Nightmare pattern emerging for winless Wiz
Deni once again out of the closing lineup as Wizards let late lead lapse
You’re reading DENI DIARY, the weekly dispatch from Deni Avdija’s rookie season by Louis Keene. Read the last post here.
It’s too early in the season to be running out of answers, but what looked like an upstart squad just three weeks ago now looks destined for the top of next year’s draft lottery, as the Washington Wizards fell to the Chicago Bulls for the second time in three nights, 133-130.
Their season so far looks like:
Loss to 76ers
Loss to Magic
Loss to Magic
Loss to Bulls
Loss to Bulls
Yikes. Scott Brooks once again left Deni Avdija out of the lineup in the final minutes, going with a closing five of Russell Westbrook, Bradley Beal, Raul Neto, Thomas Bryant and Davis Bertans/Rui Hachimura. Unfortunately that stretch ended with costly turnovers by both Beal and Westbrook, and the Bulls stole the game back after leading for much of the second half.
Deni’s final stat line looked like most of his others so far, indicating a low-usage but well-rounded appearance: 6 points on 5 shots to go with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
And once again, the Israeli phenom finished with one of the best +/- lines on the team, with the Wizards outscoring the Bulls by 5 points in Avdija’s 35 minutes. One might point out that this is because the Wizards start the first and third quarters pretty well, and have faltered late in halves, when the Mensch is on the Bench. But it’s not like he’s getting tired from taking too many shots — if anything, Deni has been passing them up — and you can sense he wants to be playing in these moments.
In his media availability the morning after the second Magic loss, Deni said he hated losing. (He hadn’t lost three games in a row since his 2018-19 season with Maccabi. I did not go far back enough find an example of one of his teams dropping five straight.) Ever the professional, when I asked if he was disappointed to not be on the floor with games in the balance, Deni said he trusted his coach. But he shook his head when I told him that Brooks had said he worried the rookie would tire.
The other Wizards might be losing faith after their fifth straight defeat. With Bertans stating earlier this week that he was playing at 60-70% (his defense giving that much away regardless), and the Latvian Laser misfiring since his season debut, it was wishful thinking for Brooks to trot him out late in the fourth quarter. Bertans finished a Wizards-worst minus-18. The Bulls are not going to win more than half their games this year. Thursday night they were missing four players due to NBA “health and safety protocols” (the league doesn’t say whether a player has coronavirus, teams say that instead). The Wizards were starving for a win. And yet.
Deni’s shooting has come back to earth, but it hasn’t fallen off the face of it. He missed all three three-pointers he took tonight, but had assists on a pair swished by Bryant. The plays resembled each other — Hachimura, playing in his first game of the season, would take a split-second too long to get the ball to an open Avdija, forcing the rookie to swing the ball once more to find the open man. Rui’s mindset is more geared toward scoring, which complements the playmaking-oriented Israeli. But the team will be more dangerous when Rui recognizes these plays a little more quickly. (The Japanese second-year forward did have a nice behind-the-back dish in the first half, and played well in his debut.)
At this point, the most noticeable area for improvement for Deni is his aggressiveness. This isn’t any knock on his unselfishness — the Wizards need guys who aren’t thinking about shooting every time they touch the ball. But for the Wizards to be a better team, Deni needs to let it fly when he gets early-shot-clock looks like this one:
His willingness to pull up in these spots is critical to his growth as an NBA player. Aside from increasing his scoring output in the short term, this is basically the kind of shot every successful player of his size (6’9”) at his position (forward) needs to be able to take, and (eventually) make at a high percentage in today’s NBA. Bertans, trailing the play to the right of Deni, just signed an $80 million contract because he proved lethal on just these types of shots.
He probably passes these up for a few reasons, borne of some good habits and some bad ones. It’s a lack of confidence in his shot but also desire to be a good teammate; it’s not wanting to “waste” a possession but also not recognizing that this is probably the best shot opportunity that possession will produce. Most of all, Deni is adjusting to the speed of the NBA game like any 20-year-old rookie. That much can’t be rushed.
He may be readier for clutch moments than some of his first-year peers, though — having played at the professional level for three years in Israel before he was drafted. Brooks has touted that experience, but not deployed it. My guess is if he doesn’t soon, someone else will.
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