Tyler Ulis, Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss hold up their No. 16 Suns jerseys on June 24, 2016, during a news conference at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix. (Mark Henle/azcentral sports photo)
Written by Vincent R. Crawford, Sports Editor
Entering the 2016 NBA Draft, the majority of pundits had the Phoenix Suns, who have an abundance of guards, selecting either Croatian power forward Dragan Bender or the University of Washington power forward Marquese Chriss with their fourth overall pick of the First Round. On draft day, June 23, the Suns proved the analysts right, sort of, by selecting both players with Bender going fourth and Chriss chosen eighth after swinging a deal with the Sacramento Kings. With the selections, Phoenix chose two of the youngest players in this year’s draft with Bender being the youngest player chosen while Chriss was third earliest and second youngest draftee born in the United States.
Bender (7-1; 220 pounds) is an 18-year-old who was born in Capljina, Bosnia, but moved to Split, Croatia, at age 12 to play for a basketball academy. Bender has been playing professionally since the age of 15, in various overseas leagues, and last year, while playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv, in Israel, averaged 5.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 8.6 minutes per game. Before joining the NBA, $1.3 million must be paid to Maccabi as part of a buyout clause.
Bender enters the NBA as a prospect with a good shooting touch who, allegedly, can play the forward, power forward, center, or point forward positions. “I just want to play hard and show everybody that I can play with these guys on the court equally,” Bender said.
Chriss (6-10; 225), who wanted to play in Phoenix, was initially drafted by his hometown team, Sacramento, but by the time he finished taking pictures on stage with Commissioner Adam Silver, he was a Sun.
“(My agent) told me that it was a crazy turn of events that I ended up here because when they picked Bender I was sitting there like, ‘Dang, I guess I’m going somewhere else,’” said Chriss. His sister cried when he was picked by the Kings thinking he was going to play pro ball in his hometown. “And then they were able to work some kind of magic. It’s a team that I wanted to play for and I was happy that they did that for me.”
To get the No. 8 selection, Phoenix traded first round pick Nos. 13 (Greece center Georgios Papaiannis) and 28 (Kentucky center Skal Labissiere); draft rights to Serbian guard Bogdan Bogdanovic; and a 2020 second-round pick to Sacramento.
Chriss, who also is a project player, has only been playing organized basketball for five years, of which four were at the high school level, and in his lone college season, he led the nation in fouls and fouled out in 14 of his 34 freshman games.
The Suns had one pick in the second round, at No. 4, and with the 34th overall choice, Phoenix chose Kentucky point guard Tyler Ulis (5-9; 160). A persistent hip injury and his size is why some people think Ulis was not picked in the first round, but the Suns gladly choose him once they got on the clock. “The skills he brings as a point guard, size really doesn’t matter,” Suns head coach Earl Watson said.
Counting Ulis, Phoenix now has five Kentucky guards on their roster alongside Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, Archie Goodwin and Devin Booker. All three rookies will be in action on July 9 when Phoenix plays their first game in the Las Vegas Summer League Tournament versus Portland.