Dragan

[NashDishesDimes]

I cant help but rant a little here in the direction of Dragan. Look, I understand hes young, raw, and needs development.

BUT, the NBA is not going to wait for this guy. The frustrating part is I cannot think of one thing he had clearly improved upon in three years. Can you?

If my full time job was to fulfill my lifelong dream of playing professional basketball and I was commiting 10+ hours/day for 3 years to watching film and playing basketball, wouldnt you expect some improvement? Or to at least try something different?

Of young guys on Suns roster off the top of my head:
-josh jackson: removed hitch from jumper
-Ayton: improved D and becoming more aggressive
-mikal: taking a dribble into lane lately to keep defense honest
-TJ: developed 3 ball
-daniels: see mikal
-


Im giving him credit in that he has nature given abilities of being coordinated, 7ft tall, and agile. In 3 years of full time bball and tape would you not be able to at least develop a midrange fadeaway? Or realize from watching tape youre always open and passing up shots? Or even that the scouting report says you will never dribble; and maybe taking one up fake and one dribble to at least keep a defense honest?

He doesnt seem to be enthused on the court what so ever, but on the bench he looks too content.

On top of it, for what its worth, I saw him out in Old Town at 3am a few weeks ago.

I dont dislike someone for not being good at basketball, but to me this is just not trying and it would be frustrating as a bench guy to see him get minutes over me.

I cant help to think when i see how excited he is on the end of the bench that he still thinks hes the #4 overall pick not a 13th man on a bad team days away from being out of the league.

TFN=Tall For Nothin’

:End rant:

 

[Phrazbit]

I spent a few years defending him and I've got nothing left (getting there with Jackson too).

Bender is maddening to watch, you'll see him do some amazing move to fake out a good defender... only to follow it with an air balled layup or a pass to no one. Defensively he will occasionally have stretches where he seems like a stud, but far more often the Suns will give up a 10 point run and you'll be wondering "what the hell happened?", see Bender is currently sporting a -10 in only 3 minutes and say to yourself "Bender was in the game?!"

He is one of the more coordinated guys for his size I've ever seen... he's also got absolutely zero awareness on offense, dude's got no clue what to do with open space or where his teammates are. Defensively he can handle one on one situations alright, other than that he's leaving his teammates 4 on 5.

I know we've played better with him in the starting lineup, but even as a "starter" he does not play much and we're often getting wrecked with him on the court.

I have zero hope for him.

He will scratch out another year or 2 in the NBA on small contracts and then find himself back in Europe.

Just looked up a sad stat.

Of the power forwards who have averaged more than 10 minutes per game when they play, the 3 worst offensive PFs in the NBA in RPM are Bender, Chriss and Ryan Anderson. Yikes.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

He just seems to have pretty much zero confidence and almost looks scared to try anything different. I have seen enough highlight plays to know that he has real skill/talent, but until he learns to be more fearless on the court he will never do much on a basketball court.

Honestly he probably should have been in the G-League pretty much full time for his first couple years just focusing on building confidence.

 

[Finito]

Oh Dragan sucks?

Watch out hot takes here guys. Stand back.

 

[Carolinacacti]

Hey he can play defense. Get Igor to talk him into signing cheep.

 

[Proximo]

I cant help but rant a little here in the direction of Dragan. Look, I understand hes young, raw, and needs development.

BUT, the NBA is not going to wait for this guy. The frustrating part is I cannot think of one thing he had clearly improved upon in three years. Can you?

If my full time job was to fulfill my lifelong dream of playing professional basketball and I was commiting 10+ hours/day for 3 years to watching film and playing basketball, wouldnt you expect some improvement? Or to at least try something different?

Of young guys on Suns roster off the top of my head:
-josh jackson: removed hitch from jumper
-Ayton: improved D and becoming more aggressive
-mikal: taking a dribble into lane lately to keep defense honest
-TJ: developed 3 ball
-daniels: see mikal
-


Im giving him credit in that he has nature given abilities of being coordinated, 7ft tall, and agile. In 3 years of full time bball and tape would you not be able to at least develop a midrange fadeaway? Or realize from watching tape youre always open and passing up shots? Or even that the scouting report says you will never dribble; and maybe taking one up fake and one dribble to at least keep a defense honest?

He doesnt seem to be enthused on the court what so ever, but on the bench he looks too content.

On top of it, for what its worth, I saw him out in Old Town at 3am a few weeks ago.

I dont dislike someone for not being good at basketball, but to me this is just not trying and it would be frustrating as a bench guy to see him get minutes over me.

I cant help to think when i see how excited he is on the end of the bench that he still thinks hes the #4 overall pick not a 13th man on a bad team days away from being out of the league.

TFN=Tall For Nothin’

:End rant:

Um - are you serious? You can't see how he has improved?

Until the second half of this season he would routinely come in and turn the ball over at an astounding rate any time he tried to drive with the ball, so he was essentially a bad spot up shooter only. Not saying he is good now, but he is no longer making stupid mistakes at anywhere near the same rate.

He is now a good defender, and an adequate rebounder. He has clearly improved at both.

Also he no longer looks terrified when he is in the game. The guy now believes he belongs.

Dragan does not need a midrange game - at all. He is basically a poor man's brooke lopez - and in time he can be better than him.

He clearly is improving - I would like the suns to resign him.

 

[AzStevenCal]

On top of it, for what its worth, I saw him out in Old Town at 3am a few weeks ago.

It's worth nothing IMO. You should read one of those articles that comes around every so often about a typical day in the life of an NBA player. On a game day they don't typically have much in the way of free time until well after the game ends. Being out at 3 in the morning might tell a story about an athlete in the NFL or MLB but not for a basketball player, that's like 9 or 10 PM for them.

 

[NashDishesDimes]

He just seems to have pretty much zero confidence and almost looks scared to try anything different. I have seen enough highlight plays to know that he has real skill/talent, but until he learns to be more fearless on the court he will never do much on a basketball court.

Honestly he probably should have been in the G-League pretty much full time for his first couple years just focusing on building confidence.

Solid point, not sure why he hasnt been in G league

 

[Phrazbit]

Hey he can play defense. Get Igor to talk him into signing cheep.

Um - are you serious? You can't see how he has improved?

Until the second half of this season he would routinely come in and turn the ball over at an astounding rate any time he tried to drive with the ball, so he was essentially a bad spot up shooter only. Not saying he is good now, but he is no longer making stupid mistakes at anywhere near the same rate.

He is now a good defender, and an adequate rebounder. He has clearly improved at both.

Also he no longer looks terrified when he is in the game. The guy now believes he belongs.

Dragan does not need a midrange game - at all. He is basically a poor man's brooke lopez - and in time he can be better than him.

He clearly is improving - I would like the suns to resign him.

Brook Lopez was never this bad. Bender is a travesty on offense, he rates as one of the worst players in the entire league on that end and the numbers have not improved.

But, more to the point of your and cacti's wishes: we've already declined his option, which makes retaining him really unlikely.

 

[Carolinacacti]

Brook Lopez was never this bad. Bender is a travesty on offense, he rates as one of the worst players in the entire league on that end and the numbers have not improved.

But, more to the point of your and cacti's wishes: we've already declined his option, which makes retaining him really unlikely.

We have Johnson now so that token white spot is taken.

 

[Mainstreet]

We have Johnson now so that token white spot is taken.

I'm not sure why you say this.