If Dragan Bender falls to the New Orleans Pelicans at number 6 –as he is projected to do in Chad Ford of ESPN’s latest mock draft– the team will be ecstatic, reports Ford:
The Pelicans need backcourt help and it might be hard to pass on Hield if he he’s still on the board.
But word on the street is that they are pretty big Bender fans and see him fitting nicely with Anthony Davis in the future — especially with their fear of losing Ryan Anderson this summer to free agency.
If Bender reaches his ceiling as an NBA player –something that is far from a certainty– then he and Anthony Davis could be an utterly dominant frontcourt duo. Bender projects to be a versatile big man; at 7’1″ he can handle the ball, and has shown signs of three-point shooting. He isn’t quite there yet, but he has all the potential in the world, and at 18 years old, he has plenty of time to develop.
Paired with Anthony Davis, another versatile big man who could very well become the best player in the NBA, the Pelicans would have their big man tandem of the future, and would be free to devote their energy to building around the two young bigs.
