Deni Avdija - 2020 draft

[Curmudgeon]

He has bust written all over him. Shorter version of Dragan Bender.

[TheScout31]

He has bust written all over him. Shorter version of Dragan Bender.

Except he has nothing in common with Bendeer.

Also, Bender's issue wasn't skill - it was confidence (and, in turn, consistency).

[UcanUwill]

He has bust written all over him. Shorter version of Dragan Bender.

Except he has nothing in common with Bendeer.

Also, Bender's issue wasn't skill - it was confidence (and, in turn, consistency).

He has something common with Bender - hes warming Maccabi bench... People say how much better he is when Saric, but same has been said about Bender, every bust in history has been talked about in great light, its easy to talk up a guy when hes not in the league and further more inst even playing in Europe. Pure speculation about his ability to contribute based on few cherry picked highlights here and there is always the best. Stupid people keep saying Euro coaches have bias against young players, but truth always comes out, guy gets time on tanking team and all his shortcomings comes into light and we realize why the guy was bench warming on crap Israeli team. There is always a reason.

Saric at 19 was already NBA caliber player, he was dominating Adriatic league. Avdija looks like hes few years away from just being Euroleague caliber.

[TheScout31]

He has bust written all over him. Shorter version of Dragan Bender.

Except he has nothing in common with Bendeer.

Also, Bender's issue wasn't skill - it was confidence (and, in turn, consistency).

He has something common with Bender - hes warming Maccabi bench... People say how much better he is when Saric, but same has been said about Bender, every bust in history has been talked about in great light, its easy to talk up a guy when hes not in the league and further more inst even playing in Europe. Pure speculation about his ability to contribute based on few cherry picked highlights here and there is always the best. Stupid people keep saying Euro coaches have bias against young players, but truth always comes out, guy gets time on tanking team and all his shortcomings comes into light and we realize why the guy was bench warming on crap Israeli team. There is always a reason.

Saric at 19 was already NBA caliber player, he was dominating Adriatic league. Avdija looks like hes few years away from just being Euroleague caliber.

Bender wasn't getting minutes during the Israeli games, or play well when he did, so no, it doesn't work. Saric was getting way more minutes on a less talented team (and playing well, mind you) - Deni isn't getting many minutes because Maccabi has better players *now* at the F on the team than him.

I'm also watching full games, and clips from Synergy and similar sources, not highlights.

[No-Man]

Avdija would be playing and well in Adriatic man, what the hell? Maccabi is a top team in EuroLeague this year and they sucked big time when Bender was there, not even close to the same context

[UcanUwill]

Except he has nothing in common with Bendeer.

Also, Bender's issue wasn't skill - it was confidence (and, in turn, consistency).

He has something common with Bender - hes warming Maccabi bench... People say how much better he is when Saric, but same has been said about Bender, every bust in history has been talked about in great light, its easy to talk up a guy when hes not in the league and further more inst even playing in Europe. Pure speculation about his ability to contribute based on few cherry picked highlights here and there is always the best. Stupid people keep saying Euro coaches have bias against young players, but truth always comes out, guy gets time on tanking team and all his shortcomings comes into light and we realize why the guy was bench warming on crap Israeli team. There is always a reason.

Saric at 19 was already NBA caliber player, he was dominating Adriatic league. Avdija looks like hes few years away from just being Euroleague caliber.

Bender wasn't getting minutes during the Israeli games, or play well when he did, so no, it doesn't work. Saric was getting way more minutes on a less talented team (and playing well, mind you) - Deni isn't getting many minutes because Maccabi has better players *now* at the F on the team than him.

I'm also watching full games, and clips from Synergy and similar sources, not highlights.

What players do they have? Their swingmen rotation is a joke.

[TheScout31]

He has something common with Bender - hes warming Maccabi bench... People say how much better he is when Saric, but same has been said about Bender, every bust in history has been talked about in great light, its easy to talk up a guy when hes not in the league and further more inst even playing in Europe. Pure speculation about his ability to contribute based on few cherry picked highlights here and there is always the best. Stupid people keep saying Euro coaches have bias against young players, but truth always comes out, guy gets time on tanking team and all his shortcomings comes into light and we realize why the guy was bench warming on crap Israeli team. There is always a reason.

Saric at 19 was already NBA caliber player, he was dominating Adriatic league. Avdija looks like hes few years away from just being Euroleague caliber.

Bender wasn't getting minutes during the Israeli games, or play well when he did, so no, it doesn't work. Saric was getting way more minutes on a less talented team (and playing well, mind you) - Deni isn't getting many minutes because Maccabi has better players *now* at the F on the team than him.

I'm also watching full games, and clips from Synergy and similar sources, not highlights.

