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By Logan Newman
Cronkite News

PHOENIX — Center Tyson Chandler spent the early summers of his NBA career getting a close up look at former Bulls forward Toni Kukoč as his teammate in Chicago.

Some 5,000 miles away in Croatia, young Dragan Bender was just learning the game along with his older brother Ivan, and the brothers carefully studied Kukoč’s NBA highlights from afar.

Now, Bender is a 19-year-old rookie forward with the Phoenix Suns playing alongside Chandler, who is in his 16th NBA season. And Chandler sees similarities in the two players.

I tell Drag that he should pattern his game after (Kukoč) because he’s one of the best players to play alongside of,” said Chandler, who noted that the two Europeans have similar movements on the court and share a high basketball IQ.

Kukoč is a pretty good role model. He played in the NBA for 13 years, winning the league’s Sixth Man of the Year Award on a Bulls team that won 72 games and the NBA title during the 1995-96 season.

He was known for his versatility, averaging 11.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. He could play all five positions.

However, while Bender started out studying those highlights of the Bulls standout, he quickly learned that he has to become his own player.

“I was always trying to be like (Kukoč), but once you grow up … you realize it’s hard to steal those moves of players that unique,” Bender said.

Still, that was Bender’s initial goal. When he was 12 and Ivan was 14, the two left their home in Bosnia and Herzegovina for a basketball academy in Split, Kukoč’s hometown located about 90 miles away.

The 7-foot-1 Suns rookie is two inches taller than Kukoč, but he has spent time at the small forward, power forward and center positions this year. Coach Earl Watson said Bender isn’t afraid to take the three-point shot, which is a typical weapon of European big men.

Think Dirk Nowitzki. With his step-back, fade away shot, he has averaged 22 points per game over his career and defeated LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.

Bender isn’t trying to emulate Nowitzki, either.

“Everybody’s trying to take his shot, but that’s something unique, that’s something you have in yourself,” Bender said. “Any player coming right now, there’s nobody who can shoot like him, who can play like him.

“They have to find their own character and find their own role on the court.”

While Bender doesn’t have a deadly shot by any means — he’s shooting 37 percent from the floor and 32 percent from behind the arc — his height makes his jump shot difficult to defend.

Meanwhile, he is learning to adjust defensively to the speed of play in the NBA. Watson called his defense “amazing,” observing that rookies often struggle with it. But another, more subtle aspect of Bender’s game, stands out to the Suns coach.

Watson marvels at Bender’s ability as a big man to execute “pindown” plays in the Phoenix offense. Like a football receiver running a route, timing is everything.

“People don’t talk about this (but) for his size, to run pindown routes as a (big forward) … to be on time, on target, on pace with quick speed is very difficult to do for anyone at any position,” Watson said. “He runs them perfectly.”

It’s the type of ability that demonstrates Bender’s early signs of versatility on the court.

Chandler, who also played with Nowitzki, said Europeans often have a different rhythm on the floor, which can catch other players off guard.

Despite the comparisons Bender no longer aspires to adopt Kukoč’s style of play.

It’s one thing to dream about being a player like him but a second thing is trying to steal his moves and trying to steal his game, you know?” Bender said. “I’m just trying to find my own character, find my own game accordingly.”

Maybe one day another Croatian kid on the other side of the globe will study Bender’s highlights and try to adapt the Phoenix forward’s moves to his own style.

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Phoenix Suns forward Dragan Bender hopes to establish his own style in the NBA, even though he has studied other European big men. (Photo by Logan Newman/Cronkite News)