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BRAVEONAWARPATH

By BRAVEONAWARPATH
in The Tailgate

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Going Commando

Going Commando

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Here is Vecenie's complete breakdown of Avdija:

 

6. Deni Avdija | W/F | Maccabi Tel Aviv | Birthdate: Jan. 3, 2001 (Age: 19) | 6-9 | 225 LBS | Hometown: Beit Zera, Israel

 

BACKGROUND: Arguably the best youth player in Israeli history. Comes from an elite athletic family. Father Zufer is a former professional basketball player who captained Red Star in Serbia in 1980s. Played for the Yugoslavian national team. Moved to and played in the Israeli professional league in the 1990s. There, he met Deni’s mother, Sharon, who was a track star and basketball player. Because of his father, holds dual citizenship with both Israel and Serbia. Deni originally played soccer in his youth before making the full-time switch to hoops. Has been in the Maccabi Tel Aviv system since 2013 and established himself as an elite prospect quickly. Became the youngest player to ever play for Maccabi’s senior team at 16 years old. Carried Maccabi Tel Aviv’s youth team to three titles from 2017 to 2019 in Israel. Chose to play for Israel internationally in that time and began playing youth events. At the 2017 U16 Euros, he averaged 15.3 points, 12.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game as Israel went 4-3 but finished 11th. Led the event in rebounding and tied for the lead in steals. Then in the summer of 2018, played in both the U20 and U18 Euro championships for Israel. Helped lead Israel to the gold medal in the U20 while averaging 12.7 points and 6.4 rebounds. He was named to the All-Tournament team despite playing three years up in age. Struggled a bit more in the U18s and Israel finished ninth. Also went to a Basketball Without Borders camp in Belgrade that summer and won the event’s MVP award. At this point, Avdija was clearly on the trajectory of becoming a first-round pick in 2020. Took another step forward, though, in 2019 internationally. Led Israel to the gold medal in the 2019 U20 Euro championships, this time winning MVP while averaging 18.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists with 2.1 steals and 2.4 blocks. Was essentially completely dominant in a tournament that he played two years up in age. Also dominated club-level youth events in 2018-19. Led the Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals in scoring and was named to the All-Tournament team despite Maccabi’s struggles.

 

At this point, he was considered a very likely lottery pick in 2020, after having started to also get Euroleague minutes with Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Euroleague team. In 2019-20, really emerged into a first-team player with Maccabi Tel Aviv. One of the best teams in the world, Avdija saw a lot of minutes as a more central playmaker in the Israeli league. There, he averaged 12.9 points and 6.3 rebounds in 27 minutes per night while the Israeli powerhouse won the league. For his part, he won the Israeli League MVP award, although the voting seems to have been somewhat political in nature as Scottie Wilbekin on his own team largely outplayed and outproduced him. Still, Avdija was excellent in the Israeli league. However, once he moved up into Euroleague competition, his production and role dwindled in the games that mattered most for Maccabi. He played just 14 minutes per night in those games and was much more consigned to a role around guys like Wilbekin, Tyler Dorsey, Othello Hunter and others. It’s an impressive accomplishment to get minutes as an 18-year-old and Euroleague against high-level pros, but it should help put into context how much stronger of a league the European-wide competition is than Israel, which is also below leagues like . Avdija is known to have a high level of maturity and a professional mindset. High-level kid. He’s a worker who should continue to improve as he ages

 

STRENGTHS: The intersection of Avdija’s size and skill level is extremely impressive. At 6-foot-9, Avdija can legit handle the ball and make plays. Very real playmaker with ball in hand. Also, a legit NBA athlete. Won’t necessarily be above-average in terms of explosiveness, but he’s not below-average either. Uses that athleticism well on the court, too. Will elevate over guys and dunk on top of their head occasionally. Good lift off of one foot. Doesn’t have elite quickness in the open floor but does have strong enough ballhandling ability to be able to separate from defenders. Can set guys up with a bevy of crossovers and between-the-legs dribbles, then get past if he catches them leaning one way. Not wildly reactive and quick-twitch to how the defender presents, though, which along with his lack of elite athleticism limits him to being more of a secondary ballhandler.

 

But in that role, Avdija should excel as a passer. His vision and playmaking isn’t quite at the level of guys like Luka Doncic and LeBron James as big passers, but he’ll be an extremely high-level passer as a secondary playmaker in an offense in time. Really sees the floor exceptionally well. Has the size to look over the defense. Particularly excels in pick-and-roll as a playmaker, hitting his roller with great touch on lobs or with terrific pocket-passes. Also good at finding dump-offs and cutters toward the rim. Also, smart in transition at drawing defenders toward him before hitting the open man, as well as at head-manning the ball forward unselfishly for a quick bucket.