What players do they have? Their swingmen rotation is a joke.

Casspi and Zoos aren't playing badly as 3/4s. The 4/5 rotation is already set, and Deni has gotten bodied by bigger players quite often in the post (though he's done a decent job in flashes), so he's not playing against physical bigs. Caloiaro and Bryant (though he's more of a 2/3) also aren't having bad seasons.

Should Deni be getting more minutes? IMO yes, but mainly for draft purposes. Zoos can at least defend some 4s because of his weight / physicality and Casspi is simply better now. Caloiaro has been inconsistent this year, but he's still a vet who also can defend 4s because of strength.

Please stop acting like Maccabi is lacking talent...because they're simply not.

[UcanUwill]

Bender wasn't getting minutes during the Israeli games, or play well when he did, so no, it doesn't work. Saric was getting way more minutes on a less talented team (and playing well, mind you) - Deni isn't getting many minutes because Maccabi has better players *now* at the F on the team than him.

I'm also watching full games, and clips from Synergy and similar sources, not highlights.

What players do they have? Their swingmen rotation is a joke.

Casspi and Zoos aren't playing badly as 3/4s. The 4/5 rotation is already set, and Deni has gotten bodied by bigger players quite often in the post (though he's done a decent job in flashes), so he's not playing against physical bigs. Caloiaro and Bryant (though he's more of a 2/3) also aren't having bad seasons.

Should Deni be getting more minutes? IMO yes, but mainly for draft purposes. Zoos can at least defend some 4s because of his weight / physicality and Casspi is simply better now. Caloiaro has been inconsistent this year, but he's still a vet who also can defend 4s because of strength.

Please stop acting like Maccabi is lacking talent...because they're simply not.

Casspi was injured most of the season, Deni is beaten in rotation by players who arent impressive at all.

[TheScout31]

What players do they have? Their swingmen rotation is a joke.

Casspi and Zoos aren't playing badly as 3/4s. The 4/5 rotation is already set, and Deni has gotten bodied by bigger players quite often in the post (though he's done a decent job in flashes), so he's not playing against physical bigs. Caloiaro and Bryant (though he's more of a 2/3) also aren't having bad seasons.

Should Deni be getting more minutes? IMO yes, but mainly for draft purposes. Zoos can at least defend some 4s because of his weight / physicality and Casspi is simply better now. Caloiaro has been inconsistent this year, but he's still a vet who also can defend 4s because of strength.

Please stop acting like Maccabi is lacking talent...because they're simply not.

Casspi was injured most of the season, Deni is beaten in rotation by players who arent impressive at all.

I'm explaining why the minutes haven't been consistent year round, not just since early December. The players don't need to be impressive as NBA prospects to be more useful to Maccabi than Deni.

Anyways, agree to disagree.

[Mirotic12]

Casspi and Zoos aren't playing badly as 3/4s. The 4/5 rotation is already set, and Deni has gotten bodied by bigger players quite often in the post (though he's done a decent job in flashes), so he's not playing against physical bigs. Caloiaro and Bryant (though he's more of a 2/3) also aren't having bad seasons.

Should Deni be getting more minutes? IMO yes, but mainly for draft purposes. Zoos can at least defend some 4s because of his weight / physicality and Casspi is simply better now. Caloiaro has been inconsistent this year, but he's still a vet who also can defend 4s because of strength.

Please stop acting like Maccabi is lacking talent...because they're simply not.

I'm not saying Avdija can't play in the NBA or anything. I am sure he easily can. I mean just as an example, Cedi Osman was nothing more than a hustle and energy role player in EuroLeague, and Furkan Korkmaz was a straight out scrub in EuroLeague, at older ages than Avdija is now.

But with that being said...........Maccabi's 2/3/4 rotation is awful.

I'm looking at Maccabi's 2/3 players (all play 3 at some points)..........

Tyler Dorsey - average rotation player for EuroLeague
Elijah Bryant - below average rotation player for EuroLeague
Sandy Cohen - scrub for EuroLeague
Yovel Zoosman - young talent, that's like an 11th/12th man level player for EuroLeague currently
Deni Avdija - young talent that's mainly there for Israeli League games and the practices in EuroLeague

And then Maccabi's 3/4s, 4s, 4/5s....

Omri Casspi - pretty good EuroLeague player still, but he's been injured most of the year
Quincy Acy - below average rotation player for EuroLeague
Angelo Caloiaro - below average rotation player for EuroLeague
Jake Cohen - below average rotation player for EuroLeague

Other than Casspi, who has been out most of the season with an injury, Maccabi's team is really weak at the swingman and 3/4 positions. Maccabi is easily one of the worst teams in EuroLeague at those positions.

