Deni Avdija

[DCZards]

There’s not a team (or coach) in the NBA that’s going to ask its two best players to become role players.

I’m all in for developing Deni, Kispert, Davis, Rui, etc. … but you figure out a way to do that even while letting your two best players take the lead in helping you win games.

Sports is a meritocracy…or at least it should be. Let the youngins’ earn the right to be featured or treated the same as proven players like KP and Beal.

[nate33]

If it’s me, I’m investing in a 21 yr old who plays near-elite D, is a crafty passer, and is developing nicely over a 29 yr old.

This team doesn’t have a focal point.

With Beal as the centerpiece, they don’t win enough. Porzingis + Beal is appealing in ways, but not a real foundation.

So, again, no focal point.

That means that if it’s me, I’m investing in the pieces we have who are worth nurturing — Deni, Kispy, maybe Kuz, Goodwin — and putting Beal and Porzingis into roles. Everyone plays a role, no one is made to star. If on any given night a guy gets hot, fine, feed him; let him go off. But if not, no one gets to be prima donna.

(I suppose I wouldn’t last long in the league as a coach, because what I would say to Beal is: “Look, dude, you have your moments. But you’re not a superstar or even — sorry — a star. Because you’re the best one-on-one creator we have, in the last 5 minutes we’ll look to you to bail us out when the shot clock winds down to 6 and we don’t have anything going. Otherwise, move the ball. Pick your spots to shoot — 13 attempts a game, max; choose wisely! And play defense as if you’re thisclose to being shipped out of the league. If you don’t, then you’re sitting. I’ll play Johnny Davis over you. I don’t care if we lose. We’re gonna play the game the way it should be played. We’re gonna stand for something.”)

I still don't understand this scapegoating of Beal. Beal is having the most efficient season of his career and has cut back his usage by more than 25% from his peak usage 3 years ago. I say he is doing exactly what you want him to do: blending into the system for the first 3 quarters and then trying and take over in the 4th when nobody else is stepping up. He is also playing perhaps the best defense I've seen from him in his career (which isn't saying much, but I still appreciate the effort).

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

If it’s me, I’m investing in a 21 yr old who plays near-elite D, is a crafty passer, and is developing nicely over a 29 yr old.

This team doesn’t have a focal point.

With Beal as the centerpiece, they don’t win enough. Porzingis + Beal is appealing in ways, but not a real foundation.

So, again, no focal point.

That means that if it’s me, I’m investing in the pieces we have who are worth nurturing — Deni, Kispy, maybe Kuz, Goodwin — and putting Beal and Porzingis into roles. Everyone plays a role, no one is made to star. If on any given night a guy gets hot, fine, feed him; let him go off. But if not, no one gets to be prima donna.

(I suppose I wouldn’t last long in the league as a coach, because what I would say to Beal is: “Look, dude, you have your moments. But you’re not a superstar or even — sorry — a star. Because you’re the best one-on-one creator we have, in the last 5 minutes we’ll look to you to bail us out when the shot clock winds down to 6 and we don’t have anything going. Otherwise, move the ball. Pick your spots to shoot — 13 attempts a game, max; choose wisely! And play defense as if you’re thisclose to being shipped out of the league. If you don’t, then you’re sitting. I’ll play Johnny Davis over you. I don’t care if we lose. We’re gonna play the game the way it should be played. We’re gonna stand for something.”)

I still don't understand this scapegoating of Beal. Beal is having the most efficient season of his career and has cut back his usage by more than 25% from his peak usage 3 years ago. I say he is doing exactly what you want him to do: blending into the system for the first 3 quarters and then trying and take over in the 4th when nobody else is stepping up. He is also playing perhaps the best defense I've seen from him in his career (which isn't saying much, but I still appreciate the effort).

I'm not seeing what you are seeing defensively. He is one of the worth, if not the worst, offenders on the team of ball watching, getting caught in no man's land, doubling when he shouldn't, etc. Effort to me entails that you are actually serious about it, and I'm just not seeing that other than him doing some token down in your stance crap here and there.

[Dolevi]

Agreed.
Beal can sometimes put some good D when he's determined to do so on a 1o1 level situations. In all what connects to team defense and effort, he's not so shiny. His laziness in coming back to defense is also noticable, and it's influence the team's spirit and will to do defense probably. I say all that by games and plays i've seen, don't have any videos or evidence to show here but that's my impression and thought.

