Deni Diary 1/15: Testing Positive
A breakout game and a week off.
You’re reading DENI DIARY, a weekly dispatch from Deni Avdija’s rookie season by Louis Keene (Twitter).
Let’s start with the good news. Deni Avdija played the best game of his young career on Sunday against the reigning Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat.
In 32 minutes of action, he showed off his full offensive arsenal — post ups and pocket passes, attacking mismatches and finishing through contact, and three pointers from the corner, wing, and top of the key. Deni’s jump shot was his biggest question mark coming into the league, and this past fall he told reporters shooting was the main skill he worked on leading up to the draft. On Sunday he hit five triples, four off the catch and one off the dribble. He’s not Davis Bertans, but he has a quick, high release, and he can’t be left open. And he’s only 20!
The young sniper finished with a numerologically pleasing 20 points on 15 shots, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals.
The breakout performance may have kept his dip in playing time at bay just long enough. On Monday against Phoenix, Wizards big man Thomas Bryant tore his ACL in the game’s second minute, which will knock him out for the rest of the season. And a couple days later a coronavirus outbreak swept the team, reaching 5 cases on Thursday and forcing the Wizards to postpone their next four games due to a lack of healthy players. That’s the bad news. So Deni’s rookie campaign is on hold indefinitely with the team at 3 wins and 9 losses, a game out of the Eastern Conference cellar. (It’s not known which players were infected.)
Free-for-all
One of the greatest point guards of all time gave Deni his “Welcome to the NBA” moment.
Perhaps more importantly, an Israeli show did a comedy sketch with a Deni impersonator. The essence of the bit is the news anchors asking how Deni managed to make the NBA, which is answered by an actor playing Deni’s dad up as the Israeli LaVar Ball:
“My first child was short; I threw him in the trash. My second child was a daughter; I threw her in the trash. My third child was Deni.”)
Deni’s character then insists that he had a normal childhood. His dad responds: “I told him he could do whatever he wanted — until he turned one. Then, only basketball.”
We gotta do something about people saying Shabbat Shalom every time Deni does something good. Who’s got alternatives?
And hey, if you liked this please subscribe and forward it along. Shabbat Shalom!