There is always a player in the NBA Draft that begins to rise up Mock Drafts and Draft Boards late in the draft process. This year, that player seems to be Maccabi Tel Aviv small forward Deni Avdija.
Some Mock Drafts have Avdija going as high as number two to the Golden State Warriors.
On the daily Locked On Hawks Podcast, host Brad Rowland and Brian Schroeder discussed Deni Avdija and how he has risen so high in the draft. The two also wondered how he started to receive comparisons to Luka Doncic.
Brad Rowland: The thing about Deni… the Dario Saric comparison is one that's out there. It's not a bad one. I think a bigger, more physical Nic Batum is a pretty reasonable one. That'd be a really good player, obviously… I think I'm pretty confident that he's going to be a useful player, that's not a shot at him at all. I think he's going to be pretty good. The problem is, if you're taking him where he's been rumored to go, like as early as number two, I would think you'd want some more upside than I think he has. There's this notion that he's a point forward…
Brian Schroeder: Sometimes he looks like it.
Brad: Yeah, he can handle the ball as a secondary creator for me. The problem is, I don't see him as a dynamic ball-handler creator… I just don't see him as a primary creator in an offense and I think that's what you hear from people that love him, they think that's in his toolbox. I don't really see that part of it.
Brian: Well, that's where the Saric comparison comes from. When Saric was coming out in the draft when he was playing in Europe, his number one skill was his flashy passing and he had great vision. That sort of what Deni has been compared to and we learned pretty quickly that Saric was just not a particularly impactful passer in the NBA. Saric isn't running pick-and-rolls, he's not getting out on the top of the key and making really dynamic reads and breaking out of the defense. Deni has been compared to Luka Doncic, which is ridiculous–players like him really illustrate how much of an absolute anomaly Luka is because Luka does do that stuff at 6'8″ and…
Brad: We also saw that on film, it's unfair to Deni to us to like draw the Luka comparison because it's just unfair…
Brian: It's also making him a lot more money because Luka's really good.
Brad: Yeah… it's probably good for Deni in the draft, I'm just saying it's not fair to wherever he ends up going, to have this baseline expectation that he might be the next Luka. That's not what he is. I don't even see that as a possibility. If Deni reaches his 100% outcome, is he a star? I don't think he is even at the absolute apex. I could be wrong… Okay, here's a question: What is the percentage chance that any Deni is an All-Star once in his career?
Brian: 5% 10%?
Brad: Yeah, and honestly being a one time All-Star can also be fluky. We saw Sabonis become an All-Star this year.
Brian: The biggest reason Deni Avdija can't be a star is that he's shooting 55% from the free-throw line…
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