No Chriss means extended opportunities for Bender

With the recent news that Marquese Chriss may continue to miss time due to a hip strain, means that two other young players will have ample opportunity to receive reps against the opponents first team and grow the way Chriss did last season.

When Earl Watson placed Marquese Chriss into the starting lineup only seven games into his rookie year, Chriss was offered an opportunity to grow by regularly playing against some of the league’s best, a chance that for the most part he took advantage of. With a stronghold of the starting power forward position, he regularly played starter’s minutes, and unlike fellow rookies Dragan Bender and Tyler Ulis, was never relegated to the backend of the rotation due to bouts of ineffectiveness.

When healthy, Dragan Bender was often lost in the rotation when he struggled, although this season he has shown enough of an improvement over last year that he has actually proven to be a crucial part of Phoenix’s second team. In fact, with a complete compliment of starters (including the oft-injured T.J. Warren), the second team with Bender and Josh Jackson was beginning to develop into it’s own, keeping the team in games, digging out of holes the starters dug, and taking advantage of playing against the opponent’s lesser bench talent.

Now with Chriss out for what could be a much longer stint than previously imagined when he was initially injured, Bender and Jackson, both who have found themselves in the starting lineup recently due to Chriss and Warren’s injuries, need to take advantage of these extended opportunities as starters.

Currently, Jackson, who is in the starting lineup due mainly to Warren’s injury and less to Chriss, has shown the skill-set and maturity necessary to be an effective starter. Since his one game exile by Head Coach Jay Triano, Jackson has started three of his last five games, averaging 14.2pts, 5.0 rebounds, on 44.4% shooting from the field and 36.8% from beyond the arc, each well above his full season average. His last game against Portland was down from his prior four outings, although some inconsistency should be expected and is acceptable for a rookie.

Bender, on the other hand, has not been quite so productive in recent starts.

Following his 20 point outburst that included a career-high 6-8 from beyond the arc, Dragan has started the last three games in Chriss’ place, and although he began fairly hot, he has fallen back into his own inconsistent trappings.

Dropping 14 points and grabbing 8 rebounds in his first start in Chriss’ absence against Houston, Bender performed poorly against Indiana (although to be fair, the entire team did too), finishing scoreless on 0-7 shooting (0-6 from 3) with only 5 boards in 30:18. Against Portland, Bender did grab 8 boards to go along with 6 points, although on 2-3 from 3 and 0-1 from within the arc often looking a little unsure of his role on offense and entirely out of place on defense.

Granted, as with Jackson, inconsistency should both be expected and somewhat acceptable for Dragan, even as a second year player, although many fans have noticed that his play has been particularly rushed of late and not quite so fluid since he’s entered the starting lineup. It seems, at least to the outside eye, that he feels a little extra pressure being a game-to-game starter and might be over-thinking his play a bit.

Jackson will be the first of the two to find himself back on the bench when Warren returns (presuming only that Warren returns first), although with the necessity to shuffle the lineup up a bit, he will still see plenty of minutes with pieces of the starting group, and against the opponent’s starters.

Bender, on the other hand, will most likely remain in the starting lineup for the duration of Chriss’ recovery, which at this moment feels like it will be for an extended period of time. As he has over the past three starts, it appears that he will continue to play with starters minutes (he has averaged 31.8 minutes in these first three starts), even when struggling offensively because he at least has kept personal fouls under control, averaging only 1.7 in these past three starts.

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Inconsistency aside, if Bender finds himself caught up more in the flow of the game, continually moving and making himself open, if he does not rush his shots (again, from the outside looking in, an apparent aspect of a little added pressure on himself), he will continue to receive the minutes necessary to get starter’s reps in, and use this opportunity to grow.

So long as Warren and Chriss are out, Dragan Bender and Josh Jackson will start. There is no better time than now to take strides in their games with these potentially extended opportunities afforded to them due to their teammates misfortune.