Danny Abdia Must Change: The Problems of Israeli Rocky

Even when a player comes to the NBA as a great talent and a promise for the future, no one can know 100 percent who he will be in the future. Take Kwai Leonard as an example: he entered the league as a defense expert thanks to his huge hands and game wisdom, but within two seasons, thanks to hard and individual work on certain points, he became a championship-scoring scorer.

Danny Abdia has played 25 times in the NBA, and the number will reach three digits before it is possible to talk more clearly about the type of player he will be – but what is beginning to become clear is that the Israeli will probably not be able to be the player who developed in Israel. A name change will be required.

As we have seen against LeBron James, the defense is an excellent base on which he has worked and he can look forward thanks to him. As coach Scott Brooks has already noted several times and we have seen against Kwai, Abdia still does not always do the right actions in the save and gets involved in unnecessary offenses that cut him in the minutes of the game. Now it’s time to talk about the cloud that stands over Abdia even before the draft – his identity as an attacking player.

Washington lined up with the two open positions in the top five that were alongside Bradley Bill, Russell Westbrook and Roy Hachimura: not always Moritz Wagner (who was wonderful in the loss to the Clippers) and Grieson Matthews maintain stability, and sometimes despite finishing in the top five they finish with the lowest number of minutes on the team. They are the two most energetic players on the roster, and Brooks has found that the team responds better (although it continues to open games quite badly) when they start dealing with the enthusiasm they add than when they get off the bench.

The direction is fixed, in the five-game winning streak against the Clippers: first balls for Wagner, then Westbrook and Bill start throwing more, Raul Neto (Smith’s injury, excellent sixth player, brought the Brazilian back into the picture) came in first, then Davis Bartans and Robin Lopez ( Sometimes Alex Len is the second chin in the rotation), and Abdia is the ninth player. The minutes will range from 16 to 25, depending on the state of the game and Brooks’ feeling that he quickly benches the Israeli when he feels the forward did not enter the game well, the rebounds are pretty constant.

Except for Westbrook and Bill, the team does not have many exercises to lower the ball to the ground and penetrate the basket. Hachimura is the only one beyond the two stars who tries this regularly, Lento has the ability (in the last game it stood out), and Abdia is the other capable of it. But to get to that point, he needs to get the ball and have the others clear the way for him to the basket. This is a matter that is ranked low in the priority of the Washington attack.

For it to also be more successful Abdia must continue in the physical development, which we talked about in the previous section in the context of defense. We have seen too many times the lay-up mistakes, which are also related to lack of concentration and accuracy, but they are mainly due to a problem in accessing the basket. There were two cases this season in which Abdia seemed particularly lost in this regard – earlier against Brooklyn, when he burst into the basket alone and then stopped at once because the giant Diandra Jordan waited in the paint, turned and handed back, and against the Lakers, when Monterz Harrell preyed on him when he tried to finish close . By the way, when Abdia goes in and extorts offenses, there is a serious problem in the percentage of penalties.

Now step back: Like we said, this option is not very open anyway. It’s not that Abdia gets dozens of balls in the game that he can lead to the basket. He also doesn’t get the chance to take the ball from the defense himself along the court (which is why his assist numbers are very low, and the two he handed to Westbrook against the Lakers were sending a long ball to the breakaway after a rebound). When you combine that with the fact that Washington’s ball movement is not particularly impressive, and also that the ball moves is between players across the arc or out of penetration, one realizes how much Abdia will have to find his hand from three again. That is – to reinvent himself as a scorer with talent on defense, after coming to the league as a kind of point-forward with the ability to create situations for himself and others. This is a process that will be very complicated to perform, but not impossible.

He surprised with the high percentage off the arc at the start of the season, but things have deteriorated since then. At the beginning of the month he went through a streak of three games and some of them stood at 0 of 11 from three. In January he stood at 42.9 percent from the outside (appeared in seven games due to the Corona blow that canceled some of the encounters and the isolation he went into). In the 13 games in February it dropped to 30.2 percent.

The current problem is that the shooting problem feeds itself in a circular fashion. He does not hit, so naturally he gets fewer shots. When the ball reaches him (and this is evident in the only three he took in the last game), there is a millisecond of hesitation in the shot. It’s not a smooth, automatic release like shooting experts like Bartens and Matthews. Then the ball does not go in, the confidence goes down even more, and the dedication continues to go elsewhere. A term used by one commentator this week regarding loss is “underutilized,” meaning an actor who is not used enough. He’s not the first to say that this season. But there are two sides to the coin, and a team trying to rebuild the season cannot take as a project the rookie, talented as he may be, and put the emphasis on attacking him when there are more reliable options at the moment.

Of course you don’t have to paint things in black. Avdia has a permanent and quiet place in the rotation, even if it has shrunk – what to do, other vehicles have put the team into momentum. He is highly regarded in the media and by the professional staff. But his averages will be stuck if the switch does not occur.

No one expects it to be the new Kwai Leonard, but it has proven technical capability that allows for stable shooting from three with a lot of work on it. Lots of players have undergone a makeover thanks to an investment in the subject. Because of the initial percentages, the problem marked in the context of Abdia seemed to be solved – but now it comes back in full force and shows that he has a lot more work to do before he takes the next step.

Although he averages five minutes on the team (excluding Thomas Bryant, who finished the season), Abdia records the second-highest offense per game for the Wizards, with only Westbrook performing more (2.9). As Brooks said, it seems that in relation to the playing time he gets, Abdia still does not know how to save more efficiently in all games.

“Abdia has serious kneading to snip such a shot” (“Athletic” reporter Fred Katz is excited about the three-pointer that Abdia scored 53 seconds to end legal time in a drama against the Lakers).

“Abdia had a great game, and he also proved his ability as a clutch player.” (Aron Matthew from “Essential Sports” compliments the Israeli after the show he gave in the victory over LeBron and the champion).