I admit I believe Doncic is the real deal and truly a needle mover who impacts games positively in a meaningful way. Ayton's stats are worse than Doncic and on top of that Ayton's numbers were mostly padded and collected in inconsequential garbage time when games were already out of reach.

Doncic gets plenty of opportunities to do his thing. Ayton never gets the ball. His points are in garbage time because that is the only time his teammates are willing to pass it to him. We are perfectly safe with him, it is the rest of the roster that we need to worry about.

Have you ever considered that maybe Ayton not getting the ball because he was never in a position or have the the defender locked up completely to safely receive the balls. Many of the TOs were results of them forcing the ball into the post for Ayton when Ayton was not ready to receive the ball. you don't pass the ball to a teammate when there are defenders in between, many of the so called Ayton being open in the post are situations where the defenders had already taking away the passing lane between ball handler and Ayton.

[LukasBMW]

I just went through the 2016 draft asking "What if"....and honestly...I'm OK with our craptastic draft.

After picks 1 & 2, it was a crapshoot. We made a ballsy move to double down on two guys who had the skill (but neither seem to have the motivation) to be ideal stretch 4's.

I'm OK with it.

[Revived]

Could’ve had Murray who I reaaaally liked that year.

[Revived]

We would still have defensive problems starting both Murray and Booker however I guess.