[DCZards]

I still don't understand this scapegoating of Beal. Beal is having the most efficient season of his career and has cut back his usage by more than 25% from his peak usage 3 years ago. I say he is doing exactly what you want him to do: blending into the system for the first 3 quarters and then trying and take over in the 4th when nobody else is stepping up. He is also playing perhaps the best defense I've seen from him in his career (which isn't saying much, but I still appreciate the effort).

Nate, I don’t think it matters how much or how often you bring these things out about Beal's play this year. Some here have decided they’re going to castigate BB, regardless of how he plays.

[badinage]

Partly for me because he’s in Juwan Howard territory now.

I.e., the massive, constricting contract … the gaudyish but largely empty numbers … the lofty talk about leadership while not leading the team to much of anything.

And the mediocre defense.

And the pouting.

And I’m sorry, it’s just … it’s not fun to watch him anymore. He’s not young and promising — the Wall-Beal glimpses of greatness are long gone — but neither is he a beloved vet in his twilight.

He’s mid. The team is mid.

[Pistol King]

Read on Twitter

?t=QMe86YpiUZxQb7VjzetUoA&s=19

[nate33]

Great find Pistol King!

I blew the image up and circled the Wizards. Avdija is the 2nd best man defender in the league. Kuzma is modestly above average. Morris isn't bad, but doesn't guard any difficult matchups. Kispert and Barton are bad even though they're not guarding good players. I could not find Beal or Rui anywhere.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Great find Pistol King!

I blew the image up and circled the Wizards. Avdija is the 2nd best man defender in the league. Kuzma is modestly above average. Morris isn't bad, but doesn't guard any difficult matchups. Kispert and Barton are bad even though they're not guarding good players. I could not find Beal or Rui anywhere.

Thanks eyes for not lyin' to me.

Great to see some of the props Deni is getting in the comments.

[doclinkin]

Great find Pistol King!

I blew the image up and circled the Wizards. Avdija is the 2nd best man defender in the league. Kuzma is modestly above average. Morris isn't bad, but doesn't guard any difficult matchups. Kispert and Barton are bad even though they're not guarding good players. I could not find Beal or Rui anywhere.

Nor Porzingis, who I'm curious about. I don't know who it is but it looks like there's a Wiz jersey directly under (0,0).

[Halcyon]

Great find Pistol King!

I blew the image up and circled the Wizards. Avdija is the 2nd best man defender in the league. Kuzma is modestly above average. Morris isn't bad, but doesn't guard any difficult matchups. Kispert and Barton are bad even though they're not guarding good players. I could not find Beal or Rui anywhere.

Nor Porzingis, who I'm curious about. I don't know who it is but it looks like there's a Wiz jersey directly under (0,0).

I think Beal is at 0,0, I see his ear sticking out. And in generally I'm not seeing too many bigs in the graphic, so it could be a metric just for wings?

[nate33]

Great find Pistol King!

I blew the image up and circled the Wizards. Avdija is the 2nd best man defender in the league. Kuzma is modestly above average. Morris isn't bad, but doesn't guard any difficult matchups. Kispert and Barton are bad even though they're not guarding good players. I could not find Beal or Rui anywhere.

Nor Porzingis, who I'm curious about. I don't know who it is but it looks like there's a Wiz jersey directly under (0,0).

I think Beal is at 0,0, I see his ear sticking out. And in generally I'm not seeing too many bigs in the graphic, so it could be a metric just for wings?

Good catch. Yeah, that's probably Beal. It's a Wizards' jersey, so it's definitely either Beal or Rui.

[Pistol King]

Great find Pistol King!

I blew the image up and circled the Wizards. Avdija is the 2nd best man defender in the league. Kuzma is modestly above average. Morris isn't bad, but doesn't guard any difficult matchups. Kispert and Barton are bad even though they're not guarding good players. I could not find Beal or Rui anywhere.

I later saw this twit as well:

Read on Twitter

[Pistol King]

Deni is probably out of position at SF. He probably needs to be at PF stealing all of Rui's minutes. Is it the coaches fault he can't make open jumpers??? Its hard for me to blame the coach for that.

I'll move my answer to here and use Deni as an example for his shortcoming as a coach.

