Genius! Trough! Breaking out! The story of Israeli genius!

Looking back at the offseason in 2025, although there are no top competitions like the Olympics and the World Cup, the European Cup still makes many fans excited.

On this stage, the strongest confrontations in today's basketball are gathered: Serbia Jokic, Slovenian Doncic, Greek Antetokounmpo, Germany Wagner, Finland Markanen, Turkey Shenjing, new and old super stars, staged a big show of war with each other...

The final finale was the ending of the German men's basketball team defeated Turkey under the leadership of Wagner and Schroeder to win the championship. In addition to the championship, Antetokounmpo led Greece to return to the semi-finals of the tournament, and Markanen also led Finland to achieve the fourth best record in history.

However, in addition to these familiar NBA superstars, there is another name worth paying attention to, young forward Deni Avdia from Israel.

Compared with Germany, Greece and other countries, Israel is not a basketball powerhouse and has never entered the quarterfinals in the past 20 years.

As the core of this team, Avdia delivered an excellent report card with an average of 24 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Although the team ultimately failed to stop Antetokounmpo's rampage and ended in the round of 16, his performance is enough to be comparable to star players such as Doncic and Wagner.

For Israeli basketball, this is already a miracle; for Avdia personally, it is more like a declaration:

He is a superstar in the European arena, and on the NBA stage, he should not be regarded as a role player.

Avdia was born into a sports family since childhood. Her father was a national player in Yugoslavia and won the bronze medal in the World Championships with the team. Her mother was a dual athlete in track and field and basketball.

As a basketball genius, Avdia showed talent since she was a child. She entered the professional league at the age of 17 and led the team to win three consecutive championships in the Israeli Super League. In 2019, he led the Israeli youth team to win two consecutive U20 European Championships and also won the MVP trophy. Under the honor of

, Avdia began to look at a higher stage: in 2020, he entered the NBA with the ninth pick in the first round, wearing the jersey of the Washington Wizards.

But for Avdia, his timing for entering the NBA was quite bad. At that time, the league had just experienced the epidemic crisis. After the schedule was suspended, the rookies of that year did not participate in the summer league and almost did not get many opportunities to adapt before officially entering the NBA.

As for the wizards, the environment at that time was also quite complicated. The team is headed by star defender Bill in the backcourt, while the frontcourt is Kuzma, Hachimura, Bertans and other veterans. In contrast, the young Avdia can only look for fragmented opportunities in the corner. In the rookie season, Avdia, who was a European player, rarely stood firm in the bench with defense as the basis, but averaged only 6 points per game. In the end, he was reimbursed due to injury and missed a golden stage of rookie development.

In the second year of his career, Avdia was able to play healthily throughout the season, but his role was still just a substitute, his average score was still hovering in single digits, and his outside shooting was always ups and downs. Compared with the halo of the first round pick, Avdia is more like those similar role players at this time and it is difficult to take on the team's core expectations for the future.

Turning point occurred in his fourth season of his career:

23-year-old Avdia averaged more than 30 minutes per game for the first time, and his personal data exploded to 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. The three-point shooting percentage of the short board also reached 37% above the qualified level.

He finally proved his value, not just a blue-collar defender, but a core striker with excellent offense and defense. But unfortunately, at this time, the Wizards announced that they had entered the reconstruction period and had to trade him to the Trail Blazers for future draft picks. When he first arrived in Portland, Avdia was in a sluggish state, with his three-point shooting percentage in the first 10 games falling to a terrible 18.8%. Fortunately, the young man was willing to accept Billups' adjustment and took the initiative to sit on the bench. After the adjustment, Avdia's projection gradually recovered. Since the end of November, his three-point shooting percentage has returned to more than 40%. And as the outside projection opens, the opportunity to break through naturally comes.

Entering 2025, Avdia was able to return to the Trail Blazers to start. In the first 20 games, personal data soared to 23 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists; in the last 13 games of the regular season, he even scored a star-level performance of 27+11+5.5.

Under this data sheet, Avdia is a decreasing contract, with the contract amount in the next three years only 36 million, and the annual salary in the last year is even less than 12 million. In comparison, Avdia is almost the most cost-effective striker in the entire league at this stage.

And in Portland's early stages of reconstruction, the outstanding Avdia was not alone. Beside him, the young forward partner Kamala has just become the team's first core wing to be selected for the best defensive lineup in 20 years. The two have a total salary of less than 14 million, but they support the entire forward line of the Trail Blazers. In addition to the wing front line, Sharp and Henderson are in the backcourt position, Yang Hansen and Klingen are in the center position, and behind Avdia, a group of young people are waiting to explode.

Under these young talents, Avdia's game experience has been under the team. He began to grow into an all-around forward with excellent offense and defense. In the loss environment of Portland, he constantly honed his winner's mentality.

Looking back at this trajectory, from Israel's ever-winning army to the bench of the NBA's weak brigade, from the questioned parallels to the superstar performance of the European Cup, Avdia's story is actually very inspiring.

He is not the No. 1 pick with explosive talent, nor is he a super ace who can control the game just by entering the league. Today's Avdia is no longer just the banner of Israel. His next step is the cornerstone of the future of the pioneers.

Maybe next season, he will be able to win his first All-Star in his career. After all, the European Cup has proven enough that he is among the wings of European stars.