The clear strength of their team is the 1, 1/2 (Wilbekin, Wolters, Jackson, DiBartolemeo who is injured now) and 5 (Black who is injured now, Hunter, Amare, Reynolds) positions, and their head coach. The 2/3/4 positions are just a bunch of average or below average role players. Any number of dozens of players in Europe could replace most of them.

Avdija would be playing and well in Adriatic man, what the hell? Maccabi is a top team in EuroLeague this year and they sucked big time when Bender was there, not even close to the same context

It's definitely true that the Maccabi team Bender was on was way worse than this current Maccabi team. However, it's not that simple. If we break it down to just players that they were competing with for minutes, then Bender had to compete against better players for playing time than Avdija does. Bender was competing with guys like Devin Smith and Brian Randle for front court minutes. Both of them were clearly better players than the guys Avdija is competing with for minutes.

The context is important. Yeah, the current Maccabi team overall is much better, but not the specific players Avdija has in his minutes rotation.

With that being said, Avdija is actually in a rotation, while Bender was like Maccabi's 13th man. And like you said, the overall team is much better. So certainly that's quite different. However, let's not pretend like Avdija has anything much in way of competition for minutes with most of those Maccabi players. UcanUwill was actually being generous when he said they are not at all impressive. There sure the hell isn't any Devin Smith or Brian Randle level players in that group.

[SwipeDaFox]

Watch on YouTube

Really finding his groove lately and you can see a real progress from him, especially in the Israeli League - but also very good and productive minutes in the Euroleague.

Another career high with 26 points, 6 rebs and 2 asts.

Last 4 games he's averaging 19 points, 5.5 rebs, 3 asts, and 1 blk - on 65% shooting from 2, and 52% from 3 (on 5 attempts per game).

Playing like a SF and still not having the ball in his hands to make real decisions, but the kid is seriously dominating in the Israeli League lately, hopefully it continues.

Still horrendous at the line though. He must tweak his routine there.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

[Pistol King]

11 pts, 9 Reb and 4 asists at his Euroleague game tonight.
Such an impressive talent.

[No-Man]

I just wish he was a tad longer or stronger, but I think he can end up playing SF too, so not super worried

I have him 3rd/4th, have had him top5 all year long, he is just safe at a position of need and with a complete game, super great attitude/worker too, ultra young

[BlazersBroncos]

I just wish he was a tad longer or stronger, but I think he can end up playing SF too, so not super worried

I have him 3rd/4th, have had him top5 all year long, he is just safe at a position of need and with a complete game, super great attitude/worker too, ultra young

Ya, I really don't see 5 guys that I would take over him. GSW wants to turn their pick into a star, but if they cant moving down for other compensation and taking him at 5-8 (Assuming GSW ends up picking top3) would be great. He could start at SF from the jump for them, and they would still have DLo to trade for a C, bench depth or other picks.

[freypies]

I just wish he was a tad longer or stronger, but I think he can end up playing SF too, so not super worried

I have him 3rd/4th, have had him top5 all year long, he is just safe at a position of need and with a complete game, super great attitude/worker too, ultra young

Ya, I really don't see 5 guys that I would take over him. GSW wants to turn their pick into a star, but if they cant moving down for other compensation and taking him at 5-8 (Assuming GSW ends up picking top3) would be great. He could start at SF from the jump for them, and they would still have DLo to trade for a C, bench depth or other picks.

What makes you think he is better talent than Okoro. I love Okoro's perimeter defense and his passing doesn't seem to bad, do you think Avdija can be more of an impact player than him? Just wondering, as I do not know much about Avdija.

[BlazersBroncos]

What makes you think he is better talent than Okoro. I love Okoro's perimeter defense and his passing doesn't seem to bad, do you think Avdija can be more of an impact player than him? Just wondering, as I do not know much about Avdija.

I like them both quite a bit. I think Okoro is an overrated passer and has much farther to go on offense than Deni. They are comparable talents though and I would be happy with either.

Deni Avdija, Isaac Okoro, Josh Green, Killian Hayes, Tyler Bey are my guys. They are the types that good teams draft, while bad teams get a LaMelo or even Wiseman.

I also like the YOLO factor that Aleksej Pokusevski provides.

[Pistol King]

Avdija continues with his great shape. A 13 pts Euroleague game tonight against Fenerbahce.

Watch on YouTube

[GimmeDat]

I'm buying the shot, the form looks very good to me, and the more I watch the more I can see him at the 3, though I think he's a combo-forward. Very possibly top 5 for me, he's coming on well lately.

[Chi town]

He’s def getting better.

Is he a better prospect than Sekou?

SF version of Gallinari?