2016 NBA Mock Draft: Lakers Slide, Celtics nab Simmons

PF. Maccabi Tel Aviv. Dragan Bender. 3. player. 20. <p>Dragan Bender is the player with the most potential after Ingram and Simmons. He looks like a center at 7-1, but his mobility allows him to play the power forward position and, perhaps more importantly, guard other mobile forwards as well. The Lakers are grooming Julius Randle as the workhorse down low and Bender can be the ying to his yang. The Croatian should help to provide some spacing as he knocked down 3-pointers at almost 38 percent this season for Maccabi.</p> <p>Bender isn’t going to wow you with playmaking abilities just yet, but he shouldn’t have to in the uptempo style we can expect new head coach Luke Walton to implement next season. With D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson pushing the pace and Randle banging down low, there should be ample room for Bender to make his mark on the perimeter.</p> <p>The Dragan — as we will have to call him — comes in with a lot of hype and we can only hope that he doesn’t fizzle like some of the many European players lauded before him.</p> <p>The Lakers have a long road to relevance ahead of them, but Bender is the type of building block so easy to plug and play that he comes without instructions.</p> <p><em>To read more about Dragan Bender, <a href=