Deni Avdija

[tontoz]

For the record the team gives up 8.8 fewer pts per 48 when Deni is on the floor.

http://www.82games.com/2122/21WAS9.HTM#onoff

He has shown the ability to guard multiple positions effectively. That is why many of us are willing to be patient with him on offense, especially since he had good offensive numbers just last month.

[closg00]

For the record the team gives up 8.8 fewer pts per 48 when Deni is on the floor.

http://www.82games.com/2122/21WAS9.HTM#onoff

He has shown the ability to guard multiple positions effectively. That is why many of us are willing to be patient with him on offense, especially since he had good offensive numbers just last month.

There is absolutely no denying that Deni is good defensive player, no disagreement there

[Ruzious]

For the record the team gives up 8.8 fewer pts per 48 when Deni is on the floor.

http://www.82games.com/2122/21WAS9.HTM#onoff

He has shown the ability to guard multiple positions effectively. That is why many of us are willing to be patient with him on offense, especially since he had good offensive numbers just last month.

I like that website, but it's very slow in updating its numbers. Last update for Wiz stats was 12/6/21. Does anyone know of a site that updates +/- stats more frequently?

[willbcocks]

Clearly he has things to work on. What is encouraging about Deni is he has shown both the mental traits (desire, court awareness etc) and physical abilities (size, strength, quickness) to be a very good player. What he needs to work on are the basketball skills. And it's not like he's unskilled; he's shown the base level of skill that a player like Vesley, for example, never had. Vesley averaged .6 assists for his career and made zero three pointers. Vesley never showed any traits to suggest even possible success in the NBA.

His skills just aren't refined enough to do the things that he wants to do with his court awareness. Kind of reminds me of Beal with his dribble early in his career. He has an injury this offseason when he could have been working on skills. If he really puts in the work and is lucky with injuries, he can be a very good player.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Very late to respond. The coaching is better this season. And we should be seeing some improvement and I'm going to go check his stats right now before I post anything else.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Deni is starting to look like he could be a critical piece of a championship team. Maybe not here because we have a lot of work to do to fill in. But a guy that can guard all five positions, rebounds well, can hit some shots - isn’t a black hole on offense. Think Iguodala.

I like the comparisons to Andre Iguodala. It was a player many years ago named Jason kapono that was the same size but he was a shooter or not at all the same player and I don't know why I brought him up other than to say I think he was a good part of a good team. This is kid Deni is a player that I would keep

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Spoiler:

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I'm Team Deni on this one. It's not like he gummed up the play. Bertans didn't fully wait for the pick, and yet he still got freed up (somewhat) for a 3PA.

I love how Dinwiddie put his arm around Avdija and tried to calm him down.

I'm also on team Deni here. First of all, because Deni plays defense. And secondly, Deni was right. He had the opportunity to abuse Curry and they should have gone with him. Not to mention, that even though the pick was botched a little bit, two guys chased after Bertans leaving Avdija wide open if Gafford would have seen him.

Happened a couple of weeks ago I'm just now responding but I agree

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Bertans knows his time is up once Rui comes back. He should be getting DNPs if everyone is healthy.

I'm on team SMH.

Arguing among teammates about whose number is getting called while down 23 late in the game?

I also agree with the opposite argument. Which means I must not have any friends at all if I'm agreeing with everyone

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Somebody can get into Deni's head and explain why he's refuses to take higher amount of shots?

On paper I don't see any glaring issues, he shots 33% from 3 (4'th best on the team among rotation players) and 45% from FG (5th best) on 55% TS (4'th best), and I feel he could end up with much better stats this year just by simply be willing to take more shots and increase his margin of errors. I'd claim he needs to take more shots even if he wasn't shooting 4'th and 5'th best on the team.

Yesterday he had a great opportunity to bump up his stats and create some hype around him, I've expected him to take 15 shots with the circumstances the team has with the short rotation, and he took only 4 miserable shots on 31 minutes. This is unacceptable for me. Should we put the blame on Deni? or is it more on the coaching staff to make sure he takes more shots? one way or the other, it shouldn't happen. I just checked up and his usage rate this year is 11th highest among the rotation players. Dead-last.

https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612764/players-advanced/?sort=USG_PCT&dir=1

I really wondering What is going on in his mind. I'd rather seeing him ends up with a 4-15 FG shooting night than a 2-4. You just can't develop yourself as a player when you're so passive and not willing to take risks.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm too harsh on him, he has tremendous upside IMO,and I don't want him to develop bad passive habits.

