In his last several NBA Mock Drafts, Chad Ford had predicted the New Orleans Pelicans would select the sweet shooting stroke of Buddy Hield. Well, that trend ended abruptly this morning with the release of ESPN's latest version, as 8.0 predicts Dragan Bender will be the name announced on behalf of the Pelicans later this month.
This is not the first time Bender, who currently plays for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Super League, has been linked to New Orleans. In the 7.0 version, Ford revealed the franchise's interest in the young Croatian.