Deni Avdija’s breakout season is getting harder to miss
A 43-point eruption is the latest highlight of Avdija’s fourth year in the NBA
The Washington Wizards’ Deni Avdija reacts after scoring and drawing a foul against the Minnesota Timberwolves last month. Photo by Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images
By Louis Keene February 14, 2024
Deni Avdija’s quiet breakout season for the Washington Wizards just got a lot louder.
Avdija, the fourth-year Israeli forward who has lately been thriving on the league’s second-worst team, exploded for 43 points and 15 rebounds Wednesday, becoming the first player to record those numbers for the team in nearly a half-century.
In 40 minutes of game time, he made 13 of his 24 shots — six of 10 on three-pointers — and tacked on 3 assists and a block for good measure. The Wizards lost 133-126 to New Orleans, but outscored the Pelicans by 14 when Avdija was on the floor. (Put another way, in the eight minutes he sat, the Wizards were outscored by an astonishing 21 points.)
The performance was the latest sign that Avdija’s career has turned a corner offensively after the 6-foot-8 Beit Zera native struggled to score in his first three years.
Prior to Wednesday, Avdija had never scored more than 25 points in a game. But he scored that much against Dallas on Monday, and 21 or more in three of the four games before that. His counting stats are much-improved across the board, though because they don’t jump off the page — he was averaging 13.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists before his career night — his improvement has largely gone under the radar.
As such, Wednesday’s monster stat line — last recorded for Washington in 1977 by Hall-of-Famer Elvin Hayes — was not merely a case of a marksman getting hot, though that was certainly part of the story. Avdija, displaying the aggressiveness that has become his calling card this year, also went to the free throw line 13 times, making 11.
Long touted by Wizards fans as an intelligent player whose contributions didn’t show up in the box score, Avdija has become arguably the team’s most efficient player. The uptick in his numbers reflects his growing confidence as a driver and shooter: His career field-goal percentage coming into this season was an unsightly 43%; this year, it’s 52%. That gain has been buoyed by his three-point percentage, which has gone from 31% career (i.e., leave him open) to a 39% (definitely don’t).
Perhaps the simplest way to distill Avdija’s newfound ferocity is around the rim. He had 29 dunks all of last season; he recorded his 31st of this year Wednesday night.
Even playing for the Wizards, who have won just nine of their 54 games so far, the “Wizraeli” is catching the league’s notice. He was recently included in The Ringer’s list of the NBA’s most untradeable players, and seems likely to be included in conversations for the annual Most Improved Player award.
His turnaround has rewarded the patience of the Wizards, who made Avdija the ninth overall pick in the 2020 draft — the highest ever for an Israeli player — and signed him to a four-year, $55 million contract extension this offseason. Two players selected before him and two picked after him that year have made all-star teams. With more games like Wednesday’s, Avdija might be next.
In other Jewish NBA news, the Sacramento Kings’ Domantas Sabonis, who is converting to Judaism, extended his streak of double-doubles — recording at least 10 points and 10 rebounds — to 37 games on Wednesday. (The next-longest active streak in the NBA is 6.) The day before, Sabonis became the first player since Larry Bird to record 30 points, 15 rebounds, 12 assists and 3 blocks in a game.
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