Deni Avdija

[doclinkin]

On 180 drives to the basket Deni scored 113 pts. KCP for example on 186 drives scored 80 pts

Sure not having yips missing easy layups and going for dunks avoiding blocks (not that he's really blocked a lot) would be better, but here's the reason why not having great shooting season and missing too much (yes I agree) "bunnies" Deni still has almost league average scoring efficiency: he is very big and very quick, and so he can get to the basket with remarkable easiness.

Right. It shows he needs a running start, and space. If Bigs follow him outside he has a little more space to operate. He's not dunking in traffic, but on a breakaway or an open cut to the basket he makes the right read, and only calls his own number when that is the more efficient play. That is one of Deni's best traits. His innate game smarts and his precocious professionalism make him a good teammate even if he doesn't force a mismatch in his own favor. He knows where the mismatch is, what the right play is to make. I just want his own offense to more often be the right play. It would open up the rest of his game.

[Ruzious]

...People speak here as if Deni was really ineffective scorer like Giddey....

It's all about who's doing what, my friend.

When Rui Hachimura improved his TS% by 1.4 percentage points his second year, his cheering section here saw it as a powerful indicator of development & a bright future. When Deni Avdija improves his TS% by 2.9 percentage points his second year, it doesn't mean much to that same bunch of people.

It's similar to the way Rui's 2d year drop in offensive rebounds, assists & blocks wasn't worth mentioning. In Deni's case, it's the rise in his offensive rebounds, assists & blocks that doesn't merit comment.

OTOH, as to Giddey, you can call him a "really ineffective scorer" if you want to, but then you have to look at everything else this 19-year old did his rookie year, & you see that he's an incredible young player, a guy who looks like he has the potential to be a star.

I think you're making that up about Rui's "cheering section". It's a Piferism. We are all fans of both Rui and Avdija rooting for them to improve. I concur about Giddey.

[arusinov]

...People speak here as if Deni was really ineffective scorer like Giddey....

It's all about who's doing what, my friend.

When Rui Hachimura improved his TS% by 1.4 percentage points his second year, his cheering section here saw it as a powerful indicator of development & a bright future. When Deni Avdija improves his TS% by 2.9 percentage points his second year, it doesn't mean much to that same bunch of people.

It's similar to the way Rui's 2d year drop in offensive rebounds, assists & blocks wasn't worth mentioning. In Deni's case, it's the rise in his offensive rebounds, assists & blocks that doesn't merit comment.

OTOH, as to Giddey, you can call him a "really ineffective scorer" if you want to, but then you have to look at everything else this 19-year old did his rookie year, & you see that he's an incredible young player, a guy who looks like he has the potential to be a star.

I think you're making that up about Rui's "cheering section". It's a Piferism. I concur about Giddey.

I personally don't see any reason to attack Rui "in favor of Deni".I love any progress he makes. They play well together. I want to see Deni - Kuz- Rui and Kispert - Deni - Rui lineups all the time for the rest of the season (less KCP and some minutes with Deni at point without Ish and Neto)

Speaking about Giddey the point is not that he is bad and has no potential. It's explanation about enormous importance of a role young player gets and team's commitment to develop players.

Giddey is good ball handler (for sure much better than Deni) and very good distributor. But unlike Deni he's also really slow, not athletic (Deni has some 5" maybe even 7" better max vertical ), average at best defender, and also very bad shooter (27% 3P). Would he even be in rotation in Wizards?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

On 180 drives to the basket Deni scored 113 pts. KCP for example on 186 drives scored 80 pts

Sure not having yips missing easy layups and going for dunks avoiding blocks (not that he's really blocked a lot) would be better, but here's the reason why not having great shooting season and missing too much (yes I agree) "bunnies" Deni still has almost league average scoring efficiency: he is very big and very quick, and so he can get to the basket with remarkable easiness.

Right. It shows he needs a running start, and space. If Bigs follow him outside he has a little more space to operate. He's not dunking in traffic, but on a breakaway or an open cut to the basket he makes the right read, and only calls his own number when that is the more efficient play. That is one of Deni's best traits. His innate game smarts and his precocious professionalism make him a good teammate even if he doesn't force a mismatch in his own favor. He knows where the mismatch is, what the right play is to make. I just want his own offense to more often be the right play. It would open up the rest of his game.

