UcanUwill wrote:Exactly, naming pretty weak highlight real unguardable, and posting it on several team forums, I think it can mislead people who know nothing about Euroleague. This guy is bench warmer and I almost never fond of idea wasting very high pick on Euro bench warmers. Fans always name lots of things these guys can do, but if they can do all these things, why are they behind irrelevant Euro vets on rotation chart? This is same mistake people made about Dragan Bender and Mario Hezonja.
This is a mistake fans make when scout watching particular player. If you zone in and watch any one player at this level, Euroleague or NBA, any player can look good and do little intangible things well. Thats how you come to conclusion that a player is better than he actually, you stop seeing the big picture. Right now this guy is a project, he is definitely not unguardable because he can dunk in transition.
This is defeinitely weak draft, but if you want to waste tank year on this guy with a top 5 pick, just know that its a major gamble, and you arent gettting NBA caliber player initially thats for sure.
First of all he's not a bench warmer, not in the Euroleague and not in the Israeli league.
In the Euroleague in his last 7 games when he started to get a bigger role he averaging 20 minutes per game (European are playing 40 minutes, not 48 minutes), which is a playing time of a starter. In the Israeli league he's playing 27 minutes, averaging 12.4 PPG in 38.8% from the 3PT, and 66.4% from 2PT, adding to that a 6.1 RPG and having the second best Plus/Minus on his team. All of that is when he needs to earn his minutes against professional players in one of the best rosters in Europe, while other top prospects doesn't have as nearly as tough competition for getting minutes or getting touches on the ball.
Let's take Lamelo for example, he's playing in the worst team in the NBL, a team who won just 5 games out of 28 and has no any pressure to win, to compete for earning minutes nor to play defense. Yet some guys complaining about Deni's numbers or playing background. This is behind any sense to me.
Second thing, Maccabi this year is definitely a contender. They has a 19-9 winning record, ranked at 4'th (tied with #5) and they beat at home 3 of all 4 top teams, including beating the 1# team. They has enough quality to beat any team in a series this year. They were in a position to end up with a home court advantage coming to the playoff, then the next level is a final 4 tournament. There is no series in the Euroleague finals but only a 2 games, semi-final and a final. Each team can beat the other in 1 game.
Third, he's only 19 years old in his first FULL senior Euroleague season. If you really expect him to be the leader of a top Euroleague team, with all the pressure to win that involved, with all the competition for minutes with top Euroleague players that got paid a lot of money to play a major role there, your expectations are not realistic. Doncic was exceptional in this regard and even Doncic got his huge role and his huge numbers just on his 3'rd senior season. Almost non of the European players who succeed in the NBA got major minutes in a contender Euroleague teams. He also won the MVP of the U-20 Fiba while leading his national team to the gold medal while he's the youngest ever to accomplish it. He also won the MVP of the basketball without borders camp. And after all of that background, he also has his great potential.
Bender was nowhere near Avdija in terms of minutes and stats. Both in the Euroleague and in the Israeli league.
Hezonja came to the NBA 1 year older than Deni expecting to come and didn't achieve what Deni achieved the same age.
But to be honest, I really think it's lazy to value a player by comparing him to other European players. We should value each player in his own depended on his skills, achievements and his potential. I did it just to put things in the right context.
Does it says I'm sure Deni will be a star? I really don't know, it's very hard to predict. But it will be also very arrogant to state he will not be. I think he has the potential, but sure he will have to improve some areas in his game.
But as for now, there are some guys in the upcoming draft with bigger question marks for me. Lamelo who's not play defense and is playing in really weak team, Wiseman who is a physical freak but lacks a lot of game aspects, Cole Anthony, halliburton,Okoro, Okongwu, Toppin, Hayes, literally every top prospect in this draft has a ton of question marks of whether he would translate his game to the next level or not, even Ant man who I consider as my 1# pick. So, comparing to the others, Deni is one of the safest top 5 picks to me.