Bender is still younger than a lot of guys who were just drafted. He shot fairly well last year (36.6% on threes) and played a solid 25.2 mpg over all 82 games. Those are pretty good sophomore numbers, especially for someone that young. It looked at that point like he was carving out a career.
Since then, though the Suns have drafted and committed all-in to local college product Ayton and combined with giving minutes to expensive veterans Ariza, Anderson and Chandler, there just doesn't seem to be anyway room in thier big man rotation to give him minutes.
Makes no sense to commit a team option to a guy you can't carve out more than 4 mpg for.
The Suns are a weird roster. They have a strange mix of old veterans and extreme youth. If they are rebuilding, why do they bring in guys like Ariza and Anderson?
I'll echo the sentiment that I'm glad that the Celtics drafted Jaylen instead of Bender. I was one of those who defended Bender as an option but also defended Jaylen as a great choice for that pick as well and that the difference was always going to be in who was more 'NBA ready' (Jaylen, obviously). I was just adamantly against picking guys like Hield, Dunn or Murray. Given the Celtics more immediate contention plan, Jaylen made and makes SO much more sense. But I do think it's awful early to close the book on such a young player as Bender. I suspect someone will take a flyer on him.