Trade Avdija to Blazers

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Good trade?

  • Yes

    Votes: 92 86.0%

  • No

    Votes: 4 3.7%

  • Maybe

    Votes: 14 13.1%
  • Total voters
    107
I am not familiar with Avdija's game but I perused the Wizards' realgm forum and their meltdown thread is blowing up. I think it means this is a good trade for the Blazers

Dude is tall, can play, young, on a team friendly contract.

We sent Brogdon who is out of place here and some picks.

Now if anyone from 14 up in this draft turned out to be MVP years from now and Avdija did not, some may say, "oh we should have drafted Knect or whoever."

But I feel good about this move
 
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I approve of this trade. Brogdon had one foot out the door from the moment he arrived. Who cares about the 2nd round picks....and as far as TWO 1st rounders....do we really count the one from THIS draft? Great acquisition.
 
Is it possible to actually both raise the floor and ceiling of this team without giving up a kidney? Cronin actually made it happen. I gave Cronin a lot of crap for the CJ and Powell/Covington trades, they were bad hindsight or not. But…my position stays consistent. I stand by the fact that the Holiday deal was a good trade. We didn’t get fleeced, Boston made a ballsy move and it paid off. We finally made one of those moves.


Avdija is entering year 5 at 23. It’s possible that the best iteration of Avdija is around 18-22ppg/8rpg/5-6apg as a legit third option in 2-3 years, and what will he be making, $13-14m?

The pro to this is that we get a great player for very cheap. You can put me on record in saying Avdija will have a Markkanen-ish type of breakout this season. The con is that Avdija presents Cronin with the opportunity to continue with the “we are still trying to compete” narrative and continue the complacency until the deadline or next summer, and this ballsy move actually gives him some justification, even if we don’t agree. We saw Grant played better with Walker next to him as a rebounder, but we know Walker is a limited player on both ends. Enter Avdija.

Ant/Shae/Grant/Avdija/Clingan
- I don’t think it’s crazy to think Cronin is okay with Scoot coming off the bench another year. If Avdija is going to split the ball handling with Ant and Grant gets limited ISO opportunities, I’d be okay with it. They do have to keep the product watchable until at least the deadline, which I’m fine with. If WCJ is the best offer for Ant this summer, sure, let’s wait until Scoot shows he HAS to start (ie. he is a 35%+ shooter in addition to all the other things he needs to improve) and try to up Ant’s value. Avdija will definitely help Ant, that is a given.

Scoot/Shae/Camara/Avdija/Clingan

Scoot/Shae/Avdija/DA/Clingan
- I want to see the two big lineup. Guys like Holmgren and Sarr are going to keep coming out, We will get one of those guys eventually I think.

Scoot/Rupert/Murray/Avdija/Clingan
- this one would be great if Rupert and Murray really came around on their shot. Three wings 6’8+ who can shoot and defend, a legit 7’+ lob threat that can protect the rim, with a developing Scoot who can now learn to dissect a defense.

There are a lot of possibilities.
 
Kind of surprised Blazers fan reaction is so positive. I'm not happy with sending out the 2029 pick. Ultimately it will probably come down to Advija 3pt%. Was last year a one year fluke or a permanent trend. If it's a trend it's a great deal. If not we again paid multiple picks for a mediocre role player just like Olshey. Looks more like a fluke to me. Pelton gives us a C+ and Wizards a B+

Wizards trade Avdija to Blazers for lottery pick
Washington Wizards get:
Malcolm Brogdon
2024 No. 14 pick (Bub Carrington)
2029 first-round pick (second-most favorable of Boston/Milwaukee/Portland)
Two future second-round picks

Portland Trail Blazers get:
Deni Avdija

Washington Wizards grade: B+

A rebuilding team trading away perhaps its biggest success story from last season is certainly surprising, but the Wizards' management under president Michael Winger has been signaling a long view since adding 18-year-old Bilal Coulibaly with the No. 7 pick last year. Washington ended up using the No. 14 pick acquired in this deal on another young player, Pitt guard Carrington, who won't turn 19 until next month.

There's much to be said for a team-building strategy of simply picking the youngest reasonable prospect in each draft, something the Philadelphia 76ers did pre-Process that netted Thaddeus Young and Jrue Holiday in a three-year span from 2007 to 2009.

Besides turning Avdija into a pair of first-round picks, the Wizards could reap more benefits down the road to take this deal from good to great. Washington lands Brogdon on a $22.5 million expiring contract and can either trade him to add picks or have an additional $14.4 million in cap space in summer 2025 to command draft compensation for taking on bad salaries.

If the Wizards' philosophy seems familiar, it should. Winger and GM Will Dawkins both spent time with the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have been as aggressive as any team since the Process Sixers about stockpiling draft picks. Although Washington didn't have the luxury of starting this rebuild with the extra picks and built-in star Oklahoma City had in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Wizards are working hard to find value wherever they can.

Portland Trail Blazers grades: C+

Quietly, Avdija took a massive step forward in his fourth season, adding 5.5 points to his scoring average primarily through improved shooting accuracy. He made both 2s (56%) and 3s (37%) at career-high rates, boosting his true shooting percentage from .535 in 2022-23 -- 8% below league average, per Basketball-Reference.com -- to 3% better than average at .597.

Avdija also took on larger responsibility creating offense on the rebuilding Wizards, pushing his usage rate from 17% to 20% and handing out a career-high 4.6 assists per 36 minutes. Combined with Avdija's already strong play on defense, that was enough to make him one of the league's better 3-and-D contributors at age 23.

