NBA trades come in many shapes and forms. Some go better than others.
One of the most lopsided trades in recent memory came in July, 2024 when the Washington Wizards traded forward Deni Avdija to the Portland Trail Blazers for veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon, a couple of second-round picks, and a 2029 first-rounder. Brogdon played a year with the Wizards, then retired. The picks haven’t executed yet, but the first-round selection headed to Washington will only be the second best of a trio from Portland,
Boston, and Milwaukee.
Meanwhile Avdija is averaging 26, 7, and 7 for the Blazers on his way to a likely NBA All-Star nomination this year.
Oops.
Responses vary in situations like this, but when asked about the Avdija trade, Wizards President Michael Winger gave a response that basically amounted to, “Yolo!” (For the uninitiated, that’s slang for, “You Only Live Once,” or, in this case, “You Obviously Lost One.”)
Here is Winger’s exact quote via @KevinFolliNBA on X:
“No, it was not a mistake. We’re all very happy for Deni. We saw Deni as a very high-level ascending player…but no, we did it for the reasons we said then which was to take us back a couple of years so we could reset the roster and so that everybody was on the same age curve and Deni’s ahead of that.”
For reference, Avdija is currently 25 years old, having just celebrated his birthday three weeks ago. The Wizards recently made a major deal for point guard Trae Young, who is 27 years old. That deal took the average age of their top nine rotation players down from 24.4 to 23.7.
Fortunately for Winger, the Dallas Mavericks asked the Wizards to hold their beer in February of 2025, trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers before Avdija’s ascent became obvious to the nation. That deal will eternally provide a “Yeah, but…” at the end of Deni trade talk and relegate this to a story that only Portland (and sometimes Washington) fans talk about through the years.
