The San Antonio Spurs worked out Israeli forward Deni Avdija last week, according to Chris Grenham of Forbes.com.
Avdija’s in-person workout took place in Atlanta in front of Spurs’ talent-evaluators. He has conducted workouts in Atlanta for several teams. Along with the Spurs, Advija also reportedly worked out in front of the Warriors.
What makes this interesting from the Spurs’ end is Avdija is an expected top-five draft pick, maybe even top two. But the Spurs own the No. 11 overall selection.
Still, it’s not uncommon for a team to take a long look at a player that’s expected to go long before said team selects. The Minnesota Timberwolves own the first overall pick, the Warriors the second, and both teams are said to be very open to a trade. (The Timberwolves even admitted as much.)
While there’s word on how Avdija looked in front of the Spurs, he the Warriors were reportedly “blown away” by what they saw.
“Not only did Avdija perform well in the workouts, but Warriors officials were blown away after meeting with him,” wrote Ethan Strauss of The Athletic. “The universal takeaway was that he’s a ‘great kid’ with an immense work ethic.”
Avdija is 6-foot-9 and plays both forward spots. He averaged 13.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 28 games this season with Maccabi Tel Aviv. For his efforts, he was named Player of the Year in Israel’s Winner League.
NBADraft.net compared Avdija to former NBA forward Hedo Turkoglu.
“All around talented wing with great size … Versatile, he can play from shooting guard to power forward … Great feel for the game … He possesses a high basketball I.Q … Very competitive, not afraid of the big stage … Jack of all trades, he can do just about everything on the floor,” NBADraft.net wrote of Avdija.
The Spurs missed the playoffs for the first time in 21 seasons.
