Celts size up potential
Ainges try to judge Croatian 7-footer with cautious eyes
The eye test has been impressive enough to make NBA scouts dream big when watching Dragan Bender.
The 7-foot-1 Croatian, as athletic as he is tall, impressed with great shooting form, 3-point range, world-class length and a sharp instinct to pass. He’s skinny — a bony 223 pounds — but so is Kristaps Porzingis, the improbably successful Knicks rookie who has Danny Ainge wondering if the European talent pool can produce legitimate high draft talent for the second year in a row.
The Celtics president and his son, director of player personnel Austin Ainge, watched Bender in two practices with Maccabi Tel Aviv last weekend. Bender told them he will fly to Boston for a workout once Maccabi’s playoff season ends, at the latest, on June 9.
Bender’s performances on the junior European circuit have done more to boost his draft profile than what he actually put in a box score for Maccabi this season. That’s the trouble with playing for one of the Euroleague’s most famous teams. Porzingis showcased more because his Spanish team, Sevilla, was a mediocre franchise with lots of opportunities for a young player. Minutes don’t come that easy on David Blatt’s former team, now coached by former NBA center Zan Tabak.
That’s why the evaluation process for young Europeans is so imprecise, and a bigger-than-usual gamble for the team with the No. 3 pick in the June 23 NBA draft.
But then there’s a moment of clarity, too, the quality scouts spotted in Bender that makes him look like a high lottery pick.
“It’s a small body of work, but he was very good last year as a junior,” said Austin Ainge. “Combine that with the tools he has, and you can see it all come together in 10 minutes of playing time.”
Showtime, maybe
Tabak, who played 18 games for the Celtics in early 1998 during his four-team, four-season NBA career, doesn’t have time to develop young players. Job security doesn’t exist for most Euroleague coaches, and as such Tabak’s moves always have a short-term motive.
When Maccabi beat Bnei Herzliya last Thursday to sweep its first-round playoff series 3-0, Bender came off the bench with 11 points and seven rebounds in 23 minutes. The 3-pointer many think he can convert in the NBA never arrived. He was 1-for-6 from downtown.
The playing time was generous for Bender, compared to the 12.2 minutes he’s averaged overall in 39 games this season. He sat out 20 games for two basic reasons.
“He’s been hurt some and benched some,” Austin Ainge said of what is a fairly typical plight for Euroleague rookies.
Two seasons ago, Maccabi loaned Bender to a second-division Israeli team, and he responded with performances that verified what most scouts believed — that this stretch-4 forward had high-lottery talent. He debuted for Maccabi last October, and watched his playing time decelerate.
“We always enjoy it when prospects play on bad teams,” said Ainge, not quite joking. “European basketball can be very tough for young players. There’s a lot more pressure on coaches to win over there. They’re going to go with the veterans if there’s any question.
“We talk about coaching turnover here, but it’s a lot worse over there.”
Seeing is believing
So yes, there’s more than the usual risk when attempting to project Bender’s NBA chances. Ainge flew to Turkey twice this winter attempting to see Furkan Korkmaz, an 18-yearold shooting guard projected to go in the middle of the first round. But Korkmaz plays for Anadolu Efes, a Turkish League playoff team.
“Korkmaz has a similar situation to Bender,” said Ainge. “We went to see him twice and he didn’t get into the game twice.”
Orlando took this kind of flier last June on Mario Hezonja with the fifth pick. The young Croatian shooter’s lack of defensive ability and urgency landed him in the shallow end of coach Scott Skiles’ rotation.
But Bender now seems to be the tiebreaker in a European basketball debate. Is he Porzingis, or is he Darko Milicic, the uberhyped Serbian center whose mediocrity stunned Joe Dumars after the Pistons general manager selected him in 2003 with the second overall pick, ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.
But for all Phil Jackson knew when he took Porzingis at No. 4 last June, he was drafting a skinny 7-foot-3 project years away from a serious contribution, instead of runner up to Karl-Anthony Towns for rookie of the year.
Porzingis is now a standard for overseas hopefuls, if not the best example of how to judge European talent, considering how many NBA types were surprised by his ascent.
So here the Celtics stand with Bender. His best judging platforms have been performances for two straight years in the NBA-run addidas Eurocamp in Treviso, Italy — last summer as tournament MVP — and his play for Croatia’s junior national team.
He’s talented and, as a thin 7-foot-1 shooter who developed skills as a point guard before the growth spurts started, right now in serious need of physical development.
“His body has a long way to go,” said Ainge. “But these situations are all case by case. You’re just dealing with a small sample size.”
And, a perilously thin margin of error.
‘It’s a small body of work, but he was very good last year as a junior.’ — CELTICS’ AUSTIN AINGE On Croatian player Dragan Bender