Avdija's LOWEST defensive rebounding percentage according to Marang, is..... ......85%. Grant dreams of those numbers.
I am not familiar with Avdija's game but I perused the Wizards' realgm forum and their meltdown thread is blowing up. I think it means this is a good trade for the Blazers Dude is tall, can play, young, on a team friendly contract. We sent Brogdon who is out of place here and some picks. Now if anyone from 14 up in this draft turned out to be MVP years from now and Avdija did not, some may say, "oh we should have drafted Knect or whoever." But I feel good about this move
I approve of this trade. Brogdon had one foot out the door from the moment he arrived. Who cares about the 2nd round picks....and as far as TWO 1st rounders....do we really count the one from THIS draft? Great acquisition.
Is it possible to actually both raise the floor and ceiling of this team without giving up a kidney? Cronin actually made it happen. I gave Cronin a lot of crap for the CJ and Powell/Covington trades, they were bad hindsight or not. But…my position stays consistent. I stand by the fact that the Holiday deal was a good trade. We didn’t get fleeced, Boston made a ballsy move and it paid off. We finally made one of those moves. Avdija is entering year 5 at 23. It’s possible that the best iteration of Avdija is around 18-22ppg/8rpg/5-6apg as a legit third option in 2-3 years, and what will he be making, $13-14m? The pro to this is that we get a great player for very cheap. You can put me on record in saying Avdija will have a Markkanen-ish type of breakout this season. The con is that Avdija presents Cronin with the opportunity to continue with the “we are still trying to compete” narrative and continue the complacency until the deadline or next summer, and this ballsy move actually gives him some justification, even if we don’t agree. We saw Grant played better with Walker next to him as a rebounder, but we know Walker is a limited player on both ends. Enter Avdija. Ant/Shae/Grant/Avdija/Clingan - I don’t think it’s crazy to think Cronin is okay with Scoot coming off the bench another year. If Avdija is going to split the ball handling with Ant and Grant gets limited ISO opportunities, I’d be okay with it. They do have to keep the product watchable until at least the deadline, which I’m fine with. If WCJ is the best offer for Ant this summer, sure, let’s wait until Scoot shows he HAS to start (ie. he is a 35%+ shooter in addition to all the other things he needs to improve) and try to up Ant’s value. Avdija will definitely help Ant, that is a given. Scoot/Shae/Camara/Avdija/Clingan Scoot/Shae/Avdija/DA/Clingan - I want to see the two big lineup. Guys like Holmgren and Sarr are going to keep coming out, We will get one of those guys eventually I think. Scoot/Rupert/Murray/Avdija/Clingan - this one would be great if Rupert and Murray really came around on their shot. Three wings 6’8+ who can shoot and defend, a legit 7’+ lob threat that can protect the rim, with a developing Scoot who can now learn to dissect a defense. There are a lot of possibilities.
Kind of surprised Blazers fan reaction is so positive. I'm not happy with sending out the 2029 pick. Ultimately it will probably come down to Advija 3pt%. Was last year a one year fluke or a permanent trend. If it's a trend it's a great deal. If not we again paid multiple picks for a mediocre role player just like Olshey. Looks more like a fluke to me. Pelton gives us a C+ and Wizards a B+
Avdija essentially is our 14th pick, and he's a better "prospect" than anything that was available from 3 on (at least), let alone 14. Giving away Brogdon, the other first, and, IIRC, two future 2nds is the downer part. I wrote somewhere else, I just take this as the cost of the Blazers using this deal to get under the cap. I'm not thrilled with that, because Olshey's lopsided trades like this, albeit done for different reasons, are one of the things that put the Blazers in the position they are now, and I'm not as optimistic about Avdija's upside as a lot of people. It's lukewarm criticism, though, and I'm more than willing to see what plan the Blazers have after trading for Avdija and drafting Clingan and seeing how it comes together before being overly critical about it.
