The Wizards never really found out what rookie Deni Avdija could add as a secondary playmaker in his rookie season, Fred Katz of The Athletic writes. Avdija’s rookie campaign was cut short by a right fibular hairline fracture.
Avdija didn’t have many ball-handling opportunities starting alongside Wizards stars Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook. Avdija ascended in last year’s draft as a top-10 selection due to his passing skills, but Washington didn’t get a full picture of what the Israeli forward could produce long-term in that area as the team heads into a crucial offseason, Katz adds.
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- The Grade 2 ankle sprain that Trae Young is dealing with typically takes about two-to-four weeks to heal, says Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The high-scoring Hawks point guard suffered the injury against the Knicks on Wednesday. Spencer consulted Dr. Kenneth Jung, an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon, to come up with a projected recovery period for Young.
- Even though the Hawks spent a lot of money to bring in sharpshooter Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kevin Huerter felt he could slide into a variety of roles. Huerter spoke to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic about how his season has gone. “I’ve been in the starting lineup. I’ve been out of the starting lineup,” he said. “My minutes have been up and down. You go into the day and treat it the same. You’re always ready and available. You have to have that approach.” Huerter is eligible for a rookie scale extension prior to the start of next season.
- Dewayne Dedmon has given a nice boost to the Heat‘s frontcourt since he signed with them earlier this month, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald notes. The 31-year-old center is averaging 7.8 PPG and 6.0 RPG in 13.8 MPG while appearing in four contests.
I don’t think Westbrook has been good for Avdija’s development. It reminds me of in OKC where Oladipo and Sabonnis played a lot better after being traded away.
I’m absolutely fascinated by how Russ is on pace to average a triple-double for the fourth time of his “illustrious” career and yet he’s not even in the conversation for MVP just like the last two times he did it. It once again proves how little he deserved to win the MVP over Harden and the only reason the award was given to him instead was to make up for Oscar Robertson not winning it, who was far more deserving of the award.
Living rent free
Again wrong. Robertson’s name just got mentioned a lot with RW bc of the triple-double thing. If anything, OR not getting an MVP would set a precedent for RW. Normal, unbiased brains don’t get seperate things consolidated like that. Can you hear yourself obsessing? Your team is lousy, players are avoiding it, now you too.
Washington is awful. You need to have a top record to be in contention
Well for starters he averaged 32 points per game in his MVP season compared to 22 this season. In his MVP season his team was 12 wins above .500 compared to 7 wins below .500 this season. I’m sure the advanced statistics point in the same direction that I’ve highlighted here
Agree havin’ Russ with the ball won’t help Deni’s ball handlin’ development… but, I do think the biggest problem for WAS this year has been Beal!
You see at the beginnin’ of the season when Russ was injured Beal played hero ball all the time & Deni & Rui didn’t manage to produce much at all!
But when recently Beal missed his time, Russ played like the alien that he is & Deni improved, but specially Rui was on fire…
It would seem to me that is time for WAS to get rid of Beal if they wanna develop their young stallions, as he seems to be curtailing them a lot, Russ does a bit, but also helps them more.
“No town’s big enough for the two of them”— movie western line— a duel at noon is coming up
I suspect Beal is losing value, though he quotes excited. A team trading for him would be asked, why not go for RW instead! Beal was pretty much Target A in rumor talk.
Avdija’s draft came before RW’s trade. I bet WAS would pick differently if that order were reversed, knowing RW is best if the offense revolves around him. Maybe they take Toppin. Of course any exec would deny that.
When. Sabonis was on OKC they were trying to use him as a floor stretching big instead of putting him on the block. Hardly Westbrooks fault.