Deni Avdija fights back
Whose fault it was depends on who you ask.
Late last night Deni Avdija had an on-court altercation with Latvian teammate Davis Bertans that ended far short of fisticuffs but was notable nevertheless. I wrote a Twitter thread explaining what they were arguing about.
The context you need is this: Bertans, a sharpshooter signed to a 5 year, $80 million contract two years ago, has not been playing well, and he plays the same position as Avdija. Which means the two compete for minutes.
Unlike Deni, Bertans has one elite skill, his three-point shooting. But if he’s not shooting well — and he’s not, at about 31% from behind the arc this year — Bertans is pretty useless on an NBA court because (also unlike Deni), he can’t do anything else — defend, rebound or make plays for his teammates. And in the last two weeks, Deni is having the first extended stretch of consistent statistical output in his career, finally producing numbers that match the intangibles everyone kvells over all the time.
Deni’s averages for his last five games: 12.6 points, 6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks on 59% shooting (!!) and 43.8% from behind the arc. That’s the player the Wizards thought they were drafting. He reaches legal (American) drinking age on January 3rd.
I tweeted a thread about the altercation which I’ll include here. For more posts on Deni and sports and Judaism you can follow me @thislouis.
Click here or scroll down to view the full thread. Short summary: calling for the ball reveals Deni’s increasing offensive confidence. But it rubbed his veteran teammate the wrong way.
