Deni Avdija

[Kanyewest]

I was listening to a Memphis recap of the Wizards/Grizzlies. One of contributors talked to a Wizards reporter before the game and that reporter suggested that once Ja Morant/Bane as out of the game, then Deni would have a big game because he wouldn't have to expend so much energy on the defensive end. The rest of analysis of the video was inane (Deni isn't even a good defender was said by someone in the feed,).

[arusinov]

Important game for Deni. Hopefully this will help his confidence.

Let's not forget that Beal has missed 5 games. In the first 3 of those games Deni was a combined 7-29 from the field. Deni's struggles are much more about him than Beal.

And he still managed 10.6 / 5.6 / 3.2 averages on 5 games stretch
I would say it shows opposite (not specifically "about Beal" but about his role).

Even when his shot is not going in he doesn't look incompletent or unable to shot or finish when given chance to create for himself or others.

Young players are pretty much expected to go through rough periods and improve overcoming problems. But if (almost) never given chance to be creative when team is healthy how would he improve?

[tontoz]

Important game for Deni. Hopefully this will help his confidence.

Let's not forget that Beal has missed 5 games. In the first 3 of those games Deni was a combined 7-29 from the field. Deni's struggles are much more about him than Beal.

And he still managed 10.6 / 5.6 / 3.2 averages on 5 games stretch
I would say it shows opposite (not specifically "about Beal" but about his role).

Even when his shot is not going in he doesn't look incompletent or unable to shot or finish when given chance to create for himself or others.

Young players are pretty much expected to go through rough periods and improve overcoming problems. But if (almost) never given chance to be creative when team is healthy how would he improve?

10.6/5.6/3.2 isn't exactly helping your case. That is pretty weak, especially considering his low efficiency in those 5 games.

He's been given plenty of chances he just hasn't done much with them. He is playing on the same offense as everyone else but somehow you guys think that he is the only one being denied opportunities. Beal missed half the season last year and Deni still had the same problems.

His role on the team isn't the reason he has stuggled with layups. I think he just has a mental issue that hopefully he is growing out of.

[arusinov]

Important game for Deni. Hopefully this will help his confidence.

Let's not forget that Beal has missed 5 games. In the first 3 of those games Deni was a combined 7-29 from the field. Deni's struggles are much more about him than Beal.

And he still managed 10.6 / 5.6 / 3.2 averages on 5 games stretch
I would say it shows opposite (not specifically "about Beal" but about his role).

Even when his shot is not going in he doesn't look incompletent or unable to shot or finish when given chance to create for himself or others.

Young players are pretty much expected to go through rough periods and improve overcoming problems. But if (almost) never given chance to be creative when team is healthy how would he improve?

10.6/5.6/3.2 isn't exactly helping your case. That is pretty weak, especially considering his low efficiency in those 5 games.

He's been given plenty of chances he just hasn't done much with them. He is playing on the same offense as everyone else but somehow you guys think that he is the only one being denied opportunities. Beal missed half the season last year and Deni still had the same problems.

His role on the team isn't the reason he has stuggled with layups. I think he just has a mental issue that hopefully he is growing out of.

Funny enough his role on the team is probably very much related to his struggle with layups. Because diminished role and low usage are precisely things which may create mental problem.

Efficiency issues happen to almost all young players. Think about recent return of LaMello which shot 5 3P / 24 3PA in first two games, and dozens very low efficiency games by players Saddiq Bey, or even Anthony Edwards or Giddey which always was and is inefficient

Here's simple question... If Deni was playing in rebuilding team what ppg average would he produce ? Same 7 or 8 as for Wizards? 10 ? 13 ? 15+?

[tontoz]

And he still managed 10.6 / 5.6 / 3.2 averages on 5 games stretch
I would say it shows opposite (not specifically "about Beal" but about his role).

Even when his shot is not going in he doesn't look incompletent or unable to shot or finish when given chance to create for himself or others.

Young players are pretty much expected to go through rough periods and improve overcoming problems. But if (almost) never given chance to be creative when team is healthy how would he improve?