Deni needs a Jan Vesely finisher. Vesely could be even better than Gafford or Bryant for this iteration of Wizards.

He definitely plays much better defense than Thomas. As a veteran I think he would tell coach Wes Jr exactly how he wants to play instead of the past as coaching played JV out of position.

[arusinov]

I would like to understand... Do people here believe in Avdija's progress?
Just couple of rather simple questions.

In 5 games between the trade dead line and the all-stars break Deni averaged 12.4 pts / 7.4 rbs / 2.0 ast with 1.0 stl / 0.8 blk on 30.6 min per game.

Barring major injuries:

Will Deni's playing time remain as significant for the rest of the season or will his minutes be reduced with Porzingis joining in ?

If Deni's playing time remains around 30 min will he be able to post averages close to achieved in those five games for the rest of the season?

[queridiculo]

I would like to understand... Do people here believe in Avdija's progress?
Just couple of rather simple questions.

In 5 games between the trade dead line and the all-stars break Deni averaged 12.4 pts / 7.4 rbs / 2.0 ast with 1.0 stl / 0.8 blk on 30.6 min per game.

Barring major injuries:

Will Deni's playing time remain as significant for the rest of the season or will his minutes be reduced with Porzingis joining in ?

If Deni's playing time remains around 30 min will he be able to post averages close to achieved in those five games for the rest of the season?

5 games is such a tiny sample size that I wouldn't take away too much away from it with respect to the averages.

What's encouraging to me is that he's really turned his freethrow shooting around from last season and improvements in that area tend to translate to improved shooting overall.

His stroke looks great and more fluid and he's putting them up with confidence, for a 21 year old that's a great sign.

I am concerned about his ability to finish, and I wonder if he's lacking a bit of faith in his legs following last years injury.

I'd like to see him attack the basket more aggressively, he's missing way too many bunnies.

Generally not a big fan of just letting young players go out there and play no matter what, but I think he should be getting as many minutes as he can handle from this point forward.

[Dolevi]

Count me among those who's been impressed by Deni's improvement as a shooter. I never doubted that he could get better as a FT and 3pt shooter (which were the biggest knocks on him coming into the NBA) but I didn't think it would happen this quickly.

He hasn't proved himself yet as an average shooter as been said below.. Deni's good at a lot of things already which help you win games, 3-pt shooting isn't one of them. You need to remember a lot of his 3-pt shooting are kind of something between wide open to open shots.
https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1630166/shots-dash/
Check out the frequency along with defender on him, he never shoots when he's guarded closely (at least something good in here), so it makes his 3P% look even worse than it looks on paper..

Moreover, so far he also hasn't proved himself yet in all what connects to his left hand at ball security, handles overall, yes we've seen an improvement lately but i'm not sure it's good enough, he still needs to work on it and overall on ball security. drives, finishing abilities.., dunks?

If he does and will put the 3's in, his cilling will go really up, but it's hard to tell. Anyway he still needs to get his offense game overall better.

5 games is such a tiny sample size that I wouldn't take away too much away from it with respect to the averages.

True, you can't really conclude anything from that. You need big amounts of games. Maybe it's a start of something, but it's too soon to tell.

I am concerned about his ability to finish, and I wonder if he's lacking a bit of faith in his legs following last years injury.

Me too, agree.

[payitforward]

...People speak here as if Deni was really ineffective scorer like Giddey....

It's all about who's doing what, my friend.

When Rui Hachimura improved his TS% by 1.4 percentage points his second year, his cheering section here saw it as a powerful indicator of development & a bright future. When Deni Avdija improves his TS% by 2.9 percentage points his second year, it doesn't mean much to that same bunch of people.

It's similar to the way Rui's 2d year drop in offensive rebounds, assists & blocks wasn't worth mentioning. In Deni's case, it's the rise in his offensive rebounds, assists & blocks that doesn't merit comment.

OTOH, as to Giddey, you can call him a "really ineffective scorer" if you want to, but then you have to look at everything else this 19-year old did his rookie year, & you see that he's an incredible young player, a guy who looks like he has the potential to be a star.

I think you're making that up about Rui's "cheering section". It's a Piferism. We are all fans of both Rui and Avdija rooting for them to improve. I concur about Giddey.

? Everybody has favorites; it's no big deal. But, yes, we are all fans of both Rui & Deni in that we want both of them to succeed & have no need to want one to succeed at the expense of the other.