Every word. Talked about it in the last game topic. He gotta take more on himself. No excuses.

Occasionally we will get a player like Juan Dixon actually read this thread.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Somebody can get into Deni's head and explain why he's refuses to take higher amount of shots?

On paper I don't see any glaring issues, he shots 33% from 3 (4'th best on the team among rotation players) and 45% from FG (5th best) on 55% TS (4'th best), and I feel he could end up with much better stats this year just by simply be willing to take more shots and increase his margin of errors. I'd claim he needs to take more shots even if he wasn't shooting 4'th and 5'th best on the team.

Yesterday he had a great opportunity to bump up his stats and create some hype around him, I've expected him to take 15 shots with the circumstances the team has with the short rotation, and he took only 4 miserable shots on 31 minutes. This is unacceptable for me. Should we put the blame on Deni? or is it more on the coaching staff to make sure he takes more shots? one way or the other, it shouldn't happen. I just checked up and his usage rate this year is 11th highest among the rotation players. Dead-last.

https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612764/players-advanced/?sort=USG_PCT&dir=1

I really wondering What is going on in his mind. I'd rather seeing him ends up with a 4-15 FG shooting night than a 2-4. You just can't develop yourself as a player when you're so passive and not willing to take risks.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm too harsh on him, he has a tremendous upside IMO, and I don't want him to develop bad passive habits.

I don't think it's an issue.

A basic principle of basketball is that everyone gets 1 or 2 really good looks a game from fast breaks, offensive rebounds, missed defensive rotations, or being spoon-fed under the basket for an easy lay-in/dunk. And those shots are going to come at a very high TS% - probably north of 70%. Each additional shot attempt is likely to be more contested, with a lower TS%.

Avdija only has a TS% of 55.0%, despite an extremely low usage rate. His low usage rate means he is taking very few contested shots to offset his easy attempts, and yet his TS% is still pretty mediocre (just below the team average). That suggests that each marginal additional attempt is coming at a fairly low TS%, well below his overall average of 55.0%, and well below the team average of 55.7%. He therefore wouldn't be helping the team if he shot more.

This should also be viewed in context of role. The primary ball handlers (Beal, Dinwiddie, Neto) are often forced to take bail-out shots if the offense hasn't yielded a high-value shot. That will pull down their TS% to below team average, which is indeed the case with them. (Beal's is okay at .535, Neto and Dinwiddie are too low, down in the 50-51 range.) But complementary scorers typically don't have that burden, so one should expect a TS% slightly above team average, which is what we see out of Harrell, Gafford, and what we should see from KCP, Avdija, Kuzma, Kispert, Holiday, and Bertans. In fact, all 6 of the non-centers aren't quite meeting their responsibility to make shots with efficiency (though KCP, Holiday, Kispert and Avdija are close) and none of them really deserve more looks.

Ultimately, I'd say KCP, Avdija, Bertans, Holiday and Kispert are close enough to team average TS% that they don't deserve much criticism in shot selection, but they also shouldn't be whining about getting more looks. Kuzma, Dinwiddie and Neto are the guys that are definitely shooting too much at an unacceptable efficiency, particularly Kuzma.

Now that kuzma is hot does this still apply?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I would not complain about anything that DA does right now; except, possibly, check his attitude, that is, if he's inclined to argue with teammates on the court or bench.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Somebody can get into Deni's head and explain why he's refuses to take higher amount of shots?

On paper I don't see any glaring issues, he shots 33% from 3 (4'th best on the team among rotation players) and 45% from FG (5th best) on 55% TS (4'th best), and I feel he could end up with much better stats this year just by simply be willing to take more shots and increase his margin of errors. I'd claim he needs to take more shots even if he wasn't shooting 4'th and 5'th best on the team.