10.6/5.6/3.2 isn't exactly helping your case. That is pretty weak, especially considering his low efficiency in those 5 games.

He's been given plenty of chances he just hasn't done much with them. He is playing on the same offense as everyone else but somehow you guys think that he is the only one being denied opportunities. Beal missed half the season last year and Deni still had the same problems.

His role on the team isn't the reason he has stuggled with layups. I think he just has a mental issue that hopefully he is growing out of.

Funny enough his role on the team is probably very much related to his struggle with layups. Because diminished role and low usage are precisely things which may create mental problem.

Efficiency issues happen to almost all young players. Think about recent return of LaMello which shot 5 3P / 24 3PA in first two games, and dozens very low efficiency games by players Saddiq Bey, or even Anthony Edwards or Giddey which always was and is inefficient

Here's simple question... If Deni was playing in rebuilding team what ppg average would he produce ? Same 7 or 8 as for Wizards? 10 ? 13 ? 15+?

Goodwin just got called up from the GLeague and his efficiency is elite

Anthony Gill is a nobody. He was a rookie two years ago but he's had very good efficiency.

Why do these guys, fringe NBA players on the same team, have strong efficiency but Deni doesn't? At some point you guys need to stop blaming Deni's struggles on everyone but him.

If Deni was on a good team he would probably struggle to get minutes at all. On a bad team his scoring and efficiency would probably still be bad, as they were last season in the 40 games Beal was out.

Deni played all 82 games last year. He isn't comparable to someome who is just coming back from an injury.

Lamelo Ball averaged 16/6 as a 19 year old shooting 35% from 3. Probably not a good guy to bring up as a comp.

[dobrojim]

Seems like it's all mental with Deni as far as missing bunnies. He frequently gets tentative
and just blows it. At some point one hopes he will out grow that tendency.

[nate33]

10.6/5.6/3.2 isn't exactly helping your case. That is pretty weak, especially considering his low efficiency in those 5 games.

He's been given plenty of chances he just hasn't done much with them. He is playing on the same offense as everyone else but somehow you guys think that he is the only one being denied opportunities. Beal missed half the season last year and Deni still had the same problems.

His role on the team isn't the reason he has stuggled with layups. I think he just has a mental issue that hopefully he is growing out of.

Funny enough his role on the team is probably very much related to his struggle with layups. Because diminished role and low usage are precisely things which may create mental problem.

Efficiency issues happen to almost all young players. Think about recent return of LaMello which shot 5 3P / 24 3PA in first two games, and dozens very low efficiency games by players Saddiq Bey, or even Anthony Edwards or Giddey which always was and is inefficient

Here's simple question... If Deni was playing in rebuilding team what ppg average would he produce ? Same 7 or 8 as for Wizards? 10 ? 13 ? 15+?

Goodwin just got called up from the GLeague and his efficiency is elite

Anthony Gill is a nobody. He was a rookie two years ago but he's had very good efficiency.

Why do these guys, fringe NBA players on the same team, have strong efficiency but Deni doesn't? At some point you guys need to stop blaming Deni's struggles on everyone but him.

If Deni was on a good team he would probably struggle to get minutes at all. On a bad team his scoring and efficiency would probably still be bad, as they were last season in the 40 games Beal was out.

Deni played all 82 games last year. He isn't comparable to someome who is just coming back from an injury.

Lamelo Ball averaged 16/6 as a 19 year old shooting 35% from 3. Probably not a good guy to bring up as a comp.

It's not complicated. Gill is a good shooter, which one expects out of a 30-year-old vet. Avdija is not a good shooter and was drafted with the understanding that shooting was the skill in which he was weakest. What Avdija can do is handle the ball, make decisions, run some pick-and-roll, play excellent defense, and rebound. All of those things are also very useful.

Goodwin, so far is an outlier. It's very rare for a walk-on from the G-League to be this good so quickly. But let's also not forget that Goodwin is 2-1/2 years older than Avdija.

