Washington Wizards is not suitable for Danny Abdia / Tor

It’s hard to watch Danny Abdia play in the Washington Wizards uniform. This is not because the games are held in the middle of the night, or because the halls are empty due to the corona plague and there is a sense of a training game, nor because of Abdia itself. Although only four games have passed since the opening of the 19-year-old Israeli’s career in the NBA, it can already be determined – the Washington Wizards are not suitable for loss.

Washington’s choice of abdication surprised everyone. The expectation on the eve of the draft was that Chicago would take him in fourth place, and if not then maybe Cleveland, Atlanta, Detroit or the New York Knicks. It’s not that most of the teams mentioned are much better than the Wizards (except for Atlanta), but they don’t have one big star, and certainly not two like Washington (Russell Westbrook and Bradley Bill). Quietly, Abdia’s entourage hoped that San Antonio would eventually take him to 11th place.

The Spurs are the perfect club for Abdia, both in terms of coach Greg Popovich, who is known as a fan of international players (Tony Parker and Mano Ginobili are the prominent examples), his game philosophy, which is the closest to European basketball, and also in terms of patience and fact that it is a successful and winning club. , A situation she is used to losing from his time at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Now take everything written in the previous paragraph about San Antonio and flip it 180 degrees. What did you get? Washington Wizards. An unsuccessful team, looking for its identity, with lots of young players, albeit very many international basketball players but without a clear method and development plan. And the worst thing about Abdia is that everyone plays for themselves, especially the two stars. If you want a typical American game.

After the draft night the overwhelming majority of commentators in the country said it was a good opportunity for Abdia, as Washington is under rebuilding after years of failures, Russell Westbrook “the leader” just came at the expense of John Wall “the rebellious”, Bill is a good teammate and in general was A feeling that Abdia could fit in well with the club, having received so many compliments from its managers.

The prevailing opinion was that Westbrook, who looks mostly at his personal stats (a well-known triple-double fan), would hand over the ball, and Abdia would be able to enjoy the fruits. In practice, Westbrook is indeed removed, but you will not see there smart or effective dedication, but mostly those that come after head penetrations in the wall, and not while moving an effective ball, forcing its loss and other players on the team to adjust to the unexpected coordinator, and not the other way around.

Bill, the “best friend of the team,” was already nervous and refused to speak to the media this morning after the 115: 107 loss to Chicago. He sees himself as a last stop (1 of 12 off the arc in the last three games), especially in the moments when Westbrook rests on the bench.

Another problem is that Westbrook and Bill are not the only ones playing unwise basketball. Following the frustration of the rest of the players that they barely see the ball, whenever Thomas Bryant for that matter receives a delivery, he also decides to throw it in the basket.

After blaming Westbrook, Bill, Bryant and basically the whole world, Abdia himself also has a responsibility. He is currently a retired basketball player, moving mostly on the arc of the three, afraid to cut, penetrate or God forbid ask for the ball by force, thinks more delivery and sadly tries to save for everyone, in one of the worst defensive teams in the league.

When Omri Caspi reached the best league in the world, the scouting reports said that his shooting was suspicious. So what did Caspi do? Worked very hard on the shot, which despite its strange technique became his main weapon. Well, no? probably not. All of this hard work over the years has degenerated the other qualities of the forward, who throughout his career in the NBA has ultimately relied on the same shooting, alongside basket cuts.

If this story sounds familiar to you, you are not wrong. The same things were written about Abdia in the scouting reports, and he also worked and is working very hard on the issue, and meanwhile shows that he should not be left alone (53 percent seasonally out of the arc), but Abdia has so many offensive abilities, which he showed at Maccabi Tel Aviv last season And certainly at the European Under-20 Championships held in Israel in the summer of 2019.

The same qualities we just do not see now, and the fear is that if he continues to rely only on the shot, and does not do more things on offense (in a team with two players as dominant as Westbrook and Bill it’s hard), he will degenerate as well.

Soon two significant players fighting with Abdia for minutes of play will return to full fitness. One of them, Davis Bartans, has already scored 20 points in the morning, and Roy Hachimura is expected to return in the near future. If Abdia fails to establish his status in rotation by then (currently getting a lot of minutes even following the same absences), in a few weeks he may be in big trouble.

Abdia should understand that at the end of the day in the US look at your points column in the statistics line, especially if a team is high in the draft and you are considered one of the best players in that year. If he continues to throw relatively little basket and score in single digits, it will be very difficult to develop in the league. Everyone, and especially his own, because obviously he can give a lot more.