Phoenix Suns: 5 goals for Dragan Bender in 2017-18

3. Improve shooting numbers

Bender doesn’t have an ugly shooting stroke, and as the season progressed (and during Summer League), he certainly wasn’t shy about letting it fly. The problem is, most of those shots didn’t go in.

These are small sample sizes of course, but as a rookie, he only made 57 of his 161 field goal attempts, 28 of his 101 3-point attempts and four of his 11 free throw attempts, leading to a less than savory .354/.277/.364 shooting line.

Heading into a more confident second season, with more minutes heading his way, hopefully the percentages will even out a bit more for Bender. He doesn’t have to be a go-to scorer or 3-point sniper by any means, especially since he won’t turn 20 until November.

He does, however, need to show steady progress in the right direction lest he be labelled a draft bust. These numbers are completely arbitrary, but aiming for something like 42 percent shooting from the field, 34 percent from 3-point range and 65 percent from the foul line would be enough improvement to reassure fans Bender is on the right path.

At first glance, those numbers aren’t satisfactory by any means. In the future, the Suns would probably like to see something closer to 45-40-80 shooting splits. But a .420/.340/.650 shooting line would represent increases of seven percent, six percent and 29 percent, respectively.

Bender is not bulky enough to be a full-time stretch-5 just yet, but if he can take the next step to that possible destination by refining his shooting numbers — even by the smallest of margins — the Suns will be on a good path.