The thing about shooting is that it's the one skill that can generally be significantly improved over time. Let's wait and see how Avdija at age 24 compares with Goodwin at age 24.

[tontoz]

It's not complicated. Gill is a good shooter, which one expects out of a 30-year-old vet. Avdija is not a good shooter and was drafted with the understanding that shooting was the skill in which he was weakest. What Avdija can do is handle the ball, make decisions, run some pick-and-roll, play excellent defense, and rebound. All of those things are also very useful.

Goodwin, so far is an outlier. It's very rare for a walk-on from the G-League to be this good so quickly. But let's also not forget that Goodwin is 2-1/2 years older than Avdija.

The thing about shooting is that it's the one skill that can generally be significantly improved over time. Let's wait and see how Avdija at age 24 compares with Goodwin at age 24.

I agree that Deni's shooting and his offense overall can improve. What i have a problem with is people blaming his struggles on everyone except him.

At least they haven't blamed Tommy Sheppard yet but the season is still young.

[arusinov]

10.6/5.6/3.2 isn't exactly helping your case. That is pretty weak, especially considering his low efficiency in those 5 games.

He's been given plenty of chances he just hasn't done much with them. He is playing on the same offense as everyone else but somehow you guys think that he is the only one being denied opportunities. Beal missed half the season last year and Deni still had the same problems.

His role on the team isn't the reason he has stuggled with layups. I think he just has a mental issue that hopefully he is growing out of.

Funny enough his role on the team is probably very much related to his struggle with layups. Because diminished role and low usage are precisely things which may create mental problem.

Efficiency issues happen to almost all young players. Think about recent return of LaMello which shot 5 3P / 24 3PA in first two games, and dozens very low efficiency games by players Saddiq Bey, or even Anthony Edwards or Giddey which always was and is inefficient

Here's simple question... If Deni was playing in rebuilding team what ppg average would he produce ? Same 7 or 8 as for Wizards? 10 ? 13 ? 15+?

Goodwin just got called up from the GLeague and his efficiency is elite

Anthony Gill is a nobody. He was a rookie two years ago but he's had very good efficiency.

Why do these guys, fringe NBA players on the same team, have strong efficiency but Deni doesn't? At some point you guys need to stop blaming Deni's struggles on everyone but him.

If Deni was on a good team he would probably struggle to get minutes at all. On a bad team his scoring and efficiency would probably still be bad, as they were last season in the 40 games Beal was out.

Deni played all 82 games last year. He isn't comparable to someome who is just coming back from an injury.

Lamelo Ball averaged 16/6 as a 19 year old shooting 35% from 3. Probably not a good guy to bring up as a comp.

You are speaking this stuff about Goodwin elite efficiency seriously after 5 games?

In his first 5 NBA games Deni also shot 43% from 3p and had ts% of 64% . I like Goodwin as all of us but seriously it's so meaningless to speak about efficiency on 35 shots.

And Ball is good comparison. In his first preseason he looked totally d-league material with sub-40% FG% sub-30% 3p, and 4 ast per game with 1/1 ast/tov ratio. Would he even get place in rotation of Wizards at start of season? And his efficiency was pretty bad first half of season.

When Wizards will use Deni as in last 5 games and 15 last games of previous season for some significant period of time there will be possibility to decide what he can do.

Playing 82 games when you're last option on offense is irrelevant

[arusinov]

Funny enough his role on the team is probably very much related to his struggle with layups. Because diminished role and low usage are precisely things which may create mental problem.

Efficiency issues happen to almost all young players. Think about recent return of LaMello which shot 5 3P / 24 3PA in first two games, and dozens very low efficiency games by players Saddiq Bey, or even Anthony Edwards or Giddey which always was and is inefficient

Here's simple question... If Deni was playing in rebuilding team what ppg average would he produce ? Same 7 or 8 as for Wizards? 10 ? 13 ? 15+?

Goodwin just got called up from the GLeague and his efficiency is elite

Anthony Gill is a nobody. He was a rookie two years ago but he's had very good efficiency.

