Dragan Bender News, Discussion and Highlights

[RunDogGun]

I am glad Bender is getting minutes and is being more aggressive. He has a solid skillset, its just a matter of showing off those skills. When he is aggressive, he plays pretty well. It is a bummer that it took both our centers going down to get that playing time, but it is what it is.

Overall I think this playing time is a good way to showcase him for a trade. Having him sit on a bench, and not playing in the G-League, does not increase his trade value. Personally I would like to keep him, but not picking up his final year, more than likely killed his desire to re-sign with the Suns.

[bwgood77]

What don’t you understand about it? Perhaps we have potential trades lined up and a rival executive says they wanna take a look at what Bender can do, so we let him play. Igor immediately wrote Bender off to start the season, they even brought in Acy who got immediate playing time over Bender. It’s clear they don’t see Bender anywhere in our future. I’m surprised we didn’t just play Anderson over Bender TBH.

Also Jabari Parker essentially got a one year deal from the Bulls since his 2nd year is a team option. Julius Randle was coming off his rookie contract and got a one year deal.

I don't understand it because he wouldn't be playing if our Cs were healthy. I don't really believe in this whole "showcasing" thing either. Acy is like a just an energy role player to play in short spurts.

[Andrew McCeltic]

Would love to see Boston pick up Bender in the summer if it fits - either two years becoming a RFA at the end, or three years, 4 million or less annually. Think he has a ton of skill and awareness, he's just been visibly too young and too skinny. Like, that's the only problem with his development, and it's been bottlenecking his improvement and making him look more inept than he is. He was getting more minutes than he could handle, matchstick frame not able to do anything on the court but spot up and pass*, and that can wear down your confidence. He's not Porzingis, his mature game, if he can get to it, will be something different - but he's closer to that than to being Darko.

[bwgood77]

Would love to see Boston pick up Bender in the summer if it fits - either two years becoming a RFA at the end, or three years, 4 million or less annually. Think he has a ton of skill and awareness, he's just been visibly too young and too skinny. Like, that's the only problem with his development, and it's been bottlenecking his improvement and making him look more inept than he is. He was getting more minutes than he could handle, matchstick frame not able to do anything on the court but spot up and pass*, and that can wear down your confidence. He's not Porzingis, his mature game, if he can get to it, will be something different - but he's closer to that than to being Darko.

He was always a long term project an you can tell he's been learning and developing under Igor. Watson didn't like him and favored Chriss and then Triano just had him stand out at the 3 pt line. Igor you can tell has worked on him in all aspects, pick n roll, closing hard to the basket, finishing, moving, rotating, team D, etc.

He's high IQ, can shoot, switch, defend, good court vision, good anticipation and awareness and obviously has nice height and length. I always wished we picked up his option. It doesn't make sense not to (obviously it doesn't make sense to have to have to pick up the next year's option before the season starts...it means that it renders the current season almost pointless because if you play him and he does well, he probably leaves.

Anyway, our forum was pretty split on the option but overall fanbase and many large voices here couldn't stand him.

If you do sign him in offseason you don't get RFA rights since he's a UFA this summer.

Anyone who trades for him can only pay him what the Suns could have on the rookie scale next year I believe.

I have no idea what his market will be or if he will have one at all. I imagine if he keeps playing and played like he did the last couple games he'd have one, but it might not make sense for a team to trade for him because they would limit themselves in what they could pay him this summer and be outbid. It would be better for any team to wait until the summer.

[Andrew McCeltic]

Ah, right. I'd want three years, first year guaranteed, in the event he blows up. If he becomes a star it'll be in the jack-of-all trades glue guy Al Horford way, unless his scoring or rim protection make a major leap. He's in a tough position, because whoever signs him is making an investment in him as a long-term project. Watch for Presti...

I absolutely get why his option wasn't picked up - but with the Suns' cap flexibility and long-term trajectory, it probably wasn't necessary. Will the 4-5 million potentially off the payroll this July make a difference?

[Andrew McCeltic]

Another more modest comparison would be the Josh McRoberts of that one season in.. Charlotte?

[suns12345]

Ah, right. I'd want three years, first year guaranteed, in the event he blows up. If he becomes a star it'll be in the jack-of-all trades glue guy Al Horford way, unless his scoring or rim protection make a major leap. He's in a tough position, because whoever signs him is making an investment in him as a long-term project. Watch for Presti...

I absolutely get why his option wasn't picked up - but with the Suns' cap flexibility and long-term trajectory, it probably wasn't necessary. Will the 4-5 million potentially off the payroll this July make a difference?

I think we're hoping that 5 million will make a difference.

But that requires people wanting to come here and we have failed at that in the past.

I'll be devastated if we decline his option and our biggest FA signing is inking Oubre to a long term deal

[bwgood77]

Ah, right. I'd want three years, first year guaranteed, in the event he blows up. If he becomes a star it'll be in the jack-of-all trades glue guy Al Horford way, unless his scoring or rim protection make a major leap. He's in a tough position, because whoever signs him is making an investment in him as a long-term project. Watch for Presti...

