crappy list if Bender is at #3
look at his pathetic stats. Can't even get mins on the court
If Bender was in the USA he'd be in high school.
A 7 foot high schooler shooting 40% from three that can drive, shoot and defend.
He's four years younger than Marcus Smart man.
Exactly. This gets lost on so many people.
1) He's a pretty mediocre shooter at this point
2) He's not driving past NBA calibre athletes, and even still his driving ability is limited
3) His defensive potential is pretty high - I'll give him that
4) His rebounding isn't that great
5) His attitude is concerning for an NBA big - hard working, but seems to shy away from contact - that attitude combined with his skinny frame would get him murdered in the NBA
6) He seems to struggle finishing around the basket - from the footage I've seen he seems to miss a ton of lightly contested shots at the rim, and only makes up for it by getting 2-3 offensive rebounds and finishing it on the third attempt. Something he only seems to be capable of doing because the guys he's significantly taller/longer then everybody he comes up against (won't be the case in the NBA)
I could easily be wrong (it's hard to know either way with international guys who have limited sample sizes and no experience against US college or pro players) but from what I am seeing Bender looks like he has the potential to become a nice defensive big man with slightly above average offensive skills. I don't see him becoming any more then about a 12/8/2 guy in the NBA.
I honestly see a lot of Jonas Jerebko in him - which isn't that promising considering JJ is now around 27 and still hasn't been able to leapfrog guys like Sullinger, Amir Johnson and Kelly Olynyk in the rotation over the course of a season.
What does Bender have that Jerebko doesn't? He's probably a slightly better ball handler, and he's a couple of inches taller...that's really about it.