Sometimes the mountain travels to see Muhammad, which explains where Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge and director of player personnel Austin Ainge find themselves this weekend.

The Ainges will watch Dragan Bender today and tomorrow in practices for Maccabi Tel Aviv. Bender, an 18-year-old Croatian, is one of the favorites to be taken by the Celtics with the third pick in the NBA draft on June 23.

Bender is a 7-foot point forward who, because of his age, comes off the bench for Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team just completed a three-game first-round playoff sweep of league rival Bnei Herzliya with an 81-54 blowout win in Tel Aviv. Bender’s team doesn’t play again until June 6, so the Ainges won’t see Bender play in a game.

Instead, their ongoing evaluation will be restricted to practices. As is typical of many young prospects who play for high-level European competition, Bender doesn’t start. He scored 11 points in the most recent game on 5-for-11 shooting, including 1-for-6 from 3-point range, in 23 minutes.

Bender’s numbers don’t jump off the page, but as Austin Ainge stressed in a recent interview, games aren’t always the best measure of young European prospects. Bender’s more telling moments have come in junior national competition and the camps sponsored in recent years by the NBA and sneaker companies.

Bender still is considered a skilled big man who projects as a dangerous 3-point shooter — in other words, as the kind of so-called stretch 4 currently in vogue in the NBA. He is also extremely skinny, and in need of serious weight training once he reaches the NBA.

Danny Ainge took another trip to Croatia earlier this week to watch center Ante Zizic, who may be receiving consideration from the Celtics with the 23rd pick in the draft.