Golden State Warriors: Dragan Bender is slowly earning a spot on next year’s roster

With playing his best game of the season against the Los Angeles Clippers, could Dragan Bender finally be stepping up to the plate for the Golden State Warriors?

After Steph Curry missed his second game in a row due to the flu and Juan Toscano-Anderson spraining his ankle just minutes into the game, forcing him to leave the game for the night, the game a few nights ago looked bleak for the Golden State Warriors, a position they seem to be in on a nightly basis.

The Warriors ended up coming up short against the Clippers, but Dragan Bender did not.

Just a few days after re-signing a ten-day contract with the Golden State Warriors, the Croatian native dropped 23 points, seven rebounds, and three assists in the 131-107 loss against Los Angeles.

Golden State may have made a great call keeping Bender around a little longer, but it’s still rather unknown if they’ll continue to keep him as the offseason nears. Bender would give frontcourt depth if re-signed for next season.

The 22-year-old has been averaging 6.7 points for the 2019-2020 season, but with last night being by far his best game of the season, the Warriors fan base may need to raise expectations quite a bit.

A lot of people are calling last night nothing more than a fluke and that Bender will go back to his usual low-scoring ways, but the hype surrounding him when he came into the league mixed with his ability to shoot from deep gives the hope that his potential is still largely untapped.

In the outing against the Clippers, Bender made two threes, went perfect from the free-throw line and was 6-for-7 from the field. That’s an outstanding performance, and if he continues to mimic that, we’ll be seeing quite a bit more of him moving forward.

The Warriors, and the rest of the NBA, has been suspended until further notice.