Phoenix Suns: Setting Expectations For Dragan Bender
The Bad
We shouldn’t beat around the bush though. For the most part, Dragan Bender has been pretty underwhelming in Summer League and early preseason action.
He blocked Alex Len and knocked down a few three-pointers in the team’s Flagstaff scrimmage, but Bender has been unable to provide those same kind of highlights against other teams thus far in his fledgling career.
In Summer League, Bender put up 8.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game on an abysmal 27.5 percent shooting. He made just 26.5 percent of his threes as well, starting off his Las Vegas experience by going 1-for-10 — with the lone make being banked in.
It’s been much of the same in preseason, with Bender showing brief flashes of brilliance amidst mostly timid, underwhelming play.
“Dragan Bender, 18 years of age, the lights came on and he played hard but he didn’t have great numbers,” Watson admitted about Bender’s first preseason outing. “He can take one step forward.”
The Suns’ insistence that he’s a small forward isn’t helping matters, but even with a couple of smart drives to the basket, Bender’s been stripped and hasn’t looked strong enough to finish properly. For the most part, he’s just been outmatched.
It took him almost five full quarters to score his first points of the preseason, since he posted a goose egg on 0-for-4 shooting in the preseason opener.
He was marginally better in his second outing, putting up six points, four rebounds and two blocks on 3-of-7 shooting in 26 minutes against the Utah Jazz.
Through his first two games, Bender is averaging 3.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.0 assists in 25.0 minutes per game on 3-of-11 shooting (0-for-5 from three-point range).
He’s looked confident shooting the ball from deep, but they haven’t gone down — something Bender acknowledged will start happening eventually, since his time at the 3 will require him to knock down more of the open looks he’s receiving.
It’s natural to see such a young player struggle only two games into the preseason, but until Bender stops passing up wide open shots, plays with a little more aggression and, ideally, spends more time at his proper position, Marquese Chriss will continue to look like the more NBA-ready rookie.