Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija’s star is rising, and that’s reflected in the Ringer’s updated rankings of the top 100 players in the NBA.
In the updated list dropped on Wednesday, the fast and physical forward jumped to No. 40, leaping 13 spots from his ranking of No. 53 on Oct. 15. The spot is more than justified. Avdija’s scoring has surged to 17th-best in the NBA while his efficiency has remained stable. Through 19 games, he’s averaging 25.5 points per game, 6.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists, while shooting 47.8% from the field, 38.9% from behind the 3-point line, and 80.3% from the free throw line.
Handling the analysis, the Ringer’s Danny Chau talked about how well Avdija is transitioning his game to become a formidable primary option.
The most impressive aspect of Avdija’s star-making season has been his capacity for scaling up his production to fit his expanded role. Sounds logical, but there aren’t many young players built to handle the exponentiality of it all. Avdija has already logged more possessions as a pick-and-roll initiator than he did in the full seasons he played in years two or three. He is fully tapping into his physicality and downhill speed on drives, which has him getting to the line at a rate on par with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But his incessant drives are a larger playmaking conduit. No one in the league drives more often, and few pass out of drives more frequently. Avdija is just now finding his style as a primary option. It’s something the Blazers can confidently build on.
While Avdija ranked No. 40, he stands even higher in the eyes of the Ringer founder and CEO Bill Simmons. As one of the committee members who helped put together the site’s official list, Simmons revealed on a recent episode of his podcast that he placed Avdija at No. 22 in his personal rankings.
Simmons: He did it last year. He’s even gone up a higher level this year. He’s proven to me that he can be the best player on a good team if you had a good team around him.
Back to the site’s official list, the next highest-ranked Trail Blazer is starting point guard Jrue Holiday. The veteran guard jumped 19 spots from his October ranking to clock in at No. 51. The Ringer’s Kirk Goldsberry wrote about how Holiday’s partnership with his new team has been one of mutual benefit.
It’s hard to overstate how valuable the arrival of Holiday in Portland has been. He’s brought leadership and maturity to the young squad, which needed both. But the up-and-coming hoopers around the Blazers seem to have reinvigorated Holiday, too. It’s a great story, and it’s led to one of the most impressive single results of the young season. Holiday and Co. remain the only team to have beaten OKC this season, and of course Holiday was a huge reason why. Not only did he hit two big 3s down the stretch, but his clutch free throws iced the upset win with six seconds left.
The last Blazer to make the list was forward Toumani Camara at No. 90. The defensive stalwart dropped six spots from his October ranking. Handling the analysis, the Ringer’s Justin Verrier and Rob Mahoney explained that dip was due to Camara’s dipping 3-point percentage (30.8%).
All of the progress that Camara showed as a (wide-open) 3-point shooter last season has thudded against the side of the rim in the early going this year. It’s a shame to be so reductive about one of the most widely capable defenders in basketball, but those are the breaks of the game; until Toumani can pose some kind of threat in the half court, he’ll force the Blazers to effectively work around him. Camara’s court sense helps to bridge some of the gap. He has an innate grasp of how an offense moves, which allows him to connect dots for Portland even as he struggles to be an end point. That’s the next evolution. We already know that Camara can ruin a superstar’s night in coverage. If he can find any reliable offense to speak of, he’ll vault up these rankings just as he will in esteem around the league.
