The Phoenix Suns are a young and exciting group, with some serious building blocks making up the roster. Two players that will be getting attention are Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender. Should they start together in the frontcourt?
This year, the Phoenix Suns will have flexibility with how mix and match the players on their roster. It is a young bunch of players that, outside of a few, are all still trying to prove themselves as legitimate NBA players. A combination that may be tested early and often this season will be Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss in the frontcourt together.
Bender made great strides this offseason in gaining muscle/weight and working on his ball-handling, as the Suns have goals of making him a do-it-all forward that could play in the post, as well as snatch a rebound and become the point-forward on the break.
Toward the end of his rookie season, Chriss showed Suns fans why he was the eighth overall pick, and that he could be the 4-man of the future in Phoenix. The high-flying, and versatile University of Washington product was catching alley-oops with ease, and began to show flairs of being comfortable shooting from behind the arc (32.1 percent on the year).
Dragan Bender is the wildcard in this situation. Currently, the typical starting 5 that the Suns will roll out with has Chriss at the 4 and Tyson Chandler at the 5. But with how young the majority of the team is, it would be great for head coach Earl Watson, and Suns management if they were able and comfortable to play the two youngsters in Bender and Chriss together, to see if the combination could work out long-term or not.
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This year, Dragan Bender suddenly has a different aura around his progression as an NBA player. When he was drafted last year, the Suns knew that they had a project on their hands. With how young and frail for his size Bender is, he seemingly would need his first three seasons to really get acclimated to the NBA game.
But after this season, there is a projected insane amount of talent that will be available in the draft. The Suns, who have rights to first round picks from other teams, as well as the high possibility of owning a top-five pick, will have a choice of drafting their choice of a big man (Marvin Bagley III, Michael Porter Jr., Mohamed Bamba, DeAndre Ayton), all of which scouts have deemed franchise-changers.
If Bender doesn’t jell with the direction that the Suns are going to be continuing to go toward this season, and specifically on the court together with Marquese Chriss, that might be cause for him losing more minutes in the future with another high-upside big possibly joining the rotation.
That being said, the only way Phoenix will be able to accurately answer those questions and concerns is if it plays the kid. Chriss is a guaranteed starter, and it will be wise to throw Bender out there with him as much as possible, possibly switching the two between the 4 and the 5 to see what works.
Next: 10 bold predictions for 2017-18 NBA season
Bender has potential to be a mini-version of Kristaps Porzingis if he gets his game together, but this season potentially could be his best opportunity to show that in a Suns uniform.