Unlike Dragan Bender’s last game, where he added seven blocks and six assists to his total of eleven points, this game was not nearly as stat-stuffed. The only “miscellaneous” stat the Bender accrued here was one steal. Otherwise, he was all about scoring; nineteen points is two higher than his previous season high of seventeen. I would argue that the previous game was more impressive than this one, especially considering the fact that Bender is spoon-fed most of his looks in this one. He’s finishing stuff at the rim that even the most unskilled big in the world would finish, provided they knew how to catch a ball (a skill which still eludes many G-League-caliber big men).
With each good game that Bender has as the season comes to an end (a blessed end, if you’re a Suns fan who has so little self-respect that you watch every Suns game), it gets more and more likely that he’ll receive a moderately-sized contract from either the Suns or another team. The potential to be something desirable in the modern NBA is still there, but Bender still needs a lot of work. The good news is, most teams will look at him as “a project who can sometimes play well” rather than a “complete reclamation project that is very likely to fail” (which is how he looked when he was getting DNP’s earlier in the season).
OFFICIAL DTB PREDICTION: Bender signs a two-year, seven-million-dollar deal with a team. Second year is a team option. The team? I don’t know yet, but I’m betting it’s an NBA team.