As to how good a player is, how much he's improved or not & in what ways, I can't be right about Josh Giddey & wrong about some other guy, since I'm using the identical set of metrics as a rough guide to how much good a player is doing for his team when he's on the floor.

That said, everyone has a right to an opinion; opinions don't require facts. No problem.

[payitforward]

Deni Avdija turned 21 seven weeks ago. It's a totally open question how good he's going to be! How could it not be?

What's not an open question is whether he's improved, & not just a little but a fair amount, from the 19-20 year old rookie of a year ago to the 20-21 year old 2d year player this year. He has. Substantially:

His scoring is up.
His scoring efficiency is up.
His usage is up.
His rebounds are up.
His assists are up.
His blocks are up.
His steals are up.
His fouls are down.

OTOH, & this is the only negative note, his TOs are slightly up.

[Ruzious]

It's all about who's doing what, my friend.

When Rui Hachimura improved his TS% by 1.4 percentage points his second year, his cheering section here saw it as a powerful indicator of development & a bright future. When Deni Avdija improves his TS% by 2.9 percentage points his second year, it doesn't mean much to that same bunch of people.

It's similar to the way Rui's 2d year drop in offensive rebounds, assists & blocks wasn't worth mentioning. In Deni's case, it's the rise in his offensive rebounds, assists & blocks that doesn't merit comment.

OTOH, as to Giddey, you can call him a "really ineffective scorer" if you want to, but then you have to look at everything else this 19-year old did his rookie year, & you see that he's an incredible young player, a guy who looks like he has the potential to be a star.

I think you're making that up about Rui's "cheering section". It's a Piferism. We are all fans of both Rui and Avdija rooting for them to improve. I concur about Giddey.

? Everybody has favorites; it's no big deal. But, yes, we are all fans of both Rui & Deni in that we want both of them to succeed & have no need to want one to succeed at the expense of the other.

As to how good a player is, how much he's improved or not & in what ways, I can't be right about Josh Giddey & wrong about some other guy, since I'm using the identical set of metrics as a rough guide to how much good a player is doing for his team when he's on the floor.

That said, everyone has a right to an opinion; opinions don't require facts. No problem.

Lol, why are you trying to pick a fight? You're making up opponents out of thin air. Nobody's said Avdija hasn't been improving. And it's not an awful thing when people say something good about Rui - that doesn't reflect what they're thinking of Avdija. It sounds like you're trying to make it seem like some people have an agenda between the 2 - which does not exist. But if you keep pushing it, maybe it will.

[arusinov]

Count me among those who's been impressed by Deni's improvement as a shooter. I never doubted that he could get better as a FT and 3pt shooter (which were the biggest knocks on him coming into the NBA) but I didn't think it would happen this quickly.

He hasn't proved himself yet as an average shooter as been said below.. Deni's good at a lot of things already which help you win games, 3-pt shooting isn't one of them. You need to remember a lot of his 3-pt shooting are kind of something between wide open to open shots.
https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1630166/shots-dash/
Check out the frequency along with defender on him, he never shoots when he's guarded closely (at least something good in here), so it makes his 3P% look even worse than it looks on paper..

Moreover, so far he also hasn't proved himself yet in all what connects to his left hand at ball security, handles overall, yes we've seen an improvement lately but i'm not sure it's good enough, he still needs to work on it and overall on ball security. drives, finishing abilities.., dunks?

If he does and will put the 3's in, his cilling will go really up, but it's hard to tell. Anyway he still needs to get his offense game overall better.

5 games is such a tiny sample size that I wouldn't take away too much away from it with respect to the averages.

True, you can't really conclude anything from that. You need big amounts of games. Maybe it's a start of something, but it's too soon to tell.

I am concerned about his ability to finish, and I wonder if he's lacking a bit of faith in his legs following last years injury.

Me too, agree.

