Deni Avdija tonight: 41 PTS | 7 REB | 12 AST | 15-22 FG | 8-13 FT
2 BLK, 5 TOV. What a performance from Avidja. Blazers narrowly defeated the Suns 114-110.
https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401866754
Washington what are u doing
Making a political statement (our front office had a string of terrible decisions)
It actually is hilarious that Avdija got traded right after the Wizards were bought by Qatar lol
Not that I think it has anything to do with that he wasn’t really a big name at the time
It didn’t, Avidja just hadn’t done anything and seemed like he needed a fresh start while the Wizards wanted to tank
He wasn’t given a real chance. They had him playing behind kuz, and when kuz finally got injured towards Deni’s last year on the wizards, he took the starting spot and was playing very very well and even had a 40+ game in that like 6 game stretch
The problem is he would’ve had you winning games 2 seasons too soon.
Winning enough to still be in the lottery just with worse picks. It was time for him to go
That’s really what he’s done for Portland, but we also had the haul of picks from the Dame trade to lean on to do an accelerated rebuild. I’m still worried we rushed the process and will peak at being a perennial 3-8 seed.
There were some serious signs he could be a solid player the last year on the wizards but this production, I don’t think, could’ve been expected.
He was coming off a career year in his final year with Washington lmao.
They purchased a 5% stake in the monumental sports ownership group. After investing a little more they likely own 5-10%
Ya know what, as far as copium goes, that’s a pretty good dose to keep in the back pocket
They should have markennen’d him but just traded him for a better opportunity for him
Not trying to be mediocre. Chasing low seeds is why the Wizards are in this situation now.
They need to learn to sit players out a whole year while tanking
The wizards are perpetually in this situation l, they e never won 50 games 😭😭😭
trying to find a guy like avdija in the draft
If the wizards drafted Jokic, he would have been awful his entire tenure there. The wiz are just the absolute worst organization for developing a star.
Wizards will always be a player farm for other teams.
Tanking. Deni’s timeline wasn’t going to line up. He was good enough that our pick would have gone to the Knicks this season. (Unless we Lauri Markkanen’d him and found a way to keep him out of meaningful games for two seasons.)
“I don’t respect no one until they come and give me 40.” - Dillon Brooks
Respect earned tonight by Deni.
Man I honestly love Dillon Brooks. The nba is more interesting with him and he plays with pure heart. I was low key rooting for him and i’m the biggest Blazer homer I know.
Brooks made that 2nd half entertaining as hell. Suns really needed him the final few possessions after he got his 6th foul. He’s just such a wild card out there
He’s great when he doesn’t flagrant foul people on their injuries, but otherwise agree
Hate when people say this about guys who play dirty and try to injure players
Yea man I love dirty players who start shit with everybody.
Counterpoint: fuck Dillon Brooks.
Are you also a duck fan by chance?
I remember his vaguely from U of O but I have never really cared about college hoops
Dude was an elite level gremlin even back then. Baited Coach K into a messy situation with a garbage time three against Duke once.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/15073476/duke-blue-devils-coach-mike-krzyzewski-apologizes-postgame-comments-oregon-dillon-brooks
Dillon Brooks is childish. Early in the second he didn’t get a call and just went on tilt and lost his composure. I was like watch, this dude is gonna get T’d up this game.
He then proceeds to just start dropping his shoulder and checking people. Finally picked up a foul and then the proceeding tech.
Shit right before Clingan picks up the flagrant Brooks shoulder checks him in the chest as hard as he can. Clingan then just flings him like a ragdoll and gets the flagrant.
Sorry, this is a Deni celebration post, he really stepped up and took this win.
He’s like that teamate in a MOBA that starts inting
That last ISO by Avdija (once he got past Goodwin) was incredible because he also broke Dillon Brooks ankles when Brooks came to help.
Avdija took such a clever angle, every Suns defender tried to help at that point lol. His craftiness in the paint is absolutely elite.
The last iso was nasty. Everyone knew he’s going to drive to the basket to the right. He did it and they couldn’t stop him.
Felt like he was the only one who wanted to win the game
Game plan give the ball to deni
It’s pretty insane how effortlessly he gets to the rim
On a team with pretty inconsistent spacing having that ability is huge
If we had any real shooters he’d have 20 assists.
Genuine question, not hating. Is he a willing passer? I haven’t watched much blazers but from what I’ve seen he misses a ton of passes to shooters when he’s driving. Is this lack of belief in teammates ability or he doesn’t see them? Again, genuine question. He gets to the rim effortlessly and is huge, could easily be 10ast a game
Deni has the most assists from drives this season, and that’s with this team having no consistent shooter. He’s definitely a willing passer.
