Does anyone know where that gif is of him trying to guard on the perimeter only to get crossed by some other white guy (sorry, I don't follow Euro ball so I don't know what the dude's name is)? That was hilarious.
If you watch the Maccabi highlight videos from this year, there are 6 or 7 such plays. For all the talk about him being Dirk mixed with Kirilenko, 1's, 2's and 3's just blow right past him in a layup drill. Anyone who isn't faster than him just pushes him out of the way.
Yeah. it's pretty obvious to see from watching film that he's nowhere near as quick / athletic as people are hyping him up to be. He's certainly not moving like Anthony Davis and KG did as rookies, that's for sure.
He'll have a quickness advantage against NBA centers, and he'll be mobile enough to stick with the more athletic NBA Power Forwards on footspeed alone (not strength, at least not yet).
But the more athletic NBA Small Forwards (Lebron, George, Derozan, etc) will blow straight by him though.
I think the might be able to stick with your Chandler Parsons, Gordon Hayward and Doug McDermott types. Maybe some older, slower guards like Joe Johnson and Vince Carter. That'd be about the best case.
All the people trying to suggest he can defend NBA shooting guards and point guards - I really don't know what to say other then "you're dreaming".
Idk about Joe, he's still got that great handle, but I get what you're saying. I also think that saying that someone 'can guard multiple positions' is really nothing more than a buzz term. It sounds great, in theory, and it gets thrown around a lot, but the reality is that not many players can do it.
What I don't understand is logic in some of these scouting reports regarding Bender. Again, I don't think that there's enough information out there for us as fans to even be able to tell if the guy can actually play or not, but in his defense, sites like draftexpress (which I've never taken seriously but understand that a lot of people do so I'll still look at what the have to say on guys from time to time) say that he can guard on the perimeter but will struggle to defend post players. Umm, what? I get what they're saying, but haven't we been, unfortunately, imo, hearing for a while now that traditional big men in the NBA are few and far between, at best? So why hold it against him when he won't be facing many of them in the first place? It just doesn't make sense to me. It's like they're saying, "stretch 4s and 5s
are revolutionizing the game, making players like Dwight Howard and Roy Hibbert useless, and small ball is clearly in vogue, but we're still going to hold it against you for not being able to guard all 4 of these antiquated creatures."
I also think that much of what is said about players like Bender is marred by stereotypes, in that the stereotype of white players in America used to be that they were all smart, skilled, and fundamentally sound
as opposed to black players who were great athletes but didn't possess the intelligence or fundamentals to succeed
, but since there are rarely any white Americans who can actually play these days, it seems as if those same stereotypes have only found a new host, so to speak, in European players. Virtually every scouting report on any European player always says that they're 'tremendously skilled' with an 'outstanding basketball iq (which is such a stupid term, imo) and feel for the game' which is only enhanced by their 'great fundamentals'
.
I understand that kids in Europe like Bender go to special schools that supposedly have them working for hours on the fundamentals when they're not in the classroom, but if that's the case with Bender, he needs to transfer
, because despite what that article on him being the next Porzingis said about him working on the fundamentals, if you actually watch him play, in, again, the limited videos that we can find, three glaring things are missing to me if he's supposed to be fundamentally sound -
1. He never uses his left hand when posting up, preferring to contort his body into some strange shape that leads to a terrible twisting shot or something which always misses,
2. He does an absolutely poor job of boxing out and reading where the ball is going to be once it hits the rim, and
3. When he actually does secure the rebound, he never keeps the ball high, especially on offense, always bringing it down to his waste or lower, which is an absolute no-no. Perkins used to drive Tommy nuts by always doing the same, which invariably led to him being stripped. I get that Bender grew up playing as a guard (right? I can't remember right now), but he's been tall for some time now, so why hasn't he corrected this deficiency?
In contrast, look at the reports on Thon Maker. They often say that he has limited skills and needs to get a better understanding of the game as well as work on his fundamentals, iirc. Umm, have they seen the same footage that we have? Again, I realize that these are Youtube mixes and he's playing in high school and aau, etc., but on the other hand, we have about the same amount of similar tape on Bender. Watch Maker bring the ball up the court like a guard and throw a perfect Rondo-esque right handed bounce pass on the move on the fast break to a teammate who finishes it with a dunk, iirc. I've never seen Bender do that. In fact, there aren't many players in the game today that can make that pass.
I've also twice seen Maker switch onto one of the most highly touted, athletic, and explosive prospects in next year's draft in Josh Jackson and not only stay with him, but block his shot, while, as alluded to above, it seems that Bender routinely gets crossed by unathletic, and relatively slow, white players, and yet scouts value what little Bender has done more. Why?
Finally, for the most part, whenever Maker rebounds, he does a great job of chinning the ball, which you rarely see, anymore. I acknowledge that he needs to work on his left hand, as well, even though he did throw a pretty-risky-but-still-worked
left handed bounce pass on the fast break which I believe resulted in a score in one sequence on Youtube. There aren't many guys in the league right now who would even think of making such a pass, let alone a 7-1 19 year old. Whether he's making one of those, throwing a two handed bounce pass between someone's legs
, making an over the head pass, executing a beautiful give-and-go on the baseline with a guard for a layup, or making a great touch pass to a teammate, the guy clearly (well, on Youtube, anyway
) has the passing gene, which demonstrates, to me, at least, that he has great decision making skills and a great feel for the game (if Youtube is to be believed
). Why, then, are these not deemed to even be skills on his part?
Maker also has a nice, albeit developing, right handed jump hook and shows definite signs that he could become at least a good post player as long as he continues to bulk up. Like Bender, he does need to work on his left hand, but Youtube highlights to Youtube highlights (I know, I know, but it's all we have to go on, lol
), Bender is automatically billed as the more skilled player when it seems to me that Maker is, in fact, more polished, so why is one guy deemed a youtube gimmick while the other is this future Croatian Sensation? I'd like to believe that we're beyond all of these stereotypes, but the fact that one guy is a white European who is deemed to possess 'tremendous skill' and 'feel for the game', while the other dude was born in Africa (and raised in Australia) and is said to 'lack skill' and needs to 'learn how to play' despite the evidence which would appear to suggest otherwise gives off the impression that such basketball buzzwords and terms have racial undertones. Or maybe it's just me. Yeah, it's probably just me
.
Topic: UPDATE - Bender Scouting Report & Video (Read 37117 times)