Draft night is the night when the lives of dozens of young basketball players and their families change. for Danny Avdia, the night of the draft was the farthest thing from the moment these young people fantasize about: his draft was held in the fall, in the midst of a global epidemic, without cool studio shots in New York, without going on stage and taking a hat, without getting a joint picture with the commissioner, and when he has only a month, less Or rather, prepare for the season. Tonight, on the night of the draft, the lives of dozens of young people and their families changed – and also of Danny Abdia, the most senior player traded that night. The new forward of the Portland Trail Blazers.
These two nights have one common denominator, and it is also gone. Scott Brooks, Chauncey Billups’ top assistant in beleaguered Portland last year, was Washington’s coach when it selected Abdia. Brooks’ use of Danny in the first year didn’t really do him any favors – the Israeli was stuck in the corners, waiting for the ball sometimes for long minutes, when Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal were pumping 20-25 shots a night – and caused quite a few Wizards fans to doubt at the time if Avdia could really develop into a forward The versatile they hoped it would be. Two coaches later, they got the answer they were looking for in the first place: a resounding yes – but they didn’t really get to enjoy it. It is quite symbolic that the Blazers will enjoy their losses after Brooks – who will probably end up with the Lakers – left.
The Wizards in their previous format, as bad as they were, did do Avdia a favor. Under Brian Keefe and the attempts to build OK City East, he got opportunities to grow and grow, gain confidence and make mistakes that have no consequences. Each loss brought the Wizards closer to the desired goal that was eventually achieved – a high draft pick. Only this draft is not considered strong at its peak, and even the “baby unicorn” Alex Saar, as Jordan Richard called him, under whom Saar played in the Overtime Elite youth development league, would not have turned the Wizards into a team that threatens the playoffs. In the end, it turns out that the Wizards are really aiming for another year of tanking, in order to win one of the biggest prizes of the 2025 draft: Cooper Flagg, Ace Bailey, French center Nolan Traore (because there really is a lack of Frenchmen there), maybe even the South Sudanese of Duke Haman Malouch. And they moved their timeline back another hour.
Like Sam Presti in Oklahoma City, Michael Winger who grew up under him in Thunder now wants to accumulate as many draft picks as possible. He received two first-round picks from Portland, two second-round picks and Malcolm Brogdon, who really has nothing to look for in the Wizards, and who at about 1:50 p.m. he already started receiving offers for – it is likely that he will also be able to get a first-round pick. Don’t be surprised to see Kyle Kuzma leave as well (and the Wizards get picks on him), maybe Corey Kispert as well. Only Jordan Paul is probably stuck with the Wizards forever. have fun This is no longer our problem. The Wizards do not want to win in the short term, which cannot be said about Danny’s new team: for them, the problem is not one of will, but of ability.
The owner died, the manager was fired, the star left
Portland in recent years is a team in a mess, which suffered shocks from every direction. The owner Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft, passed away in 2018, his widow Judy Allen took over the ownership. General manager Neil Olshey was fired in December 2021, mid-season, after reports of a “hostile work environment” that included threats, harassment and a toxic atmosphere. “He wasn’t right for the job in the first place,” he told The Oregonian Frank Hecker, a former assistant coach in the team, “He has no idea how to treat people. He’s an arrogant, egotistical and just plain bad person.” Joe Cronin took over the position and had to decide what to do with the big elephant in the room: Damian Lillard. A player loved and admired in the community, who went through the peak years in a team that gradually deteriorated.
As coach, at Lillard’s request, Chauncey Billups was brought in in June 2021, who also had to deal with a cloud: allegations of rape from his time as a college player in 1997. the fact thatOlshi, the manager at the time, is the one who said that the accusations “were examined very seriously and taken into account”, did not make the story any more comfortable in retrospect. It should also be said that Billups was never charged with a crime, and settled the case with the prosecutor. And now that we’ve put that story aside, Billups is a seasoned and respected professional. As Ty Lue’s assistant with the Clippers, it was only a matter of time before he got his own team. “Mr. Big Shot” led Detroit to the 2004 championship in which he won the MVP of the final series, and to many years of dominance in the East in the 2000s. As a coach he has not yet come close to his successes as a player, and he also needs to win to stay in the job.
Last summer, Cronin and the Blazers finally put the Lillard era behind them. They replaced him with DeAndre Ayton, Tomani Kamara and especially Jaro Holiday, who was replaced by Malcolm Brogdon and Robert Williams. Draft picks also made their way to the Blazers, who saw their former star end a disappointing season with the Bucks by getting eliminated in the first round. Portland began to rebuild, and as with many TMA 38 projects, the beginning mostly looked like a disaster zone. The Blazers won just 21 games – not many more than the Wizards. Seven players scored in double figures for the Blazers, none of them shared more than 62 games. Towards the end of the season, they became one of the first teams in history to field five rookies – even if one of them (Doap Rith) was 28 years old, and another (Tomani Kamara) was 24 years old.