 

The rest of his offensive game is pretty sharp and showcases great feel. Moves extremely well without the ball. Creates points out of cuts and relocations. Never really stops moving and defenders have to be constantly cognizant of his presence because of it. If they aren’t, he’ll hit them with a back cut or flash toward the middle of the floor. Just one of those guys that is constantly in the right position to help his team. He plays hard all the time and is locked into the action. He’s not a space cadet and seems to also have great feel on what a good shot is for both himself and for his teammates, constantly getting into dangerous positions. He finishes well at the basket, having made 69.4 percent of such attempts in half court settings according to Synergy. As mentioned above, this is where his underrated vertical pop comes into play.

 

Defensively, he’s somewhere between a strength and a weakness. I wouldn’t bet on him being a difference-maker, but because of that high engagement level and willingness to play hard I don’t think I see him as a negative either. He’s a smart rotator who knows where he has to be all the time. Does get driven by regularly, particularly by quicker players. Wouldn’t surprise me if he is something of a switch-magnet early on in his career as defenders try to take advantage of him. Has to get a bit better at getting low in his stance. Don’t think he completely lacks lateral quickness to the point where he’ll get killed there, though. And his overall help and team defense should be good enough to where he doesn’t really hurt his team

 

WEAKNESSES: The big one is the shooting. A consistently terrible free throw shooter. On about 350 free throw attempts in professional and international play, has only made about 56 percent and consistently been between 50 and 60 percent. Does not have terrible mechanics at the top, with a relatively clean release. He looks OK off the catch and can occasionally knock down shots in that vein. This season, Avdija took 153 attempts directly off the catch and hit them at a 50.7 effective field goal percentage. If he’s just spotting up and can get into the shot, he’s okay and should get better to the point that he’s passable.

 

But if he has to move at all, the mechanics get a bit wonky. He gets out of rhythm and doesn’t have great footwork to get his legs involved in the shot. Lot of shots come up short in those settings. I don’t really see Avdija as a movement shooter, which is a problem when trying to assess his long-term potential. To reach his full potential and actualize a lot of the passing and playmaking he has, Avdija needs to be able to have the threat of the jumper off the bounce or off of movement to get into more advantageous situations.

 

Additionally, if his best role is going to be as a secondary ballhandler, he needs to tighten up his handle. His handle can get a bit loose at times. Not necessarily surprising for a teenager, but he can really get sped up by trying to do too much at the same time. That led to ball control turnovers. In general, has a bit of a high handle at times. Also, he’s way more comfortable with his right hand than with his left right now. Typically tries to do everything to get back to his right. Absolutely cannot make consistent live-dribble passes with his left hand. Typically, does try to get to both hands for a two-handed pass from his right, but is much better at creating out of live scenarios there

 

SUMMARY: Everything comes down to how you evaluate the shot. Do you think it can be improved? Or do you think he just doesn’t have good enough touch to be a shooter that is relied upon consistently? If he’s not a shooter, he probably needs to be more of a ballhandler in order to optimize his team on the offensive end of the floor. He might not be quite good enough at that yet to achieve being a primary. But as a secondary, he needs to be reliable as a catch-and-shoot guy, which he’s working toward but isn’t quite there yet. The role for Avdija becomes a lot trickier if you think he’s just not going to be a 35 percent shooter. All of the rest of his skills likely become less effective in the process because teams won’t play up tightly on him and won’t really give him respect by opening up passing lanes for him to take advantage of in help. But if you buy into him fixing the jumper, there is a world where he can become a real, multi-versatile talent who can help you a ton on the offensive end through his scoring, passing, playmaking and cutting while not giving away much on defense. He’s definitely an NBA player because it’s hard to find guys who are this big and this skilled that have such high feel for the game. His knowledge for how to play and comfort playing both on and off ball will allow him to stick at least in a rotational capacity. But if he shoots it, he’ll be a very high-level starter.

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BRAVEONAWARPATH

BRAVEONAWARPATH

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18 minutes ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

Well this draft board ****ing sucked for us.  The nightmare scenario played out.

I am getting Jan Vesely cold sweats with Avdija's free throw percentage.

 

 

This was a good pick.

 

Well it was a good pick depending on your overall philosophy.

 

Personally, I'm big on talent/upside so I like the pick quite a bit.

 

Edited by BRAVEONAWARPATH
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