Avdija played 34 international games - for a total of 422 minutes. What signified NBA ready if he wasnt Maccabi Tel Aviv ready?
https://www.basketball-reference.com/international/players/deni-avdija-1.html
Yeah, Avdija "wasn't Maccabi Tel Aviv ready" ... he only led the team to an Israeli championship and was named league MVP. At age 18.
It's usually better to know what you are talking about:
- Deni Avdija joined Maccabi Tel Aviv in
2013 and excelled as a youth player. -
He debuted for their senior team in 2017, at age 16, becoming the youngest player in club history.
- Two years later, he became the
youngest player to ever win the Israeli Basketball Premier League MVP award,
- and led his team to the
Israeli Basketball Premier League championship.
- Avdija is also a member of the Israeli senior national basketball team.
- He has won two gold medals for Israel at the youth level, including at the 2019 FIBA U20 European Championship, where he was
named tournament MVP.
So Avdija has been a pro for 7 years, on Maccabi Tel Aviv since age 16, won essentially every accolade in Israeli hoops, played in plenty of international tourneys (including MVP of the 2019 FIBA U20 European Championship). Has played 2 seasons in Euroleague, the highest European level. His father had a 19 year professional Euro-career, so he has a very good support group, akin to RJB.
Why would anyone think that he was more NBA ready than a whole lot of guys mostly one year out of US high school?