Five reasons Dragan Bender is turning the corner

Defense/Fouls

Jean-Claude Van Damme once proclaimed that “offense gets the glory,” to which Dennis Rodman replied “but defense wins the game.”

(Anytime I can throw a Double Team  reference into a post, you’d better believe that I will.)

While his offense continues to develop, and his energy alone isn’t enough to make himself into an offensive fixture, Dragan Bender’s defense will not only keep him on the court, but will alone buy him the opportunity to hone his offensive craft due to the time gifted to him because of his defensive help to the team.

Phoenix Suns

Granted he’s not Dennis Rodman, but Bender has shown since entering the NBA that defense is the half of the game that he is particularly excelled at, and that he is willing to give maximum effort on. One cannot watch Bender play and not notice that his defensive fundamentals are sound. When posted up Bender consistently has his hands straight up and rarely slaps at the ball when it is low. His quick feet and mobility allows him to stay in front of everyone including guards, making him far from the turnstyle that so many other big men who stretch out to the arc have become.

Becuase Bender doesn’t swipe at the ball as much, he is also not picking up many fouls. In his rookie season, he averaged 4.6 per-36 minutes, yet this season that number has dropped to an astounding 2.4. In fact, in his 33 appearances thus far in 2017-18, Bender had reached 5 fouls only once, and 3 fouls only five other times. He has not had more than two personal fouls in the entire month of December to date.

In games where he has played in a minimum of 20 minutes, he averages only 1.4 personal fouls. You seriously can not expect an NBA player to be more efficient than that.

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Dragan Bender has a looooong way to go to become a player that the franchise can count on for the long-term future. His scoring averages per-36 minutes are almost entirely identical to his averages from last season, and both his offensive and defense games have much to be improved upon. But for a kid who literally just turned 20-years-old, he has provided fans with much to both be impressed with and excited about.

It certainly does feel like Bender is beginning to turn a corner. His game appears to be a step above where he was last season and he definitely plays with a level of energy that is exactly what the team needs from him. Hopefully by the end of the season he’s impressing us so much so that he has made is way into the starting lineup.