We were ranked 3rd in the league at three-point attempts per game (~42) and shot 34.3% from three which was ranked 28th in the league. high volume, low efficiency
Just watch him play and in one offensive possession you will believe.
Too willing sometimes :) he can do everything but shifty shot making
That game plan likely just made Tiago Splitter an extra million
An extra million 😭
https://tenor.com/dMo0gXDMTb3.gif
Definitely played with some passion on the floor. Would love to see more of him this playoffs.
Good news is you’ll have that chance!
He missed 4 straight FTs, but came back huge in the clutch. Meanwhile, Sharpe seemed to fumble the ball on many drive attempts.
Can tell Sharpe is still rusty after being out for so long. That dunk was crazy though.
He is, but problem is that his handle has always been very loose and hasn’t really improved since coming into the league
Yep the handle is 100% an issue.
I mean, Jerami drained 2 huge corner threes to kickstart that comeback.
Shae did well for his first game back in months. and Jerami was HUGE down the stretch
Yeah he cold as hell lol
He’s literally not guardable when he gets in that zone
His driving game is insane
His first step needs to be studied. I really don’t know how he’s able to accelerate like that and just blow right around guys like that
My jaw dropped at times seeing how effortlessly he blew by defenders tonight …. It should not look that easy at 6’8 230 pds
They call him Turbo for a reason!
It reminds me of Miami Bron
Honestly a lot of similarities in their game(obviously on different levels)
yeah, obviously they don’t play out exactly the same, but both with the ability to just get downhill to the rack even when the defense know it’s coming every damn time, but being powerless to really stop it
His decel is also pretty crazy.
He looks like a wr breaking off a dB at the line. Just so shifty and then explosive fast.
Suns was doing great in the middle of the fourth stopping him from going right.
But Deni is RELENTLESS
He is unDENIable!
When he starts running all he hears is the song from the car chase scene in Baby Driver.
I’m so happy to be a Deni believer. Desperately wanted the Blazers to draft the dude back in the day.
His 41 points is the 3rd most anybody has scored in a play-in game
Dolph Schayes at 13 😭
amazing how many play-in games there were back in ‘54 when there were like 3 teams in the entire league
Those weren’t really play-in games. In 1954 the league used a round robin playoff format for the first round because the folding of the Indianapolis Olympians left the league with only nine teams.
JJ Redick never dropped 13 in the play in!
Completely forgot the Celtics were in the play-in in 2021. Now I’m remembering they had a disastrous series against the Nets
I mean JB didnt play that series. It was the only series the big 3 nets were healthy for. JT had 50 and we gave em a good run in game 4.
That Tatum 50 point game was so awesome.
Only player to drop 50 in a regular season game, playoff game and a play-in game
Can’t believe we traded him…
And he has a descending contract and will make $11 million in ‘27-‘28. Probably the best contract in the league
I think they will work out an extension.
Nah, he’s not accepting an extension at the max we can offer him on his contract, it’s actually kind of an issue. It’s in both parties best interest to try to re-negotiate this summer for a number we might actually be able to extend him at
Homeboy gonna get paid!
do you know how much you can give give him this summer? also can you re-negotiste next summer as well?
I think we have to get way way under the cap
Can you tell me more about this please? What are you thinking here because I haven’t heard it yet. The max contracts in the NBA are based on % of the salary cap and not the based on the previous years salary. With the exception to that being a player can sign a max with the starting salary being 105% of their previous number. This happened with Steph but I am not seeing how this is applicable with Deni when he’s making waaayyy less than what he would at the max. So I guess I don’t see why Portland wouldn’t negotiate a max extension for the 28-29 season at the 30% cap max number.
Iirc an extension can only be a certain percentage higher than the base contract, so it’ll be in Denis best interest to hit FA and get a max that way, whether it’s from Portland or otherwise. Similar to why LAL hasn’t extended Reaves
I could very well be wrong, but I think the new contract being based on the previous one only matters when the team doesn’t have the player’s birds rights.
Blazers have Deni’s birds rights, so they should be allowed to offer him any contract, up to a max unless he hits all-NBA and is supermax eligible.
As a Blazers fan, my hope is they renegotiate the last year of his cheap af contract to give him a raise that season, in trade for less money over the following seasons.
So in theory, let’s say the max on his next contract would be 30% of an approximate 176m cap, which is 52.8m base with 8% raises.
