Why is everyone down on Bender?

[SHAQATTACK]

Not sure he will his named called in the top five .....but never know ,somebody might trust his developememt potiental more than me.

[walker834]

I'm not down on him.  I'd be thrilled if DA sees what I do in him because I'm not sold on Ingram or Simmons.  They are the consensus 1 and 2, but what I see of Ingram is a smaller not as good durant. I'm not sure I want to build my team around that. Simmons has his own questions.  Bender I really like and don't listen to the consensus too much.

The reason Ingram and simmons are rated 1 and 2 according to the general consensus is because they are the two players that were seen the most and seemingly have hte most upside.  logically speaking Bender people haven't seen as much so they rate him lower.  Does that make them better?  KG was a highschooler and was rated lower for the same reasons.

It depends obviously but Ainge gets to really see these guys and I hope he rates guys logically not by what the general consensus says. I hope he drafts who is the best prospect.

There are always favorites.  It doesn't mean that's who is best. The general consensus is wrong quite a bit.  Sheeple.

[CoachBo]

Not sure he will his named called in the top five .....but never know ,somebody might trust his developememt potiental more than me.

If someone does, they are making a monumental mistake.

[mmmmm]

If Bender was in the USA he'd be in high school.
One can only imagine the stats he'd be putting up against high schoolers over here and even US college teams.

He's played 10 games for Maccabi.
Ten games ...and his critics are suggesting that's enough of a sample size at 18 years old.

Ultimately none of us can judge Bender properly from our limited exposure.
Danny will bring him.in and work him out and see what he is.

Actually, he's played 36 games for Maccabi, including 26 in the BSL, 7 in EuroLeague and 3 in Eurocup competition.   Here are his stat totals:

http://basketball.realgm.com/player/Dragan-Bender/Summary/41582

Here are his game logs.

http://basketball.realgm.com/player/Dragan-Bender/GameLogs/41582/International

For the diligent who would actually like an informed opinion, here are tons of videos from their current season.  Requires sifting and searching and helps if you have someone to translate:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCWRG1vLyuBLEpOb9CgkEj7MKGSgaX1mt

You can find lots of segments of Bender on the floor, but as he was not a featured 'star' on offense, you have to filter through lots of other footage. I find this a little more 'balanced' than a player-specific highlight video.  You can see Bender make some great plays and also some bad plays and lots in between.  Look at the game logs to find out which games he played a lot of minutes in and then find the video from those games.

When you look at the games from last November & December, he looks like a nervous kid.  Most of his teammates are 27 or older.  He looks a lot more confident in his role in the games down the stretch of the last few weeks.  His coach seems to use him as a defensive sub a lot.