Enter as lottery pick, that is, to occupy any of the fourteen first elections, of a draft, is a milestone for most young people who dream of the NBA. The higher you stay, the more excitement. Pure logic. In the case of Deni Avdija, he came to the big league in a context of two bands: great aspirations with a lot of fans behind him and a difficult fit due to his lack of experience. We are talking about a player from Israel, who had only had six players of his nationality in the League before and had very good reports to back him up; a player who is hunted in the Euroleague in the months leading up to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic; a player who performs compulsory military service in his country shortly before embarking on his great professional adventure; a player who had, compared to other players from European basketball, a lot of cache in lower categories but somewhat less when playing together with the majors. He didn’t have them all with him. Being chosen the 9th of the 2020 Draft, in his case by the Wizards, put him like a sweet tooth for a team with pieces to play with in the market.
The comparisons are hateful and, in their case, very misguided. Luka Doncic’s effect still hits hard on the NBA with almost any white boy with a bit of body and height who comes from the Old Continent or, in the case of Avdija, from the surroundings (more cultural than geographical). Before being elected he said this: “They have not given me anything, I have had to work hard to get everything I have achieved. Even the minutes I have had at the Maccabi I have had to sweat. They do not give twenty minutes a night to a child. Maybe to Luka Doncic. I saw him and thought why couldn’t I do the same. It’s about responding like an adult, assuming responsibilities, earning minutes, becoming important in the rotation, etc. You can agree with me or take it away from me, but more aside from being a tremendous player, I think Doncic has been very lucky in his career “.
Having reached high in the draft but not as much as projected could affect his cockiness, a concept close to the conceited one that is used a lot in the United States for players like Deni. Another of the recent times that fits the definition may be Mario Hezonja, already out of the NBA. Of confidence they are left over, maybe too much. By personality it is not. Spain remembers its attitude close to the red line in the final of the European under-20 category that Israel won two years ago with an Avdija unleashed against the now top-level players Josep Puerto, Sergi Martínez, Joel Parra and Carlos Alocen. He has trained at Maccabi in Tel Aviv, but only in the second of his two seasons in the first squad, 2019/20, did he touch an average of 15 minutes in European competition, exceeding the previous season’s mark by ten. He was not in diapers, but almost. His first steps in the NBA left the impression that he was a bit out of order and, as in Israel, in the second year he begins to show interesting tools to add to the group to which he belongs. The one now is the Avdija that you had to bet on.
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It is also important to see how the Wizards have evolved to see the new Avdija. It has gone from the Westbrook-Beal duality accompanied by a wealthy Bertans or positive surprises like Neto or Gafford to Bradley, the highest quality player, having at his side the former Lakers who entered the Russell transfer (Harrell , Kuzma and Caldwell-Pope) or the unpredictable guard-guard Spencer Dinwiddie. The Israeli has also taken advantage of the absence of Rui Hachimura for unknown reasons in this first part of the season. At dock, another change: Wes Unseld for Scott Brooks.
In the change of the entire staff Avdija is a good example. He has gone from an irregular team and focused on offense but with the ups and downs that did not allow him to progress beyond the first round, where the 76ers eliminated them, to one of the ten -and, at times, of the five- best of the entire NBA on a defensive level. But there is more: Statmuse He highlighted before the Thanksgiving mini-pattern a beast of the Avdija season. This 2.06 meter tall forward has lowered the accuracy of the players he defends to 34.9%, which is the best record in the NBA for those who have scored at least 150 shots; 9.1% less than the normal percentage of defended opponents, which is also a record.
For a player who is somewhat slow with the ball due to his height but who has intelligence when it comes to moving, knows tricks to disrupt the opponent with little and was an expert scorer in lower categories, the adaptation to the game in the United States has been made complicated. At least when he plays for the basket. His accuracy in shots of two and three is below average, but therein lies the positive part of this reading. Deni has known how to reinvent herself. Find your hole, your job, your fate. Perch the defensive plot as the rockiest protective it is the virtue with which to earn the minutes.