Here're left-hand finishes from just last 15 games...

coast-to-coast, crossover, left-handed finish
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=313&GameID=0022100464&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%202%27%20Running%20Layup%20(6%20PTS)&sct=plot
post-up left-handed finish, and-one
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=487&GameID=0022100832&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%204%27%20Driving%20Finger%20Roll%20Layup%20(12%20PTS)&sct=plot
run without ball on transition, fake, finish with left under the basket
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=73&GameID=0022100699&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%202%27%20Layup%20(2%20PTS)%20(Kuzma%201%20AST)&sct=plot
cross-over, left-handed finish:
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=546&GameID=0022100699&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%201%27%20Driving%20Layup%20(13%20PTS)&sct=plot
left-handed finger-roll
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=260&GameID=0022100689&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%204%27%20Driving%20Layup%20(4%20PTS)%20(Caldwell-Pope%203%20AST)&sct=plot
drive on base-line, left-handed finish
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=517&GameID=0022100689&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%202%27%20Driving%20Layup%20(9%20PTS)%20(Caldwell-Pope%205%20AST)&sct=plot

Maybe it's still not really a lot - but it's much much better than previous year.

Also there were some very nice moves from the same period... Here's couple of them:

crossovers, hesitation
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=622&GameID=0022100876&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%206%27%20Driving%20Hook%20Shot%20(12%20PTS)&sct=plot

pull up 3p
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=494&GameID=0022100464&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%2026%27%203PT%20Step%20Back%20Jump%20Shot%20(11%20PTS)&sct=plot

In same period you can see also dunks (3... should be much more), two-legged floaters (nice way to finish in crowded paint), couple of midrange pull-ups when clock is going to expire, and-1 finishes under basket after pump fakes ( sometimes with several players around trying to block), turn-around move, "bully-ball" attacks against smaller guards, hesitations, crossovers ... and yes... quite several cases he just goes strong right relying on his speed when guarded by forwards (because he's just much quicker than most players his size)

All in all in last 15 games Deni took 45 3P shots and 66 2P shots. Of those 66 shots - 54 (~50% of all shots) were 8ft or closer to basket ( and with all those "missed bunnies" FG% on them 33 / 54 = 61.1% - not great but not bad also).
Also for the whole season almost half of his shots were 10 ft or closer which he finished with not great but actually reasonable 64.7% 3ft or closer, 50% on 4ft-10ft. He also gets 1.6 FTA per game (twice more than previous year) and converts them on ok 76.7% clip... All this means that he actually is very good in getting close to basket.

Sure he needs some expansion of repertoire but what he shows now should be enough not only for 12+ maybe even for 15+ ppg with just somewhat bigger role . He just needs to not stop trying if he misses couple of shots... and not being thrown to the bench after those couple of misses

[arusinov]

5 games is such a tiny sample size that I wouldn't take away too much away from it with respect to the averages.

True, you can't really conclude anything from that. You need big amounts of games. Maybe it's a start of something, but it's too soon to tell.

Generally 5 games "hot streaks" mean nothing at all... So why do I think in this case the 5 games stretch may be relevant ?
It's not "hot streak":
there's no abnormally successful shooting - all shooting numbers are pretty close to the season's averages, nether there's situation when half team is out "in protocols".

All what is changed: moderate increase in minutes (~7 min per game) and USG% ( ~2.5 %) which seems to be just a somewhat expanded role. So iff Porzingis inclusion will not seriously impact Deni's minutes and USG% - there's a very good reason to believe that this ppg improvement from 7.7 ppg average to 12.4 is sustainable

[nate33]

Vesely could be even better than Gafford or Bryant for this iteration of Wizards.

Step away from the keyboard, my friend.

[nate33]

I think you're making that up about Rui's "cheering section". It's a Piferism. We are all fans of both Rui and Avdija rooting for them to improve. I concur about Giddey.

? Everybody has favorites; it's no big deal. But, yes, we are all fans of both Rui & Deni in that we want both of them to succeed & have no need to want one to succeed at the expense of the other.

As to how good a player is, how much he's improved or not & in what ways, I can't be right about Josh Giddey & wrong about some other guy, since I'm using the identical set of metrics as a rough guide to how much good a player is doing for his team when he's on the floor.

That said, everyone has a right to an opinion; opinions don't require facts. No problem.

Lol, why are you trying to pick a fight? You're making up opponents out of thin air. Nobody's said Avdija hasn't been improving. And it's not an awful thing when people say something good about Rui - that doesn't reflect what they're thinking of Avdija. It sounds like you're trying to make it seem like some people have an agenda between the 2 - which does not exist. But if you keep pushing it, maybe it will.

Agreed.

This entire argument is a little strange. I don't know who arusinov is arguing with.