I absolutely get why his option wasn't picked up - but with the Suns' cap flexibility and long-term trajectory, it probably wasn't necessary. Will the 4-5 million potentially off the payroll this July make a difference?

I think we're hoping that 5 million will make a difference.

But that requires people wanting to come here and we have failed at that in the past.

I'll be devastated if we decline his option and our biggest FA signing is inking Oubre to a long term deal

I'm sure I'm in the vast minority given the big excitement for Oubre, our shiny new toy, but I'd probably rather keep Bender than Oubre. I think he has far higher upside. Not that we necessarily have the option to keep him.

Bender is likely to be a far better team defender and even 1 on 1 defender, even though he may have fewer steals...he already looks better to me on that small sample size, but he's so much more versatile. He's probably a slightly worse shooter but a much better passer...obviously can protect the rim better...can switch onto pretty much everyone except small quick guards.

[sunskerr]

Id love to keep him if he keeps this play up. With his shooting he is better than Holmes and his willingness to score off dirty work and shoot the 3 gives us a different look than Ayton. But that being said, I won't believe it until he does it for a month or two.

[lilfishi22]

Id love to keep him if he keeps this play up. With his shooting he is better than Holmes and his willingness to score off dirty work and shoot the 3 gives us a different look than Ayton. But that being said, I won't believe it until he does it for a month or two.

Yeah I'm not getting too excited unless he show consistency. 2 game sample is nothing

[sunskerr]

Id love to keep him if he keeps this play up. With his shooting he is better than Holmes and his willingness to score off dirty work and shoot the 3 gives us a different look than Ayton. But that being said, I won't believe it until he does it for a month or two.

Yeah I'm not getting too excited unless he show consistency. 2 game sample is nothing

Althought I have to say that I am encouraged by the aggressiveness, and I'm sure you are too. The way he's gotten his stats in the last two games have been different than his 'good games' from the previous two years. But yeah just two games in is impossible to paint any sort of future with.

[lilfishi22]

Id love to keep him if he keeps this play up. With his shooting he is better than Holmes and his willingness to score off dirty work and shoot the 3 gives us a different look than Ayton. But that being said, I won't believe it until he does it for a month or two.

Yeah I'm not getting too excited unless he show consistency. 2 game sample is nothing

Althought I have to say that I am encouraged by the aggressiveness, and I'm sure you are too. The way he's gotten his stats in the last two games have been different than his 'good games' from the previous two years. But yeah just two games in is impossible to paint any sort of future with.

I would say I'm more surprised than encouraged. I think there needs to be at least a 5-10 game sample size to show that he's not the same guy. He might look a bit different but the TWolves probably didn't scout him at all which is why there was so many open lanes for Bender to drive down. Also we played the same team twice and by the 2nd game, he didn't have the same level of impact as the 1st game.

I liked some of the moves he made to the basket, some of the passes and the mission he seems to be on to grab rebounds but it just not enough to prove to me he's not the same guy. Remember, he had some good games last season as well. I'd love to see him get even better and more consistent and this is a good first step in the right direction.

[RunDogGun]

The skillset is there for Bender, and it has for a while. His issue has been aggressiveness and effort. When he is moderately aggressive and engaged, he is a solid role player. If he manages to put actual moves together and really work on his shot along with being aggressive, he could be a consistent starter on a team.

If we are looking to not pick up guys this offseason or feel they will cost too much, Id rather try and trade them.

[sunskerr]

3 straight good games

If Bender keeps this up, how should we work him into the rotation? Back up PF/C minutes? Move Bridges out of the starters?

[bwgood77]

3 straight good games

If Bender keeps this up, how should we work him into the rotation? Back up PF/C minutes? Move Bridges out of the starters?

Have him sub in for TJ when TJ gets back, or try him at starter until he does. Or if one of Ayton/Holmes is out longer than other, he takes their minutes.

[lilfishi22]

3 straight good games

If Bender keeps this up, how should we work him into the rotation? Back up PF/C minutes? Move Bridges out of the starters?

Have him sub in for TJ when TJ gets back, or try him at starter until he does. Or if one of Ayton/Holmes is out longer than other, he takes their minutes.

Yeah the good thing about Bender (especially if he keeps this up) is that you can play him with Ayton but you can't play Holmes with Ayton. So once everyone comes back I would like to see us start

Booker
Bridges
JJ
Bender
Ayton

Coming off the bench:
Melkobo
Daniels
Oubre
Warren
Holmes

[Jstock12]

Porzingis-lite

[Saberestar]

3 straight good games

If Bender keeps this up, how should we work him into the rotation? Back up PF/C minutes? Move Bridges out of the starters?

Have him sub in for TJ when TJ gets back, or try him at starter until he does. Or if one of Ayton/Holmes is out longer than other, he takes their minutes.

Warren is gonna be out for a while, at least two weeks, so Bender is gonna have plenty of minutes available for him at PF.

[enigmatics]

Great job Koko giving this kid zero run before the injuries .......... moron!

[Saberestar]

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