Against the Heat it was the first time Deni got the assignment to be the actual PG throughout an entire game and not just in short spurts. It ended up pretty well to say the least, being one shy of a triple double. Since he did well in this one and only opportunity he got as a full time PG,I thought it's going to make WUJ pumping up the volume of PG assignments for Deni. Not just that it wasn't the case, next game WUJ has returned back to use him the exact way before that game, like that Heat game has never happened.

It's a complicated situation when WUJ tries to manage locker room statuses and please the ego of the vets even if their level of play doesn't necessarily justifying it. If he was a mental strong coach, we would have seen him rewarding a young player who does as well as anyone could ask him in the only chance he got to play in a role that flatters his strengths, pumping his on-ball opportunities, and letting him be a more primary decision maker in a team that totally lacks a player with good size, good age, who is interested to set up his teammates while contributing on the defensive side. WUJ has chosen the political route. The vets route. Less risk dealing with egos, but much lower ceiling.

In a perfect world, maybe WUJ is actually a good coach, with some nice ideas. Who knows. Maybe if we're removing emotional and ego aspects and asking him to do straight up what he wants to implement as his basketball beliefs, maybe he can make this team play good. But as I'm following him through a season and almost a half, it seems to me that his inability to manage egos of high status players, lack creativity and feel for the game, inability to hold accountable the vets the same standard as with the young guys, and inability to take risks in the short term in favor for higher ceiling long term, all are real coaching issues that cause, alongside with creating bad habits, in a lack of developing.

[closg00]

Deni Avdija struggling with consistency in Washington

https://www.basketballinsiders.com/news/wizards-in-search-of-more-consistency-from-deni-avdija/

[Dat2U]

Deni is probably out of position at SF. He probably needs to be at PF stealing all of Rui's minutes. Is it the coaches fault he can't make open jumpers??? Its hard for me to blame the coach for that.

I'll move my answer to here and use Deni as an example for his shortcoming as a coach.

Against the Heat it was the first time Deni got the assignment to be the actual PG throughout an entire game and not just in short spurts. It ended up pretty well to say the least, being one shy of a triple double. Since he did well in this one and only opportunity he got as a full time PG,I thought it's going to make WUJ pumping up the volume of PG assignments for Deni. Not just that it wasn't the case, next game WUJ has returned back to use him the exact way before that game, like that Heat game has never happened.

It's a complicated situation when WUJ tries to manage locker room statuses and please the ego of the vets even if their level of play doesn't necessarily justifying it. If he was a mental strong coach, we would have seen him rewarding a young player who does as well as anyone could ask him in the only chance he got to play in a role that flatters his strengths, pumping his on-ball opportunities, and letting him be a more primary decision maker in a team that totally lacks a player with good size, good age, who is interested to set up his teammates while contributing on the defensive side. WUJ has chosen the political route. The vets route. Less risk dealing with egos, but much lower ceiling.

In a perfect world, maybe WUJ is actually a good coach, with some nice ideas. Who knows. Maybe if we're removing emotional and ego aspects and asking him to do straight up what he wants to implement as his basketball beliefs, maybe he can this team play good. But as I'm following him through a season and almost a half, it seems to me that his inability to manage egos of high status players, lack creativity and feel for the game, inability to hold accountable the vets the same standard as with the young guys, and inability to risks in the short term in favor for higher ceiling long term, all are real coaching issues that cause, alongside with creating bad habits, in a lack of developing.

Deni isn't a PG tho. He's got good handle for a forward, not a guard. Big difference. The more he has the ball the more TOs you'll see. He's more of a tiertary creator and ball mover. In reality he should be in Kuzma's role once/if Kuz is traded.

Defensively, I worry a little that his focus on individual defense has caused his rotations to suffer but I'd have to pay attention more when the Wiz are on D to confirm that.

WUJ probably dreamt of coming home to coach the Wizards but in reality it may be a career damaging decision for him. I think he was qualified but I get the sense not every decision is his and frankly he's stuck with a bad and leaderless roster the best coaches would likely fail with.

[2Fluffy4U]

Deni Avdija struggling with consistency in Washington

https://www.basketballinsiders.com/news/wizards-in-search-of-more-consistency-from-deni-avdija/

This article is from two weeks ago when it was 11-13..
I have not crunched the numbers but I can bet if you look up each player on this roster - the claim for the 'search of more consistency' applies to all..

