Avdija’s career-high 43 points against the Pelicans embodied his development this season.
For Valentine’s Day, Deni Avdija treated the New Orleans Pelicans to a career-high 43 points and 15 rebounds in a seven-point Washington Wizards loss last night.
Avdija’s scoring explosion came just two nights after he had tied his previous career-high of 25 points versus the Dallas Mavericks; this sudden scoring burst is less of a flash in the pan and more of an indication that Avdija is finally starting to put everything together.
Avdija was a highly-touted prospect coming out of Israel in the 2020 Draft. The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor had him as the fourth-ranked prospect, although take this ranking with a grain of salt considering O’Connor’s absolutely repulsive pick for the number one spot. More important, however, is what he had to say about Avdija:
Through the first three seasons of his career, Avdija was a solid but unspectacular player. He was a decent defender and solid rebounder, but he often lacked aggression on offense and was an inefficient shooter on low volume. Over the first three seasons of his career, Avdija averaged 8.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game on low-40s field goal percentage and a three-point percentage consistently hovering around 30%. Each season saw marginal improvements in scoring, rebounding and playmaking, but overall Avdija was mostly the same player from his rookie season through last year.
Avdija’s stat line against New Orleans on Valentine’s Day embodied his development over the course of this season. He scored a career-high 43 points 13-for-24 shooting overall and 6-for-10 from deep and added 15 rebounds, five of which were offensive rebounds. The Wizards also outscored the Pelicans by 14 points in Avdija’s minutes, an incredibly impressive feat in a seven-point loss. Obviously this level of play is unsustainable, but the performance demonstrates how the highs of Avdija’s game keep getting higher.
This season, Avdija’s stats have jumped up to 13.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game on, most importantly, vastly improved efficiency across the board (52.1% from the field and 40.5% from deep). Avdija’s 2024 season stats do not jump off the page, but the progression of his scoring combined with his drastically improved efficiency indicates Avdija’s 2025 stats could; consider Deni Avdija an early candidate for the 2025 Most Improved Player award.
The most important factor to consider when trying to gauge the permanence of a young player’s improvement is how an increased scoring burden affects his efficiency. Take 2022-23 Lauri Markkanen for example; Markkanen’s 10-plus point per game jump came alongside dramatically increased efficiency, so few doubted the tangibility of his improvements even though he played for a weak Utah Jazz team. Perhaps Avdija’s jump in points per game is a sign of things to come; his much-improved efficiency seems to say so.