Why do these guys, fringe NBA players on the same team, have strong efficiency but Deni doesn't? At some point you guys need to stop blaming Deni's struggles on everyone but him.

If Deni was on a good team he would probably struggle to get minutes at all. On a bad team his scoring and efficiency would probably still be bad, as they were last season in the 40 games Beal was out.

Deni played all 82 games last year. He isn't comparable to someome who is just coming back from an injury.

Lamelo Ball averaged 16/6 as a 19 year old shooting 35% from 3. Probably not a good guy to bring up as a comp.

It's not complicated. Gill is a good shooter, which one expects out of a 30-year-old vet. Avdija is not a good shooter and was drafted with the understanding that shooting was the skill in which he was weakest. What Avdija can do is handle the ball, make decisions, run some pick-and-roll, play excellent defense, and rebound. All of those things are also very useful.

Goodwin, so far is an outlier. It's very rare for a walk-on from the G-League to be this good so quickly. But let's also not forget that Goodwin is 2-1/2 years older than Avdija.

The thing about shooting is that it's the one skill that can generally be significantly improved over time. Let's wait and see how Avdija at age 24 compares with Goodwin at age 24.

Funny enough his first 5 NBA games Deni was as just as efficient as Goodwin those 5 games he was in main rotation

Deni shot 43% from 3, and had ts% of 64%. Sadly 5 games mean nothing as on other hand Lamelo his first preseason was almost as "efficient" as Davis this preseason and quite struggled with efficiency first half of his first season

[tontoz]

Funny enough his role on the team is probably very much related to his struggle with layups. Because diminished role and low usage are precisely things which may create mental problem.

Efficiency issues happen to almost all young players. Think about recent return of LaMello which shot 5 3P / 24 3PA in first two games, and dozens very low efficiency games by players Saddiq Bey, or even Anthony Edwards or Giddey which always was and is inefficient

Here's simple question... If Deni was playing in rebuilding team what ppg average would he produce ? Same 7 or 8 as for Wizards? 10 ? 13 ? 15+?

Goodwin just got called up from the GLeague and his efficiency is elite

Anthony Gill is a nobody. He was a rookie two years ago but he's had very good efficiency.

Why do these guys, fringe NBA players on the same team, have strong efficiency but Deni doesn't? At some point you guys need to stop blaming Deni's struggles on everyone but him.

If Deni was on a good team he would probably struggle to get minutes at all. On a bad team his scoring and efficiency would probably still be bad, as they were last season in the 40 games Beal was out.

Deni played all 82 games last year. He isn't comparable to someome who is just coming back from an injury.

Lamelo Ball averaged 16/6 as a 19 year old shooting 35% from 3. Probably not a good guy to bring up as a comp.

You are speaking this stuff about Goodwin elite efficiency seriously after 5 games?

In his first 5 NBA games Deni also shot 43% from 3p and had ts% of 64% . I like Goodwin as all of us but seriously it's so meaningless to speak about efficiency on 35 shots.

And Ball is good comparison. In his first preseason he looked totally d-league material with sub-40% FG% sub-30% 3p, and 4 ast per game with 1/1 ast/tov ratio. Would he even get place in rotation of Wizards at start of season? And his efficiency was pretty bad first half of season.

When Wizards will use Deni as in last 5 games and 15 last games of previous season for some significant period of time there will be possibility to decide what he can do.

Playing 82 games when you're last option on offense is irrelevant

Deni will be 22 in January and you are comparing him to a 19 yr old in preseason? BTW Deni averaged only 7 ppg in his first 5 games as a rookie in 25 minutes per game. Not sure how that is a good thing for your argument.

The idea of 'Deni is struggling because he is the last option' is nonsense. His problem isn't a lack of touches it has been a lack of actually doing something with the touches he gets. When he gets to the rim and cant make a routine layup that isn't the coaches fault.

