The problem I have with Bender is that, as far as I can tell, he really isn't doing that much in the Israeli league.
http://basketball.realgm.com/player/Dragan-Bender/Summary/41582
There's also the fact that after Kristaps we're due for a European big man that shoots threes to come to the NBA and become a gigantic bust. What are the chances two of them are good in back to back drafts?
Euro players generally dont play when they are young for some reason outside of international competitions. Kristaps for instance in his last year only averaged 21 mpg, and only 10 PPG, which he has eclipsed. Maybe it's the organizations trying to tank their value so they don't get drafted? Im not sure. Bender is also a year younger then Porzingis was when he entered the draft. Remember, Bender is 18.
I dunno what to make of Euro prospects to be honest. Their stats are never out of this world and really it's one of those things that unless you intensely scout them, it's hard to figure out what you're going to get. Here's an exercise...who were the players drafted from Europe in the last 5 years?
I mean, there were a lot of euros drafted which were stashed players in the second round. In terms of international prospects.
Mario Hezonja, and Kristaps were the big 2 last year. Porzingis is a walking matchup problem, and Hezonja is a very gifted young scorer, although he hasn't done super well with the logjam of guards that the Magic have. Mudiay was also technically an international player, but he was playing in America for most of his basketball career.
2014 had Saric, who looks to be a fantastic prospect for the Sixers (great shooter and great passer at 6'10"). Dante Exum was doing OK before getting that knee injury last offseason, and Nurkic has been a good pickup by the Bulls
2013 had the Greek Freak who's an absolute stud, and Dennis Schroeder who Im personally a big fan of. Rudy Gobert was also drafted here, and he's an obvious impact player
2012 had Evan Fournier drafted in the 1st round, who's a great value pick for being picked 20th overall
2011 was probably the worst year for International prospects, with Enes Kanter and Van Esely getting high draft picks, but we also have Jonas Valanciunas, and Nikola Mirotic. Hell, im somewhat of a fan of Bojan Bogdanovic who was a 2nd rounder. And hell, Vucevic is basically a Euro who went to an American college.
This also ignoring 2nd round draft picks like Nikola Jokic who looks to be fairly good.
Generally, I'd be weary of a Euro guard, or a heavy scoring Euro player, but they are generally much better defensive players, and generally really good role players.
Bender doesnt have the shooting touch of Kristaps, or the offenisve skillset of him, but he can play really good defense, and he can play the 3 at 7'1" and is a matchup nightmare. He's more of a project then KP was (which I was fucking stupid because KP had the skillset to be an NBA player already, people just wanted to force him to be a "big" because he was 7'3")
You guys need to remember that scouting draft picks is very much a crapshoot and a big part of that is that we have no clue how players will develop. Nobody thought Curry was going to develop into literally the best player in the NBA, nobody thought Kawhi Leonard would become the best player out of his draft, nobody thought Jimmy Butler would be anything special.
I'd generally avoid non super athletic euros as I dont think the player developement over there is nearly as good as it is over here. bender is a super athletic euro though
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