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Deni is probably out of position at SF. He probably needs to be at PF stealing all of Rui's minutes. Is it the coaches fault he can't make open jumpers??? Its hard for me to blame the coach for that.

I'll move my answer to here and use Deni as an example for his shortcoming as a coach.

Against the Heat it was the first time Deni got the assignment to be the actual PG throughout an entire game and not just in short spurts. It ended up pretty well to say the least, being one shy of a triple double. Since he did well in this one and only opportunity he got as a full time PG,I thought it's going to make WUJ pumping up the volume of PG assignments for Deni. Not just that it wasn't the case, next game WUJ has returned back to use him the exact way before that game, like that Heat game has never happened.

It's a complicated situation when WUJ tries to manage locker room statuses and please the ego of the vets even if their level of play doesn't necessarily justifying it. If he was a mental strong coach, we would have seen him rewarding a young player who does as well as anyone could ask him in the only chance he got to play in a role that flatters his strengths, pumping his on-ball opportunities, and letting him be a more primary decision maker in a team that totally lacks a player with good size, good age, who is interested to set up his teammates while contributing on the defensive side. WUJ has chosen the political route. The vets route. Less risk dealing with egos, but much lower ceiling.

In a perfect world, maybe WUJ is actually a good coach, with some nice ideas. Who knows. Maybe if we're removing emotional and ego aspects and asking him to do straight up what he wants to implement as his basketball beliefs, maybe he can this team play good. But as I'm following him through a season and almost a half, it seems to me that his inability to manage egos of high status players, lack creativity and feel for the game, inability to hold accountable the vets the same standard as with the young guys, and inability to risks in the short term in favor for higher ceiling long term, all are real coaching issues that cause, alongside with creating bad habits, in a lack of developing.

Deni isn't a PG tho. He's got good handle for a forward, not a guard. Big difference. The more he has the ball the more TOs you'll see. He's more of a tiertary creator and ball mover. In reality he should be in Kuzma's role once/if Kuz is traded.

Defensively, I worry a little that his focus on individual defense has caused his rotations to suffer but I'd have to pay attention more when the Wiz are on D to confirm that.

WUJ probably dreamt of coming home to coach the Wizards but in reality it may be a career damaging decision for him. I think he was qualified but I get the sense not every decision is his and frankly he's stuck with a bad and leaderless roster the best coaches would likely fail with.

From what I've noticed, he is still doing a lot of covering for teammates when they are way out of position. I'm not sure the result is all that much different given the initial mistakes, but by-and-large my memory recalls him at least giving effort on rotations. You can only do so much though when they leave you in a terrible position. Any given game, Deni is defending every position on the floor just about with maybe the exception of some center matchups.

Agree that Deni isn't a point guard given his handle, but I think his height does a lot to mitigate some of that. I'd be fine with him to be given the freedom that Kuzma has been given as long as he's not reckless like Kuzma.

[DCZards]

Agree that Deni isn't a point guard given his handle, but I think his height does a lot to mitigate some of that. I'd be fine with him to be given the freedom that Kuzma has been given as long as he's not reckless like Kuzma.

Deni is no doubt not a true PG (and people should stop claiming he is) but he does have the potential to take on some of the ball handling roles that Kuzma often fills.

And, yes, we don't want Deni to be as reckless as Kuzma often is, but I would like to see Deni show some of the fearlessness and confidence that Kuz displays when attacking people off the dribble.

Kuz is very good at using his size and quickness to get to the rim for easy baskets.

[payitforward]

...WUJ probably dreamt of coming home to coach the Wizards but in reality ...he's stuck with a bad and leaderless roster the best coaches would likely fail with.

To me, this says it all.

The other side of this see saw -- to balance the insistence on over-criticizing/blaming WUJ -- is the seemingly unshakable conviction that Kristaps Porzingis is playing really well (or well at all for that matter). He's not.

Compared to his time as a Wizard last season, KP's
points scored are down
TS% is down
Offensive rebounds are down
Defensive rebounds are down
Assists are down
Blocks are down
Turnovers are up

His steals are slightly up & his fouls are slightly down. But it's not nearly enough to make up for the drop in the rest of his numbers.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not questioning KP's talent.