My sense is that the vast majority of this board is pretty happy with the development of Avdija and would definitely choose Avdija over Hachimura if they were forced to make a decision. Avdija has a lot more work to do refining his game and improving his shooting, but it's pretty obvious that he has a great basketball instincts and knows how to make the right play on offense and defense. He plays winning basketball.

In many ways, Hachimura is the opposite. He has shows flashes of individual talent and athleticism that could one day make him an elite basketball player, but he has a frustrating lack of feel for the game. He'll play great one-on-one defense, but is a step slow in making the right reads and rotations. Offensively, he is a very good shooter and a good finisher around the rim, but he hesitates when he has an open look and instead maneuvers himself into a contested shot, or maybe he just holds the ball too long and allows an off-balance defense to get back into position. He also doesn't rebound, block shots or hawk the passing lanes as effectively as Avdija.

[nate33]

I do think Hachimura looks a little better this season, particularly on offense. He is shooting the 3 without hesitation and stopping the ball a lot less. That said, I'm a little worried that most of his improvement of offense is due to insanely good 3-point shooting that is likely to be unsustainable.

I haven't seen much improvement in defense. He'll guard his man fine, but you just rarely see him make much impact in rotations or on the defensive glass. To be fair, he hasn't played that many minutes yet.

I really do wish he would commit to rebounding. With his size, length and hands, there's no reason he shouldn't be pulling down double-digit rebounds like Kuzma. He just doesn't seem to have the instinct and motor to go after the ball when it's coming off the rim. Kuzma goes after rebounds like he's getting a contractual bonus for every rebound. Rebounding isn't that hard. Just go get the freaking ball!

[dobrojim]

Vesely could be even better than Gafford or Bryant for this iteration of Wizards.

Step away from the keyboard, my friend.

Yeah, I wasn't sure what my friend Ken was thinking there. Selective memory.

[Dolevi]

Deni Avdija turned 21 seven weeks ago. It's a totally open question how good he's going to be! How could it not be?

What's not an open question is whether he's improved, & not just a little but a fair amount, from the 19-20 year old rookie of a year ago to the 20-21 year old 2d year player this year. He has. Substantially:

His scoring is up.
His scoring efficiency is up.
His usage is up.
His rebounds are up.
His assists are up.
His blocks are up.
His steals are up.
His fouls are down.

OTOH, & this is the only negative note, his TOs are slightly up.

And it makes sense because his role got a little bit bigger in offense (the USG% got higher). You can't TO the ball if he's not in your hands.

[Dolevi]

Count me among those who's been impressed by Deni's improvement as a shooter. I never doubted that he could get better as a FT and 3pt shooter (which were the biggest knocks on him coming into the NBA) but I didn't think it would happen this quickly.

He hasn't proved himself yet as an average shooter as been said below.. Deni's good at a lot of things already which help you win games, 3-pt shooting isn't one of them. You need to remember a lot of his 3-pt shooting are kind of something between wide open to open shots.
https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1630166/shots-dash/
Check out the frequency along with defender on him, he never shoots when he's guarded closely (at least something good in here), so it makes his 3P% look even worse than it looks on paper..

Moreover, so far he also hasn't proved himself yet in all what connects to his left hand at ball security, handles overall, yes we've seen an improvement lately but i'm not sure it's good enough, he still needs to work on it and overall on ball security. drives, finishing abilities.., dunks?

If he does and will put the 3's in, his cilling will go really up, but it's hard to tell. Anyway he still needs to get his offense game overall better.

5 games is such a tiny sample size that I wouldn't take away too much away from it with respect to the averages.

True, you can't really conclude anything from that. You need big amounts of games. Maybe it's a start of something, but it's too soon to tell.

I am concerned about his ability to finish, and I wonder if he's lacking a bit of faith in his legs following last years injury.

Me too, agree.

Here're left-hand finishes from just last 15 games...

coast-to-coast, crossover, left-handed finish
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=313&GameID=0022100464&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%202%27%20Running%20Layup%20(6%20PTS)&sct=plot
post-up left-handed finish, and-one
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=487&GameID=0022100832&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%204%27%20Driving%20Finger%20Roll%20Layup%20(12%20PTS)&sct=plot
run without ball on transition, fake, finish with left under the basket
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=73&GameID=0022100699&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%202%27%20Layup%20(2%20PTS)%20(Kuzma%201%20AST)&sct=plot
cross-over, left-handed finish:
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=546&GameID=0022100699&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%201%27%20Driving%20Layup%20(13%20PTS)&sct=plot
left-handed finger-roll
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=260&GameID=0022100689&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%204%27%20Driving%20Layup%20(4%20PTS)%20(Caldwell-Pope%203%20AST)&sct=plot
drive on base-line, left-handed finish
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=517&GameID=0022100689&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%202%27%20Driving%20Layup%20(9%20PTS)%20(Caldwell-Pope%205%20AST)&sct=plot

Maybe it's still not really a lot - but it's much much better than previous year.

