I sit here wondering why all the fuss about Bender. I've even posted some good things about him even though I'm not sold on drafting him. Some of the negatives have been rehashed numerous times, not very athletic, not aggressive enough, his defense and rebounding against bigs is quite suspect, etc. Yes, he has his positives too. Although, nothing that screams out at you.
So, many of us are intrigued. But why? There are a lot of 7 footers in the NBA and yet, for some reason there is something different about Dragan. What is it?
This is what I think it could be. It may be that he is taller than his announced 7'1". Yes, taller. I don't have any evidence of this. It's purely speculation on my part from watching him on the court. In my opinion he seems to take up a lot more space than his listed height.
We've recently seen 7 footers in Boston, e.g., Kelly, KG, Tyler Zeller and Colton Iverson. In my opinion they all appear to be significantly shorter than Dragan. I don't believe it's because we see him on the court with shorter players than those found in the NBA. Even when I watch him dunk. He's hardly getting off the floor and he's at the rim. Most of the other players I mentioned above seem to have jump higher to get there.
Maybe I'm off base....anyone feel he might be taller than 7'1"? Could that be part of his mystique?