Conveniently for Washington, that breakthrough came after the Wizards signed Avdija to a four-year rookie extension that pays him $55 million, nearly identical to the current non-taxpayer midlevel exception. Because Avdija's salary will decrease yearly, by 2027-28 he'll be making just $11.9 million for his age-27 campaign.

All of that combined to give Avdija considerable value in the trade market. Given the choice between Avdija on his current contract and using the No. 14 pick on an experienced prospect such as Tennessee's Dalton Knecht, who ended up going 17th and is just three and a half months younger, I'd much rather have Avdija. I'm not sure, however, I'd value the difference enough to give up a second first-round pick, plus toss in a couple of second-rounders.

The big question with Avdija's value is just how much you believe in his improvement as an outside shooter. He shot 31% from beyond the arc over his first three seasons with no discernible improvement over that span and took a limited volume of shots in 2023-24 (a career-low 3.7 attempts per 36 minutes), and his career 74% accuracy at the foul line is somewhat worse than the league average of 78%. As a result, the Darko projection system pegs Avdija's true talent as a 3-point shooter at a below-average 33%.

If Avdija isn't the plus shooter he was last season, he's no longer nearly as good a fit next to the Blazers' young backcourt of Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Anfernee Simons, although he can take on the responsibility of handling the toughest perimeter defensive assignment when Toumani Camara is not on the court.

Either way, Avdija's modest salary will fit in well as Portland's young talent starts to graduate to more expensive extensions. The Blazers also took advantage of Washington's financial flexibility to save nearly $7 million in 2024-25 salary, enough to take them below the projected luxury-tax line and allowing the team to take back extra money in future trades if necessary.
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I don't know anything about this guy. Hope he can contribute.
 
THE HCP said:
I approve of this trade. Brogdon had one foot out the door from the moment he arrived. Who cares about the 2nd round picks....and as far as TWO 1st rounders....do we really count the one from THIS draft? Great acquisition.
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Avdija essentially is our 14th pick, and he's a better "prospect" than anything that was available from 3 on (at least), let alone 14.

Giving away Brogdon, the other first, and, IIRC, two future 2nds is the downer part. I wrote somewhere else, I just take this as the cost of the Blazers using this deal to get under the cap. I'm not thrilled with that, because Olshey's lopsided trades like this, albeit done for different reasons, are one of the things that put the Blazers in the position they are now, and I'm not as optimistic about Avdija's upside as a lot of people. It's lukewarm criticism, though, and I'm more than willing to see what plan the Blazers have after trading for Avdija and drafting Clingan and seeing how it comes together before being overly critical about it.
 
PCmor7 said:
Avdija essentially is our 14th pick, and he's a better "prospect" than anything that was available from 3 on (at least), let alone 14.

Giving away Brogdon, the other first, and, IIRC, two future 2nds is the downer part. I wrote somewhere else, I just take this as the cost of the Blazers using this deal to get under the cap. I'm not thrilled with that, because Olshey's lopsided trades like this, albeit done for different reasons, are one of the things that put the Blazers in the position they are now, and I'm not as optimistic about Avdija's upside as a lot of people. It's lukewarm criticism, though, and I'm more than willing to see what plan the Blazers have after trading for Avdija and drafting Clingan and seeing how it comes together before being overly critical about it.
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Agreed that saving luxury tax was a component of getting less assets in this trade. That's why matching Thybulle was such a dumb move. If we had let him walk we wouldn't have been pressured to do this deal and lose assets.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Agreed that saving luxury tax was a component of getting less assets in this trade. That's why matching Thybulle was such a dumb move. If we had let him walk we wouldn't have been pressured to do this deal and lose assets.
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You have to give up something to get back a good player. I don’t see this deal as a cost cutting move at all. Avdija is 23 and has an amazing contract.
 
kjironman1 said:
I don't know anything about this guy. Hope he can contribute.
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If he only contributes, this trade's a loss. He has high potential and has been trending positively but still has things to prove and development to make.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Kind of surprised Blazers fan reaction is so positive. I'm not happy with sending out the 2029 pick. Ultimately it will probably come down to Advija 3pt%. Was last year a one year fluke or a permanent trend. If it's a trend it's a great deal. If not we again paid multiple picks for a mediocre role player just like Olshey. Looks more like a fluke to me. Pelton gives us a C+ and Wizards a B+
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if he remains what he is right now it’s a bad trade. I guess they are banking on continued improvement and a potential markennan esque breakout as he gets closer to his prime.
 
Freshtown said:
if he remains what he is right now it’s a bad trade. I guess they are banking on continued improvement and a potential markennan esque breakout as he gets closer to his prime.
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What do you not like about him now? He's a good all-around player and a really good contract, and his age fits in with our core. This trade was home run. Unless he has some kind of terrible regression, this was home run.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Agreed that saving luxury tax was a component of getting less assets in this trade. That's why matching Thybulle was such a dumb move. If we had let him walk we wouldn't have been pressured to do this deal and lose assets.
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Agreed, but with the caveat that it's in hindsight. When the Thybulle match was made, there wasn't a reason to believe a young, inexpensive player like Advija would be available (albeit costly in compensation), nor that Camara would so quickly (and, at all, actually) be able to give you a lot of what Thybulle did. But, yes, with the way things played out, matching Thybulle was a moderate misplay.
 
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