Danny Ainge heads to Israel to scout Dragan Bender

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics/celtics_insider/2016/05/celtics_danny_ainge_heads_to_israel_to_scout_dragan_bender



Celtics' Danny Ainge heads to Israel to scout Dragan Bender



Mark Murphy Friday, May 27, 2016





Credit: Stuart Cahill
Danny Ainge/File


Sometimes the mountain travels to see Mohammad, which explains where Celtics president Danny Ainge and the team's director of player personnel, Austin Ainge, find themselves this weekend.

The Ainges will watch Dragan Bender tomorrow and Sunday in a pair of practices for Maccabi Tel Aviv. Bender, an 18-year-old Croatian, is one of the favorites to be taken by the Celtics with the third pick in the June 23 NBA draft.

Bender is a seven-foot point forward who, because of his age, comes off the bench for Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team just completed a three-game first round playoff sweep of league rival Bnei Hetzlia with an 81-54 blowout win yesterday in Tel Aviv. The team doesn't play again until June 6, and as such the Ainges won't watch Bender play in a game.

Instead, their ongoing evaluation of the big forward will be restricted to practices. As is typical of many young prospects who play for high level European competition, Bender doesn't start. He came off the bench yesterday with 11 points on 5-for-11 shooting, including 1-for-6 from 3-point range, in 23 minutes.

Bender's numbers don't exactly jump off the page, but as Austin Ainge stressed in a recent interview, games aren't always the best measure of young European propspects. Bender's more telling moments have come in junior national competition and the camps sponsored in recent years by the NBA and sneaker companies.

Bender is still considered a skilled big man who projects as a dangerous 3-point shooter - in other words, as the kind of so-called stretch four currently in vogue in the NBA. He is also extremely skinny, and in need of some serious weight training once he reaches the NBA.

Danny Ainge also took a side trip to Croatia earlier this week to watch center Ante Zizic, who may be receiving consideration from the Celtics with the 23rd pick in the draft.



bob



.

Murray, Maker, Zizic would be nice with the 3 first rd picks.

DANNY AINGE HEADS OVERSEAS TO SCOUT DRAGAN BENDER, ANTE ZIZIC

WEEI

By Mike Petraglia

Dragan Bender

The buzz over Dragan Bender is getting louder.

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge left for Israel Friday to watch the highly-touted prospect and potential No. 3 draft pick play, along with another European star in Ante Zizic.

The Celtics have three first-round picks at Nos. 3, 16 and 23.

According to the Herald’s Mark Murphy, both Ainge and son Austin, the team’s director of player personnel left for Israel on Friday to watch Bender in two practices Saturday and Sunday. There will be no game action.

18-year-old Bender plays for one of the top teams in Israel (Maccabi Tel Aviv). This season, he’s been had his playing time limited to coming off the bench, averaging just 4.3 points and 2.6 rebounds on the season. But Danny Ainge has longed for a player with his height (7-foot-1) and shooting ability. He is still underweight for the NBA but many scouts feel he has a great upside that make him worthy of a top-5 pick.

Austin Ainge has made several trips to Europe in the past two seasons and acknowledged that last week but indicated that pre-draft rules prohibited him from talking about Bender until the early-entrant deadline, which passed on Wednesday.

International basketball reporter David Pick confirmed Thursday that Ainge was in Croatia to scout Ante Zizic, another potential big man candidate who would likely need development before entering the NBA.

Zizic is a 19-year-old with a 6-foot-11 frame who has excelled in the Adriatic League despite his youth. Boston has 11 players under contract for the 2016-17 season. That means Ainge could have Zizic follow in the steps of Dario Saric (Sixers) and Nikola Mirotic (Bulls), who spent time overseas getting ready for the NBA. Saric may or may not join Philly this season.

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