Deni Avdija's star ascension has been the most encouraging development of the 2025-26 season for the Portland Trail Blazers. A scary thought for the rest of the league is that Avdija is doing all of this despite Portland failing to surround him with the necessary pieces, particularly in the shooting department.
The Blazers rank second-worst in the league in three-point shooting (33.5%). That should come as no surprise, as they finished in the bottom five in each of the past two seasons and lost sharpshooting combo guard Anfernee Simons over the summer.
Blazers must surround Deni Avdija with more shooting
Avdija has embraced a point-forward role and stepped up tremendously for the Blazers' depleted backcourt that remains without Scoot Henderson, Jrue Holiday, and Blake Wesley. Putting the ball in the hands of your best player more frequently is rarely a bad idea, and Avdija is rewarding the Blazers with a career season, averaging 25.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.9 assists per game on 47/36/79 shooting splits. It's also resulted in a career-high in turnovers (3.9 per game), but the Blazers are strategically living with the good and the bad that come with Avdija's growing pains in this new role.
Early All-Star voting returns suggest Avdija is on track to make his first-ever appearance. While it's great that the Blazers landed that All-Star they've been missing since prime Damian Lillard, they must construct their roster to adjust to Avdija's breakout.
At 6-foot-8, Deni possesses a rare combination of size and speed, which, when paired with his ball-handling and finishing ability, makes him an absolute wrecking ball when he's able to get downhill. It's going to make life that much harder on defenders when he's attacking the paint and has reliable options to kick out to on the perimeter. The Blazers are missing that pick-your-poison scenario. Teams oftentimes live with the results, as Yang Hansen, Robert Williams III, Blake Wesley, Kris Murray, Sidy Cissoko, and Rayan Rupert all shoot below 30% from beyond the arc.
Avdija ranks 12th in the league in assists per game, but would be significantly higher if general manager Joe Cronin actually addressed their glaring need for shooting over the offseason. Deni's potential assists of 14.5 per game rank fifth in the league behind only Cade Cunningham, Nikola Jokic, Josh Giddey, and fellow rising star Jalen Johnson.
The Blazers have been stockpiling assets throughout their rebuild and overlooking how the pieces all fit together up until this point. But with Avdija's improved play, they should be entering the next phase of their rebuild by building around their foundational piece and finding shooters to complement his game.
Hopefully, they come to this realization before the Feb. 5 trade deadline.