Deni Avdija has been injured few a while.
Beyond missing a handful of games and a number of will-he-won’t-he play contests, the Portland Trail Blazers, their staff, their fans, and the people who write and podcast about them can all see Avdija isn’t 100% healthy.
He needs to sit and rest.
On the latest We Like the Blazers podcast, Conor and I talk about it a bit:
Brandon: I have a message directly to Deni Avdija. ‘Deni: You are a tough man. You’re a big, strong man. Got it. Now just sit.’ I don’t need
to see him play anymore until he’s healthy, and by the way, the All-Star game is in two weeks. Wouldn’t it be great – Deni Avdija, lookin’ at you – wouldn’t it be great to be fully healthy for that game, your first (hopefully of many) All-Star games? Would be really awesome to see you represent Portland and [have you] look like yourself. Would be fantastic.
Conor: Yeah, or at least just be able to go and check in. It would be a bummer if they had to get an injury replacement for him. That would take a lot of the thunder away from the selection. And his style is so smashmouth that he needs to be at a higher percentage of health to be his best self.
Brandon: It’s not like he can just float over there, and it’s not like he’s a big dude who can just kind of park himself.
Conor: …shoot a bunch of threes. Yeah, he needs to go at people.
We also talked about the rumors swirling around Giannis Antetokounmpo reportedly asking for a trade out of Milwaukee, and whether the Blazers controlling a portion of the Bucks’ future draft could increase Portland’s leverage if they wanted in on the action:
Brandon: There have been rumors in the NBA blog-o-sphere about a certain player who’s played with another certain Blazers player
Conor: Two of them!
Brandon: Good point! That player is Giannis Antetokounmpo. He’s VERY good. He’s gonna be owed a lot of money on his next extension. He wants out of Milwaukee… I think we can say RIP to Doc Rivers’ coaching career
Conor: Oh, all of it.
Brandon: Truly the end. But Giannis’ name has come up… what do you think… especially because the Blazers kind of own the Bucks’ draft.
Conor: They’re very relevant… it’s hard not to be tantalized, right? I mean it’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Brandon: When you see a succulent rumor..!
Conor: I am of the mind of don’t trade Deni, that’s the non-negotiable, then see what it takes. I’m not outright against it. It could be short-sighted. Giannis is I think 32, he’s had some injury issues, you would have to mortgage a lot of those awesome future assets. You would probably have to give up a few key young players so you would kind of pinch your window right now, which is risky and scary. But it would probably give the Blazers their best shot at a title since 2000.
We also talked about Conor’s thinking and process behind writing his recent feature on Blazers wing Sidy Cissoko, whether the Blazers’ recent losing streak is worthy of panic, and more!
Catch We Like the Blazers on YouTube or basically any pod catcher.
