Wizraeli wrote:prime1time wrote:The game tonight shows what Avdija can bring to the table. It's silly to say that Avdija does not have to make 3's. The Nets were literally leaving him wide open and forcing him to shoot. He attempted 9 3's and made 4 of them. As far as the aggressiving driving goes, people need to be realistic. A year ago, the man was afraid to even attack the hoop. Now we are comparing him to elite scorers like Dwayne Wade and Jimmy Butler. With regards to his aggressive driving, this game again shows a good barometer. Avdija aggressively attacked the hoop, but to be honest he was mostly bailed out by the fact that the Nets insisted on fouling him. If you want to judge a players ability with the ball, look at what happens at the end of games when the score is tonight.
Other than a wide open 3 in the corner that he made, Avdija (if I recall correctly) had two turnovers with the ball in his hand and mostly avoided creating offense. The offense ran through Porzingis until he fouled out. Then through Morris. Finally, we diagrammed a play for Kispert off of the timeout. It's not a knock on Avdija to say that he needs to shoot better. Good shooting will by him time to improve other parts of his game. Lastly, this game shows how the good defense is just a myth. Yes Avdija did a great job generating steals off ball, but the way people talk about his defense on this board you'd think he'd be the second coming of Scottie Pippen or Kawhi Leonard.
Cam Thomas absolutely torched us. We had no answer for him. And to show just how little the Nets thought of Avdija's defense, they actually sought out Avdija for the switch on the last play of the game. Avdija is actually fornuate in the sense that for the previous 49 games his shot attempts from 3 were so low. At 2.1 3's attempted a game and 49 games, that comes out to about 103 3's attempted before tonight. Tonight alone Avdija shot 9 3's. If he can keep up this shooting, his percentage will rise in no time.
For people who believe that we should put the ball in Avdija's hands and just let him create, let me point out that we just lost to a starless Nets team. Porzingis played amazing and Avdija knocked down 3's. A team where Deni Avdija is just allowed to create is on the fast tract to being one of the 5 worst teams in the league. And with the lottery pick they'd have, they'd be trying to draft a player who can create (ergo taking the role from Avdija).
Lastly, when Beal, Kuzma and Porzingis are healthy Avdija's role will be to stretch the floor and make smart plays. His opportunity to create off the dribble will be significantly cut. So celebrating aspects of his game that do not pertain/relate to his likely role on this team is shortsighted and only serves to create a distorted picture of his future on this team. It's like a patient that takes a placebo drug in a randomized trial. You think you're doing something, but in reality, it really has no effect on your overall longterm outcome.
People in this thread accuse me of cherry-picking stats but have no problem cherry-picking when they want to discuss Avdija. When the Wizards weren't at full strength and Avdija was having good games, this thread was buzzing and people attacked my posts. But when he struggles this thread is as silent as a mouse. More so, it's fascinating how I can be called a hater for saying simply that the man needs to improve his 3-point shooting, It's actually hilarious how people on this board can criticize me on this point. I've said the same thing about Rui, Troy Brown and Kelly Oubre. When people are running solely on optimism and hope, cognitively ignoring facts that don't mesh with their reality, a realistic and objective appraisal tends to sound like hate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_the_messenger
"In war, a messenger would be sent from one camp to another. If the message was unfitting, the receiver might blame the messenger for such bad news and take their anger out on them."
