I was sold on him as #3, our last years pick. I also thought we needed 3/4 years for contending at the time. But Horford signed, the east got weaker, Hayward came, east got weaker and LBJ phoned to his beloved fans that he will leave them once more, making the east - weaker in the future. BTW, Clevelands 11 LBJ years with just a single title is a weak score on my book. When you are having the best player of the generation, you got to squeeze out more juice from that. We would get 5-6 with him in that span.
Now, Bender doesn't look like he would be a good 3rd pick for us after these events. Žižić looks to have a true 5 role. His upside is limited, but as you said, his role is easy to define. Big that sets screens and controls the defensive glass. It might sound simple unspectacular, or shallow, but we need it. That was our weakness last year. Bender can't solve those issues even if he turns out to be a good NBA player.