In the second year of this project, the Blazers puzzle has quite a few interesting young pieces, but their team is currently a pile of puzzle pieces scattered all over the room. They ranked last in the league in assists and three-point percentage, second to last in offensive index, points in turnovers, and fourth from the bottom in blocks, and relative to a team with so many young legs, they didn’t even run – and ranked fourth from the bottom in pace of play. Henderson, with 5.4 assists against 3.4 turnovers, looked lost in the first half of the season, improved a bit at the end, and still seems far from what was expected of him. There is a situation that Avdia is the player with the best game vision and passing ability in Portland right now.
Someone here doesn’t belong
The movement of the ball and the wisdom of the game are not the only places where Avdia can and should help. The Blazers’ defense, as mentioned, was very weak. Her breaking point was, o-o-o-o-o-o-o (and now in a bass voice), lower than the Dead Sea. They were defeated twice in 60 and 62 difference. This was a team without leadership, without direction, without winning, and Ayton, who only two years before played an important part in Phoenix reaching the final series, was not helpful in this sense.
No less significant than the addition of Avdia was the selection of Donovan Klingan, the college champion and center winner, 2.18 meters. Klingen was a 3-pointer in high school, he didn’t do it in Connecticut, but he will get a lot of play-offs this coming season from Avdia, who has proven with Porzingis, Gafford and even Bagley and Rashaon Holmes that he knows how to play centers well. In fact, on the night of the draft interviews, he said Klingen Yoav is aware that he and Avdia “can play great together”. There was talk of Klingen having a chance for Atlanta to pick him first, and in the end the Blazers got huge value with the seventh pick. They didn’t imagine it would happen on the other side of the continent.
For this combination to come to fruition and put the Trail Blazers on the right path, a few more things need to happen. On the face of an observer from the side, the five of Portland looked quite safe – Scott Henderson, Anferny Simmons (the deadliest three-point shooter in the league when healthy), Shaydon Sharp (Canadian super-athlete with great defensive potential, but also with poor decision-making and 41% from the field) , Jeremy Grant and Deandra Ayton. The ages of this quintet, in order, are 20, 25, 21, 30 and 25. As they said in “Without Secrets”, something here doesn’t belong.
Grant received a contract of 160 million dollars for 5 seasons at the beginning of last season, although it is not in any way synchronized with the timeline of the Blazers. It is likely that manager Cronin already has several offers for him. Teams like the Lakers (it would be the funniest thing in the world if Roy Hachimura moved to the Blazers in such a trade, right?), Sacramento and Philadelphia, who are looking for immediate help on the wings, could take him away. If Grant does stay, Avdia can start alongside him in the forward positions, and then one of the Simmons-Sharp-Henderson trio will serve as the sixth player. It’s hard for me to see a situation in which the Blazers gave up two first-round picks and an asset like Brogdon, to bring a player off the bench who contributes the elements they so badly need.
Breakfast before the last quarter
The night of the 2024 draft changed the lives of tens of thousands of Israelis except Danny. On the one hand, there is no longer any need to pretend that the Wizards are of interest to us, and to burn our eyes at 2:41 in the morning in front of Jordan Paul hitting three-pointers into the stands. On the other hand, Portland is also not the most attractive city in the US, and is the most isolated in the league (at least until Seattle returns) in terms of travel distances from the other teams. If you are already there, by the way, don’t give up a trip to the spectacular rocky coast of Oregon, only an hour and a half Heading west, Crater Lake is a stunningly beautiful place, and skiers will find solace in the spectacular summit of Mount Hood.
Beyond that, the main disappointment is probably the fact that we hoped that if Avdia would already leave – it would be for a playoff team, a contender. It was pretty clear, especially after the impact of mid-season acquisitions from bottom teams like P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford and Derrick White, that the championship contenders would sniff and look for reality. It is doubtful whether the offer from Portland was the first that Washington received, but 4 draft picks and another player that would yield them at least one more probably surpassed them all, in this respect.
In the group of the man who founded the Windows empire, together with Bill Gates (Allen bought the Blazers from the real estate man Larry Weinberg in 1988 for 70 million dollars – not far from the value of Avdia’s contract alone), Abdia has a window of opportunity to take part in a team that is eager To win and return to relevance, and now. The admitted center, a noisy hall of basketball fans, will love them back, in red-white-black. The very fact that the Vogue headline was “Washington transfers to Portland” and not “Portland transfers Brogdon to Washington” says something: just a year ago, Brogdon was the sixth player of the season and played for the Celtics in the East Finals. Avdia already has status in the league.
It will be a long journey up, certainly in the west which is only getting better and better, but beyond all the basha, you have to remember one thing: Portland wanted Danny Avdia. She knows what it’s worth, because she paid quite a bit for it. She knows how she wants to use him, because she doesn’t have players like him. She wants him to help her win, because the current players aren’t good enough at it right now. You can already imagine an attack that starts with the roof of Ayton or Clingan, Avdia collects the ball and rushes forward, Simmons settles in the corner on one side, Sharp flies at 200 km/h to finish an all-i-op on the other side and raise the Moda to the sky. This is the vision of the Trail Blazers on their way back For relevance – and Avdia will probably get a real opportunity to break the way for them.
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