Deni Avdija has taken an All-Star-level leap this season, but that’s only come on the offensive end. In fact, Sam Vecenie of The Athletic recently called out Avdija for his defensive slippage as his offensive workload has increased.
“As he’s taken on more offensive responsibility, he’s gotten much less impactful on defense than what he was in Washington and even what he was the first half of last year in Portland,” Vecenie said on the Game Theory Podcast. “Portland should have enough defensive infrastructure to make it work behind him, but I would say he’s now average to below-average defensively.”
Blazers need Deni Avdija to become a two-way star
Portland had a top-ten defense down the stretch of last season, contributing to its exciting play-in push that ultimately came up just short. That still gave fans a sense of optimism, as it appeared they finally had a true identity to build around.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case this season.
Despite their offseason moves to bolster that defensive identity, Portland ranks just 21st in defensive rating (116.3). For a team that lacks playmaking and shooting, this is a recipe for disaster, as evidenced by their 13-19 start to the season.
Some of this has been due to injury, and Avdija deserves a ton of credit for keeping the Blazers afloat as they overcome early-season adversity. He’s averaging 25.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 6.8 assists on 47/36/80 shooting splits. It would be unreasonable to expect him to maintain that level of offensive productivity and efficiency without compromising another aspect of his game.
But eventually, the Blazers and Avdija need to address this problem. Ideally, that means finding more star power to take some of the offensive burden off of him so that he can focus and expend more energy on both sides of the ball.
Avdija’s individual defensive rating is 117.7, which is substantially worse than just last season (113.5). He clearly has the physical tools to be a positive defender, but isn’t in an ideal position to make that a priority right now. But eventually, it must be if the Blazers ever want to become an elite defensive team.
Unless you have the best player in the league (Nikola Jokic), championship teams are typically constructed on both sides of the ball. Teams like the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder have these two-way stars that give their teams significant advantages. Modern NBA offenses are built around exploiting mismatches, but it becomes much more difficult to do so when stars are also bought in on defense.
This is an issue that’s not entirely on Avdija, but the Blazers aren’t going anywhere until their new foundational piece becomes one of those two-way stars we see on these contenders.