Yesterday he had a great opportunity to bump up his stats and create some hype around him, I've expected him to take 15 shots with the circumstances the team has with the short rotation, and he took only 4 miserable shots on 31 minutes. This is unacceptable for me. Should we put the blame on Deni? or is it more on the coaching staff to make sure he takes more shots? one way or the other, it shouldn't happen. I just checked up and his usage rate this year is 11th highest among the rotation players. Dead-last.

https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612764/players-advanced/?sort=USG_PCT&dir=1

I really wondering What is going on in his mind. I'd rather seeing him ends up with a 4-15 FG shooting night than a 2-4. You just can't develop yourself as a player when you're so passive and not willing to take risks.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm too harsh on him, he has a tremendous upside IMO, and I don't want him to develop bad passive habits.

I don't think it's an issue.

A basic principle of basketball is that everyone gets 1 or 2 really good looks a game from fast breaks, offensive rebounds, missed defensive rotations, or being spoon-fed under the basket for an easy lay-in/dunk. And those shots are going to come at a very high TS% - probably north of 70%. Each additional shot attempt is likely to be more contested, with a lower TS%.

Avdija only has a TS% of 55.0%, despite an extremely low usage rate. His low usage rate means he is taking very few contested shots to offset his easy attempts, and yet his TS% is still pretty mediocre (just below the team average). That suggests that each marginal additional attempt is coming at a fairly low TS%, well below his overall average of 55.0%, and well below the team average of 55.7%. He therefore wouldn't be helping the team if he shot more.

This should also be viewed in context of role. The primary ball handlers (Beal, Dinwiddie, Neto) are often forced to take bail-out shots if the offense hasn't yielded a high-value shot. That will pull down their TS% to below team average, which is indeed the case with them. (Beal's is okay at .535, Neto and Dinwiddie are too low, down in the 50-51 range.) But complementary scorers typically don't have that burden, so one should expect a TS% slightly above team average, which is what we see out of Harrell, Gafford, and what we should see from KCP, Avdija, Kuzma, Kispert, Holiday, and Bertans. In fact, all 6 of the non-centers aren't quite meeting their responsibility to make shots with efficiency (though KCP, Holiday, Kispert and Avdija are close) and none of them really deserve more looks.

Ultimately, I'd say KCP, Avdija, Bertans, Holiday and Kispert are close enough to team average TS% that they don't deserve much criticism in shot selection, but they also shouldn't be whining about getting more looks. Kuzma, Dinwiddie and Neto are the guys that are definitely shooting too much at an unacceptable efficiency, particularly Kuzma.

In fact Deni's TS% went up as his USG% went up.
It was 44.8% on 12.6% in October, 53.1% on 13.5% in November and 60.2% on 16.5% in December

With his size and quickness a lot of possibilities
which are hard for other players are easy for him, and he should be able to score 12+ ppg on high efficiency...

For whatever reasons each time it seems he starts to get things together on offense there comes another disappointing game

That is okay if the month to month trending up like that continues

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

This is when a team tries to acquire Herbert Jones because perhaps the New Orleans Pelicans do not value him enough.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I will repeat again that the thing that holds him back the most is strictly his ball handling and sophistication in his dribble.

Right now, his ball security is pretty bad - you could see that whenever he’s even slighty pressured as he runs the ball up the court - heck, even when he’s all alone running the fast break you could see how out of control his dribble is, and how high and loose he brings the ball.

Deni is a smart guy, he’s a sponge - and you can clearly see he sees things on the court, but right now the gap between what his mind sees and wants to do - and what his technique and skill-level allows him to is evidently wide.

I think the way he’s being brought up offensively is perfect for him - running him through screens to the elbows initiating PNR situations where he has to read/react : Drive hard to his right hand, Find the lob, or dish to a shooter.

Last night he was given more chances to bring the ball up as well to allow Beal to work off the ball, but even then we saw that the one time he tried to do what his mind wanted and actually go coast to coast (something that as he improves his handle should be a clear weapon for him but not right now) - he immediately cuffed it up with minimal pressure due to his poor ball security.

