Scott Brooks ‘grateful’ Deni Avdija fell to Wizards at No. 9

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Scott Brooks ‘grateful’ Deni Avdija fell to Wizards at No. 9 initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Washington

With Thanksgiving every week away, the Wizards already discovered one thing to be glad about after they sit right down to feast.

Deni Avdija, a consensus top-10 choose heading into the 2020 NBA Draft was not anticipated to be on the board when the Wizards had been choosing at No. 9. As arguably the highest worldwide prospect on this 12 months’s class together with Killian Hayes, the Israeli wing may’ve gone as excessive as No. 2 to the Warriors. 

As an alternative, he fell proper into Tommy Sheppard and Scott Brooks’ lap, and so they did not hesitate so as to add the gifted, two-way participant to their core of Bradley Beal, John Wall and Rui Hachimura.

“He was undoubtedly very excessive on our board,” Brooks advised the Sports activities Junkies Thursday. “I am very grateful he got here to us as a result of that is a man we felt was a necessity and we felt he may step in and contribute fairly fast and that is laborious to do as a 19-year-old. He is not even 20 but.

“He’ll give us nice minutes and he will battle for these minutes and from what I perceive and what I’ve seen, he is keen to battle laborious for these minutes,” he stated. “He is actually a aggressive younger man.”

Avdija is a tantalizing prospect at 6’9 and 225 kilos. He has a sophisticated deal with and playmaking capacity for a participant at his dimension and age and has critical upside as a scorer if he can develop into a constant shooter. From all accounts, his type seems as if it should translate to the NBA degree as soon as he will get correct instruction and repetition with the Wizards’ improvement employees. 

However what would possibly set Avdija other than different gamers within the prime 10 is how he performs the sport. It is one thing that actually caught out to Brooks, and everyone knows how a lot he loves to teach tough-minded gamers. 

“Nicely, he performs with a swagger,” Brooks stated after the choose was made Wednesday. “He has confidence about him. He’s not going to again down. Chances are high for a younger participant to come back in and dominate instantly could be very slim. However what I do like about him he’s not going to again down, he’s going to compete. He’s going to make our practices very aggressive.

“I really like his IQ. I really like his toughness,” he stated. “And I really like guys that need to be within the fitness center, that need to get higher. They’re by no means glad with simply a median day at work. He’s going to present us an sincere days work and his character is extraordinarily excessive. He’s simply one other piece to our workforce, we’re constructing. Typically it takes a bit at a time and we obtained piece tonight.”

Two of the Wizards’ most vital wants getting into the draft had been a defensive-minded huge and two-way manufacturing on the wing. Avdija checks off the second field and will in the end begin alongside Bradley Beal and John Wall, making a doubtlessly potent three-man perimeter unit that may all make performs, rating and defend at a excessive degree. 

“I haven’t talked to both [Wall or Beal] since we had the choose, it was just a few minutes in the past however I’ll speak shortly,” Brooks stated. “They’ll be high-quality. They’ll be actually good and so they noticed what we’ve finished final 12 months, we cleaned up quite a lot of issues up and we obtained quite a lot of excessive character guys that need to get higher and you realize the maturation course of is a slow-developing course of.” 

For extra interviews, tune into Sports activities Junkies on NBC Sports activities Washington, weekdays from 6-10 a.m.

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