The Portland Trail Blazers hope Deni Avdija can continue building on his All-Star campaign. With his rapid ascension towards becoming more of a point-forward in the Blazers' offense, the offseason priority should've been to surround him with complementary pieces.
Avdija led the league in drives per game this past season, yet Portland ranked bottom three in three-point percentage.
Part of Avdija's growth will come from internal improvement, as he's already quickly shown in two short seasons with the Blazers, making this look like a genius buy-low trade for GM Joe Cronin. But now that Avdija has emerged as that clear-cut face of the rebuild, why not actually build off of that?
Ja Morant could get in the way of Deni Avdija's growth
The one case against Avdija being the go-to option in Portland is the lack of a contender ceiling. Unfortunately, that's a valid concern, which came to fruition in their predictably short first-round playoff exit to the San Antonio Spurs.
It's no secret that Portland needs more star power alongside Avdija to compete with the likes of the Spurs, OKC Thunder, and other teams out west. While Ja Morant adds more star power for cheap to help close the gap in theory, that doesn't quite work if it comes at the expense of Avdija's game. Diminishing returns are a thing for two stars at their best when they're able to get downhill to initiate the offense.
Avdija can effectively space the floor for Morant's downhill game, but the Blazers offense is also at its best with the ball in his hands. With that imperfect fit potentially hindering Avdija's game rather than complementing it, head coach Micah Nori could even conclude that Morant is best in a sixth-man role for Portland.
That way, he could stagger minutes between Morant and Avdija as the ones running the show. It also prevents a defensive backcourt nightmare from happening if they started Morant alongside Damian Lillard.
Nori has quite the first-year challenge in sorting out this imperfect roster Cronin left him with. The most important thing is continuing to prioritize Avdija, both in terms of making him the focal point of the offense and finding the best rotations to complement his game.
Portland finally has its first All-Star since Lillard and needs to continue building off that. Even if the offseason moves made it surprisingly harder, the Blazers can't lose sight of the goal this season and how important Avdija is to their long-term contender plans.
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