In the last two games he was actually effective when he got the ball. Hopefully that will continue but it wasn't because Beal was out. Beal has missed a lot of games the last two years.

[arusinov]

Goodwin just got called up from the GLeague and his efficiency is elite

Anthony Gill is a nobody. He was a rookie two years ago but he's had very good efficiency.

Why do these guys, fringe NBA players on the same team, have strong efficiency but Deni doesn't? At some point you guys need to stop blaming Deni's struggles on everyone but him.

If Deni was on a good team he would probably struggle to get minutes at all. On a bad team his scoring and efficiency would probably still be bad, as they were last season in the 40 games Beal was out.

Deni played all 82 games last year. He isn't comparable to someome who is just coming back from an injury.

Lamelo Ball averaged 16/6 as a 19 year old shooting 35% from 3. Probably not a good guy to bring up as a comp.

You are speaking this stuff about Goodwin elite efficiency seriously after 5 games?

In his first 5 NBA games Deni also shot 43% from 3p and had ts% of 64% . I like Goodwin as all of us but seriously it's so meaningless to speak about efficiency on 35 shots.

And Ball is good comparison. In his first preseason he looked totally d-league material with sub-40% FG% sub-30% 3p, and 4 ast per game with 1/1 ast/tov ratio. Would he even get place in rotation of Wizards at start of season? And his efficiency was pretty bad first half of season.

When Wizards will use Deni as in last 5 games and 15 last games of previous season for some significant period of time there will be possibility to decide what he can do.

Playing 82 games when you're last option on offense is irrelevant

Deni will be 22 in January and you are comparing him to a 19 yr old in preseason?

The idea of 'Deni is struggling because he is the last option' is nonsense. His problem isn't a lack of touches it has been a lack of actually doing something with the touches he gets. When he gets to the rim and cant make a routine layup that isn't the coaches fault.

In the last two games he was actually effective when he got the ball. Hopefully that will continue but it wasn't because Beal was out. Beal has missed a lot of games the last two years.

Look. First season I actually counted Deni's touches on offensive half. In several cases it was literally 5 touches in 20 min

Sure if Deni was shooting better or cutting more actively (while when he tried he was largely ignored and got frustrated ) he would look better but ... even james Harden couldn't get to 10 ppg his rookie season with Russ and KD (and Russ and Beal is even more problematic )

[tontoz]

Look.First season I actually counted Deni's touches on offensive half. In several cases it was literally 5 touches in 20 min

Sure if Deni was shooting better or cutting more actively (while when he tried he was largely ignored and got frustrated ) he would look better but ... even james Harden couldn't get to 10 ppg his rookie season with Russ and KD (and Russ and Beal is even more problematic )

Several cases? I bet Deni hasn't played 20 minutes in a half his whole career.

[Kanyewest]

Read on Twitter

[Dolevi]

Read on Twitter

He's right. Antisemitism?
2nd and 3rd fouls are a joke. The 4th on Jovic it's just cringe. Pure Antisemitism.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Deni suffered a dislocated pinky last game, he was available to come back if needed.

[tontoz]

Nice double double tonight....with a dunk in crunch time

[Frichuela]

Nice double double tonight....with a dunk in crunch time

Aye aye. Very solid performance. He is a good decision maker.

[badinage]

And a timely block!

[Pistol King]

One underrated physical aspect Deni has is an above average 'second and third' steps. That blow by on PJ Washington happened solely on speed alone. Once he adds skill to that acceleration ability, he's going to be very hard to stop. I'm sure Drew Hanlen already noticed that and will work with him on it. Hanlen himself said about him in an interview during summer 'He's so athletic, he needs to learn how to use it'. So I guess part of that 'so athletic' phrase was about those second and third steps. Learn how to use body hesitation and change of speed, let the defender guess what direction you're going to drive, then go the opposite way, and use your acceleration. Boom.

When he's aggressive he looks so much better. Against Charlotte he was like that only in the first and fourth quarters. I'd like to see a game when he's aggressive offensively for four quarters. That's when you know he's really getting to the next level.