He could earn approximately 50-60m over the 4 years of 28-32 seasons. Thats around 220-230m years out.
Instead, they could re-negotiate the 12m owed in 2027. Give him the 200-220m he would earn through that time frame either way, but stretch it to include the 5th year. This would bring him to ~40m per year.
They’d eat into their cap for one season to open up 10m+ for the next 4.
For his production level he’s gotta be the best contract in the league
I don’t know what’s the bigger travesty - the Deni trade or not changing the FO until the year after Wemby got drafted.
Its hilarious how so many people on this sub would sooner claim that the NBA is choosing to rig the game for certain players than simply accept that some players are just incredibly hard to guard without fouling
No one on this sub is going to turn on a Blazers game at 10pm EST instead of Warriors/Lakers. Is what it is. Easier to click the box score and make an opinion I guess.
Just look at the amount of posts about the blazer game compared to the earlier game
Normally you would be right but that game was crazy.
Can confirm…
No one on this sub watches any games outside of their team. They just pretend to, let’s be real
Idk what you’re talking about Bulls fans were riveted last night following their temporarily second favorite team
Guilty as charged
He actually did not get enough calls tonight tbh. We were being gifted some.
No clue how grant didn’t get an and 1 for the 3
that was a frustrating game to watch from a ref perspective for fans of both teams I imagine. You at least want consistency and they varied wildly from phantom calls, to uncalled maulings, and then also stretches of letting them play, then trying to gain control back and getting ticky tack again.
There’s an extra element with Deni as well that many naysayers bring up..
He led the league in drives throughout the year. Not getting a whistle simply wouldn’t make any sense.
*whilst glazing Kobe and MJ who notoriously looked for contact every drive
Kind of shame the Wizards traded Avdija. Imagine him becoming a star in Washington DC right now lmao
Damn good player
Lol, the memes would be glorious.
The first athlete sponsored by AIPAC
Fuck all his haters. Had everyone believing dudes got no skills and just stumbles his way 20+ ppg
I feel like this doesn’t fully capture why he has haters lol
I mean yeah his game is not very aesthetically pleasing, but I’m of the viewpoint that it’s almost exclusively for non-basketball reasons. The people who are trying to make it seem like it’s for basketball reasons are using it as a smokescreen to bait hatred towards him generally. I’m sorry but I just don’t believe for a single second that there are this many people regularly watching a mediocre sub .500 team for there to be such an overwhelming amount of critique levied at Avdija’s game. Historically, nobody outside of the local market even watches the Blazers when they’re good lol. If you dislike Deni for other reasons, that’s fine and opens up an entirely different conversation. But this obsession with convincing everyone that he actually sucks at basketball and the fact that I have stumbled across multiple accounts on this subreddit that make a disproportionate amount of posts about Deni’s lowlights or free throw numbers demonstrates some serious virgin behavior I must admit.
I think you’re right that the non-basketball reasons fuel the vitriol. Find solace in knowing that it will never get better.
Oh it definitely won’t. It will only get worse if the Blazers start getting better.
He has haters, in my opinion, because people watch the box score and not the games. Yes, he shoots a lot of FTs, and yes he does it by hammering into the paint and seeking contact, but he gets fouled a lot on the drives.
Now, if someone wanted to argue that he should get called for offensive fouls on a fair few of those drives, even as a blazers fan, I think they’d have a point - but surely that hate should be aimed at the way the game is officiated?
Personally, I’d rather watch someone fly into the lane like a canon ball over someone getting into the paint and flopping around like a rag doll hoping one of their limbs clips someone’s leg.
Most of his hater are because he’s Israeli
It does lol
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I was talking about a basketball, in a basketball sub. If we’re talking about what the Israeli government are doing (which is disgusting in my opinion), I feel like maybe this isn’t the time or place.
I’m not talking about free throws at all, but go off, I guess
As if average near 25/7/7 for 65 games is a fluke
Definitely not why he’s hated lol
r/nba 9⁄11
r/nbacirclejerk mini 9⁄11 too, r/nbatalk probably dislikes him too but at least it’s just because they look at the boxscores and see he shoots tons of FTs lol
THE FREE THROW AIN’T MERCHANTING BABYYY
MANDATORY FUCK 90% OF R/NBA FOR SLANDERING MY GOAT
AND YES I SHAMELESSLY COPIED MY COMMENT FROM THE DELETED THREAD
FUCK YEAH!! THIS SUB HAS BEEN BASHING HIM ALL YEAR, LFG DENI
First time in a long time a Blazer has stepped up in a big moment and made me excited for the future. Huge game from Deni.