The sooner he’ll understand that he needs to completely revamp his dribble the better - because it’s not just about ball security, but being sophisticated enough to get to your spots on the court - and again right now he has a very stiff and vanilla dribble/ball handling that prevents him from executing what he reads or what his mind wants him to be doing.

Once he works on that - and I think it should take 1-2 summers, it will really unlock his full potential and make him shine, because his unselfishness, IQ and playmaking are shown in extremely limited packages right now.

Agreed. Good post. Fair criticism. His ball handling is clearly in need of improvement, particularly using his left hand. Actually, his ball handling is going to take a few years to get to where it should be, which should bode well for offering Deni a reasonable (and not too expensive) extension into his 2nd contract.

Personally, I think y'all are being hypercritical of a really good basketball player.

Get him and Herb Jones and JalenSmith and give it some time

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I was really wrong about this dude (Deni CAN play!) but I was not also wrong about Jalen Smith

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Jack of trades, substitute with positive team value.
He will probably never be a great shooter or an elite ball handler.
More like an improved version of Kyle Kuzma, with a defensive orientation.

Mike Riordan played a lot of minutes on a 60-win bullets team. He was listed at six foot five but all he was about six three and he was a pesky defender. Bob Dandridge was listed at 6 foot 7 and he was a very good defender who had a pretty good scorers mentality.

Honestly, If I were in the wizards front office I might put out an inquiry Tomas Satoransky and Jan Vesley. Both guys are familiar with the Wizards organization both guys are familiar with each other .They along with <Denny Aveja> know how to play this game a little bit different than the NBA AAU run jump athlete.

I would max out Bradley Beal and just live with the **** fact that he is an overpaid SuperMax player. I would have a bunch of dudes on the team that are just happy to be there but know how to freaking play.

As far as I'm concerned the wizards are three years away from being the NBA champions

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I have lost count of the number of times I have seen Deni get out on a break with the ball, but can rarely finish with a bucket because of his ball-handling, other defenders quickly catch-up and he always has to find someone to dish the ball to when his teammates catch-up.
In addition, Deni is a very shaky shooter (good to see him take a lot more attempts yesterday). Deni should have been FT in the G-League for development IMO.

And as far as I'm concerned I haven't watched a single second live this year.

I like to watch the box scores and I like to watch the Youtube recap of the game and perhaps by the end of the season I will get the NBA TV package but we'll see I don't even have a TV right now.

I just think the kid is a really good basketball player playing on a whole nother level

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I definitely think he needs to be more selective taking 3s. When he is open with time then sure. But when he has to rush it seems like his accuracy drops significantly.

His production as a starter has been awful (small sample obviously). In 5 games as a starter he has a TS of 37%. I think this just confirms that the bench role is best for him this season.

The scary thing about Deni is by and large he's mostly only tried to take the highest efficiency shots possible and he's still bad. That's not a good look. I think his offense will be bad throughout the entirety of his rookie contract. It's just a matter of if the other things he's doing well are good enough to keep him with us beyond that.

The scary thing about Deni is by and large he's mostly only tried to take the highest efficiency shots possible and he's still bad. That's not a good look. I think his offense will be bad throughout the entirety of his rookie contract. It's just a matter of if the other things he's doing well are good enough to keep him with us beyond that.

Just last month he had a TS of 59% averaging 14 pts per 36. I think there is reason for optimism but i also think he isn't ready for 30+ minutes as a starter.

So what you are telling me is that as soon as rui hachimura comes up to full speed he will replace Denny seamlessly

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

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Deni’s ceiling is looking lower and lower by the day unfortunately. I can find local high schoolers with a more developed offensive skill set.

You're probably all correct but cuz I'm not watching any games I'm going to say haters going to hate

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The Avdija criticism while unsurprising is disappointing. When I criticized Avdija earlier in the year it's because he was playing scared and avoiding opportunities. Now people are criticizing him not for passivity but a lack of success. He just turned 21 years old. He's going to struggle. The key barometers for Avdija are not whether or he's a "good player," but whether or not he's showing improvement. The difference between Avdija last year and Avdija this year are night and day. And the fact that he has enough confidence to go out, make mistakes and learn from them bodes very well for himself going forward. Avdija will be just fine.

You are correct and everybody else I have read so far is wrong