The Portland Trail Blazers' front office initially received criticism for their decision to acquire Deni Avdija from the Washington Wizards. Portland was a rebuilding team, sacrificing valuable future assets in exchange for an already-established player. They sent out veteran Malcolm Brogdon, the 2025 No. 14 pick, a 2029 first-round pick, and two future second-round picks.
At the time, ESPN's Kevin Pelton gave the Blazers trade a C+ grade. In retrospect, it was an incredibly lopsided deal in Portland's favor. Pelton regraded it to an A- last July, noting Avdija's improved three-point shooting as the biggest factor behind this becoming a win for Portland.
Deni Avdija was a franchise-altering steal for Portland
Many wondered whether the Blazers actually bought high on Avdija, as he was coming off a career three-point shooting season in Washington. In his final two seasons with the Wizards, he improved his three-point efficiency from 29.7 to 37.4%. That was such a drastic increase, and Avdija's prior seasons suggested he was bound for regression. As Pelton noted, that even appeared to be the case early on as Avdija was off to a cold shooting start in Portland.
Fortunately for the Blazers, his shooting -- and just about every other aspect of his game -- have been trending upward ever since. That grade would likely be even higher now, considering that it was before Avdija's career season.
He's well on track to represent the Blazers at the All-Star game, averaging 26.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 6.9 assists on 47/36/80 shooting splits. Final fan voting had Avdija fifth in the Western Conference with 2,202,605 votes, ahead of superstars like Victor Wembanyama and LeBron James, to name a few. That seems more than worth a few draft picks and a veteran who's already out of the league after an abrupt retirement before this season.
Just two seasons later, the narrative surrounding this Avdija trade has completely flipped. Many thought the rebuilding Blazers lacked star power and shouldn't accelerate their rebuilding timeline with good but not great players like Avdija. But it turns out, Avdija was the star power the Blazers have been missing. He's already emerged as the face of their franchise.
And that's not even accounting for how well he fits this roster in terms of his age (25) and contract ($14.4 million). Portland landed a legitimate All-Star just entering his prime who happens to be on one of the best contracts in the entire league.
They'll eventually have to figure out how to renegotiate that contract to secure him for the long haul. But for now, we should be happy that he's even here in the first place. It's a miracle that they were able to steal a rising star from the Wizards, and it's just the franchise-altering move this rebuild desperately needed to put Portland back in the conversation with the other juggernauts out west.