Rob will 2⁄2 from 3 vs clips
Bro might have been my favorite player to watch this season. Hes an absolute dawg
That boy cold.
don’t tell people you’re Israeli in these comments, they’ll all hate you because of that alone
Eh, then they’re silly so who cares. Not every American should be hated because of their government and not every Israeli should be hated because of their government. Israel has elections coming up this year and Bibi is down bad in the polls so hopefully we can be rid of this nightmare ghoul soon and he can rot in the hell we don’t technically believe in.
agreed, but silly isn’t the word I would use. As another Israeli-American I’m also crossing my fingers for a Bibi exit
You better come vote and help us do that
Why would anyone hate someone purely on the basis of their heritage?
Who you are is what matters.
Wish he decided to play for Serbia 😡
scott brooks had this man standing in the corner. i hate the wizards so much.
He played damn incredible.
ISRAEL THIS IS FOR YOU 🇮🇱
I thought he has 20+ ft by reading the post game thread lol
Monster game
He was the best player on the floor
He is HIM.
Holy shit what a game!
Tough night for deni avdija haters that think he is really bad at basketball and openly refused to give him credit for being good at basketball, or the people that are mad at deni avdija for reasons that are not basketball related.
He is the franchise cornerstone
Insane game by him even overcomed the power of good vibes
Fuck all his haters, what an unbelievable game. Easily could’ve been at the line more if they officiated him like he was Booker
Absolutely fearless at the end
Suns couldn’t handle his first step lmao, blew past everyone he faced 1v1 on the perimeter
Let’s go Deni! Am Yisrael Chai
Deni was just eviscerating the Suns. Getting to the rim at will.
They couldn’t stop him
Fuck the bigots! LOL
I’ll never understand the wizards
He was an absolute DAWG tonight
Deni bag work at the end for the W too cold
They won’t like this.
What do u mean by they
Impressive as hell
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Scoot in shambles
Scoot’s just fine.
Baller 🇮🇱
man was Lebron on the court tonight playing with his food with every single isolation play
it’s feels like a weird comp, but it’s probably the best one to make.
everyone know what’s coming, but both guys still just explode straight line to the rack, and at their size and ability to finish through contact what are you gonna do?
Ngl he reminds me of Luka. His patience and size is a real problem for defenders
He good
He’s good
I’m a fan now.
What a fucking stud. So much talk about him but he just owned
All NBA & Most Improved or we riot
LEGEND TURBO DENI LETS GO
Not bad for a guy Hasan Piker said was shoehorned into the All Star game not because of his play, but because of an Israel led propaganda campaign
The. Absolute. Man.
Avdija > Booker
It’s not close either
I mean, it’s pretty close lol. Or are you just talking about this game??
What did Washington get in return for him?
Brogdon, 2 hazy IPAs and a bag of doritos
Bubb Carrington with a pick was part of it I think.
Whatever it was, it was not enough.
Brogdon 2 firsts 2 seconds
A piece of half-chewed bubble gum and 2 potatoes.
fade away jumper and this is most dangerous forward in the league
Dame is not getting his job back as the go to player
why didn’t they give him an Amazon Prime Playmaker Chain tho?
He got it
the new father of ma boi booker…
Respect that what an allstar should do
Monster game, the rim pressure he generates is ridiculous. Don’t care for him personally but he is an absolute stud on the court. All NBA worthy.
Do we think he is gonna take another jump next year?
He deadass reminds me of prime Ben Simmons, like dude is a demon getting to the rack. Just way more physically dominate than his peers
Best trade the Blazers have ever made?
Deni just owned the Suns today. They couldn’t stop him from getting to the hoop at all. Would’ve been nice to see the Suns play a bit bigger, but Ott hates that for some reason.
It was frustrating to watch as a Suns fan, but it was a great performance by him.
Avdija is really good.
Reminds me a lot of Luka and Harden. Gets by anyone with ease. The first defender is never an issue. And when he gets in the lane, the game slows down for him. He knows where the contact will be, if he needs to seek contact out, and where the open guy will be. Special player. Rarely a wasted possession.
This is why I never hate on guys who draw a lot of free throws. If it was so easy, a lot of these guys would try to get their scoring averages up through free throws. To get to the line as much as Deni, SGA, Harden, etc., the understanding and processing of the game has to be levels above other players.
Fairs demon Deni fairs
Devin Booker another no-show. Dude is fucking washed.