Dani Avdia’s name this season has been marked as one that can help any contending team as “the complementary piece in the puzzle”. His ability to keep at a high level, to serve as a playmaker and the improvement in finishing and shooting made him a player who is suitable for a champion team, not even in the provincial aspect. This is one of the reasons for the surprise created after the Israeli forward’s trade announcement to the Portland Trail Blazers for Malcolm Brogdon and four more picks.
Before touching on his possible integration in Portland, several issues need to be brought to the table. The first is that we now know what he’s worth, the second is that Avdia could still move to another team this summer and the third is that the Trail Blazers, the loosely translated Trail Blazers, are one step ahead of the Washington Wizards in the rebuilding phase.
The real emphasis for every Israeli NBA fan should be on the last point. Unlike the Wizards, who currently decided to put all the eggs in the hands of Bilal Koulibaly and Alexandre Saar, Portland made its significant move last summer and selected Scott Henderson with the third pick in the draft. The player who was missing last season to complete a five with explosive offensive potential is exactly the one that fits Abadia – one who can cover others in defense, can be used as a senior option in the attack and also bring someone to activate DeAndre Ayton.
So who are the Portland Trail Blazers? Chauncey Billups’ team was a regular at the top of the Western Conference, but had to part with Damian Lillard last summer and instantly became a lottery team. The general manager, Joe Cronin, is now trying to recover from a number of bad decisions taken out of necessity and the first of which is the bringing in of Avdia.
The player material available in Portland ranges from unrealized stars like Ayton, Henderson, Shaydon Sharpe and Anfaney Simmons at one extreme to players who are not clear if they are worth a rotation in any other team at the other extreme. Everyone’s injuries have made this season look a bit like Golden State’s in 2019/20 – all the stars are injured and we’re giving them the time to come back to be better. This is one of the worst offensive teams in the NBA, which scored the lowest percentages almost throughout the season and finished in last place in the West.
Unlike Washington, where he had very bad role models for the foreseeable future, this season he is expected to collaborate or step into the shoes of Jeremy Grant – a forward who broke out thanks to great defense, rebounding and three-point shooting in Denver Nuggets uniforms and decided he wanted to continue his career with bad teams for fat contracts. Perhaps with the exception of the championship ambitions, Grant is the player Avdia should learn from and strive to be above – a safe stock in defense and a first choice option in attack.
The Israeli forward is expected to enter the top five and inject some more life into Billups’ team, which most of the season played very scattered mainly due to Henderson’s immaturity and Brogdon’s love of creating for himself. The offensive capabilities were limited, mainly because of Simmons’ injury, but also because the additional rotation players available gave the feel of a G League team.
627 different fives played in a Portland uniform last season, not good stuff for stability. Cronin has found an “Iron Man” (missing just 13 games over the past three seasons) who can serve as a rock throughout the regular season and help his stock grow on a developing team. The premise is that Avdia can be used as one of the Blazers’ pivot players and in some games they will even attack him. Portland isn’t a very bad defensive team like the Wizards, who didn’t guard anyone. The combination of two of the best wing guards in the NBA in the form of Danny Obadiah and Jeremy Grant together with a color that consists of DeAndre Ayton, Robert Williams and Donovan Klingan can create problems for any team in the NBA and maybe a little admits its problems – maybe we are bad on offense, so on defense we will be very good
Avdia’s blossoming in the last half of the season came thanks to many injuries and trades that gave him the opportunity to make more mistakes. Here, too, the roster shows that Avdia will be able to reproduce the numbers from last season and that there is the possibility of making a mistake, but it mostly depends on him. He does not come in the position of a star, but of a player who has something to prove in a sea of players who need to show that they have a high positive value. The alternatives at position 3 in the franchise are bad (Jabari Walker, Delano Benton, Tomani Kamara) and on the current roster, there is even a chance that he will get minutes at position 2 or 1 alongside Simmons/Henderson in high fives.
Billups and Cronin got a young core that is, on paper, significantly more talented than Washington’s. Finishing with 21 wins in the tough West with injuries to most of the key players bodes well for a future that could come as early as next season. Avdia, 14.7 points per game last season, threw an average of 4.7 shots under the basket at 70.5%. On a team with spacing and centers as good as they will be in Portland, these numbers can help a team turn from one that scores 106 points per game to 110 or more with ease.
Although it is not a flashy destination and a professional one on paper, it may be bingo. The commentators in the United States highly appreciate the move and are betting that it will bring more value than Brogdon and Carlton Carrington, who was selected 14th in the draft, to Washington. At the same time, Wizards fans do not understand how Avdia went without getting a first round pick for next season, which is considered particularly strong at the top. Avdia’s presence as a talented guard and shooting confidence can only help Portland, who has a protected lottery pick next season, dream big for two more years.
This coming summer should be full of movement on the west side and tonight, Portland showed perhaps the foundation of a team that can make a run for the Western Conference title in 2028. Avdia got the opportunity to show his abilities against much better teams a greater number of times when the pressure level was still floor to non-existent.
In any case, for us Israeli viewers this is an excellent move. Instead of getting up at night and watching the Wizards get humiliated against every team in the league, it will be possible to see Avdia get a nice volume of minutes at five in the morning. What can we expect? It’s impossible to really know, but repeating the last half of the season in a slightly more talented team will show that the Israeli forward is on the right path and maybe that’s what will make him break through to the contenders.
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