Also there were some very nice moves from the same period... Here's couple of them:

crossovers, hesitation
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=622&GameID=0022100876&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%206%27%20Driving%20Hook%20Shot%20(12%20PTS)&sct=plot

pull up 3p
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=494&GameID=0022100464&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=Avdija%2026%27%203PT%20Step%20Back%20Jump%20Shot%20(11%20PTS)&sct=plot

In same period you can see also dunks (3... should be much more), two-legged floaters (nice way to finish in crowded paint), couple of midrange pull-ups when clock is going to expire, and-1 finishes under basket after pump fakes ( sometimes with several players around trying to block), turn-around move, "bully-ball" attacks against smaller guards, hesitations, crossovers ... and yes... quite several cases he just goes strong right relying on his speed when guarded by forwards (because he's just much quicker than most players his size)

All in all in last 15 games Deni took 45 3P shots and 66 2P shots. Of those 66 shots - 54 (~50% of all shots) were 8ft or closer to basket ( and with all those "missed bunnies" FG% on them 33 / 54 = 61.1% - not great but not bad also).
Also for the whole season almost half of his shots were 10 ft or closer which he finished with not great but actually reasonable 64.7% 3ft or closer, 50% on 4ft-10ft. He also gets 1.6 FTA per game (twice more than previous year) and converts them on ok 76.7% clip... All this means that he actually is very good in getting close to basket.

Sure he needs some expansion of repertoire but what he shows now should be enough not only for 12+ maybe even for 15+ ppg with just somewhat bigger role . He just needs to not stop trying if he misses couple of shots... and not being thrown to the bench after those couple of misses

Compared to last year of course we have an improvement no question, but still he has the potential to be a lot better (and he needs to be better). The harder he'll work the better he'll become. Still my main point is that it's too early to concluse something serious from these data based on a little amount of games (we need more time to see what happens). I do like it, but he still hasn't found consistency and can give you a couple of 7/5/2 games. As long as he keeps shooting the ball more, and as his USG% will keep going up, i believe it will be a real process. Now it's still too soon to tell in my opinion.

[payitforward]

I think you're making that up about Rui's "cheering section". It's a Piferism. We are all fans of both Rui and Avdija rooting for them to improve. I concur about Giddey.

? Everybody has favorites; it's no big deal. But, yes, we are all fans of both Rui & Deni in that we want both of them to succeed & have no need to want one to succeed at the expense of the other.

As to how good a player is, how much he's improved or not & in what ways, I can't be right about Josh Giddey & wrong about some other guy, since I'm using the identical set of metrics as a rough guide to how much good a player is doing for his team when he's on the floor.

That said, everyone has a right to an opinion; opinions don't require facts. No problem.

Lol, why are you trying to pick a fight? You're making up opponents out of thin air. Nobody's said Avdija hasn't been improving. And it's not an awful thing when people say something good about Rui - that doesn't reflect what they're thinking of Avdija. It sounds like you're trying to make it seem like some people have an agenda between the 2 - which does not exist. But if you keep pushing it, maybe it will.

You know what... you make a good point -- I think I did give that impression without intending to. I take it back!

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Vesely could be even better than Gafford or Bryant for this iteration of Wizards.

Step away from the keyboard, my friend.

Yeah, I wasn't sure what my friend Ken was thinking there. Selective memory.

We can go to Waze with this. First of all that was a beautiful talk to text way to spell Waze WAYS how many ways can you spell Waze


So we could say that Google miss translate adaptive technology has gotten can’t really screwed up because he has obviously lost his glasses again and he can barely see but that doesn’t make up for the gym Vesely idea Jan Wesley Marsha Marsha Marsha Jan

I could make it simple and say I am wrong to say that Wesley would help VESELEY is the Correct spaceway to spell Vaseline