With the Portland Trail Blazers fresh off a huge win over the Houston Rockets that it’ll take all day to celebrate, it’s time to tackle one of the lesser and easier (but still pertinent) Blazer’s Edge Mailbag questions about everybody’s favorite Blazers player. Take a look.
Lots of talk about Deni being an all star this year but I’m thinking way bigger. What are the chances he makes all NBA? We’ve got a superstar in the making imo. What do you think?
If he keeps up this level of production, I’d say Deni Avdija has a decent chance to make an All-NBA team. The basic qualification is being one of the 15 best players in the league, right? In broad strokes, that means the lead players on around half the teams in the association have a shot, give or take a couple of overlapping candidates. (Hello, LeBron and Luka.) It’s not impossible to envision voters thinking Deni is as good as the stars on half of the other NBA teams. I doubt he’ll make first-team, but third is certainly within reach. Maybe more.
As of now, Avdija ranks 13th in the NBA in scoring, the flashiest and most obvious stat under consideration. He’s averaging 26.3 points per game. Let’s assume he stays there. He’s not going to crack the obvious MVP discussion centered around Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo (the latter two with asterisks that we’ll talk about in a minute). Those spots are inviolable. But one can envision Avdija spoken among names like Jaylen Brown, Jalen Brunson, and Donovan Mitchell. He’s about three points per game behind their averages, but among the Top 20 scorers, his suite of 7.2 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game is matched only by Detroit Pistons phenom Cade Cunningham and the ultra-elite players we just mentioned. That’s heady company. Besides, the modern NBA loves stat-stuffing wings who can defend. Deni fits that bill exactly.
There’s always the old argument of “big scorer on a bad team, somebody’s got to do it”. If the Blazers fall off a cliff, that may hinder Avdija’s case. But if they’re in contention for a play-in spot–let alone if they make the playoffs–the narrative changes to, “Carried a broken team on his back.” At that point, his inclusion is all but assured. Watch Portland’s record. Besides Avdija’s stats, that’s the best indicator of whether he’ll make it or not.
Having said all that, we may need to ask whether making an All-NBA team in 2026 is the achievement it once was. With the rash of injuries sweeping the league, the “65 Game Rule” is coming into play for many players. To combat teams “load managing” stars, the NBA instituted a policy back in 2023 declaring that any player who appears in fewer than 65 contests is ineligible for leaguewide awards. That includes All-NBA nominations. Some of the big-time candidates, including Jokic and Antetokounmpo, might not qualify for the honor this year.
Much is made of the cost to the players involved, but having obvious MVP candidates like Jokic (averaging 30 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists per game) absent from the All-NBA rolls cheapens the honor for the other recipients. It’s almost like you have two lists: the guys who officially qualified for All-NBA and the guys who were really the best players in the league. It’s not unfair. Even as a Trail Blazers fan, if you could start your team with Joker or with Deni, which would you choose?
If some of the bigger names don’t get the award, there’s going to be an asterisk by Avdija’s name and everybody else who isn’t immediately recognizable to the general public as a marquee player. It won’t matter to Blazers fans or people in the know, but it’s not entirely satisfying. Half the point of Avdija making the team is being listed alongside Giannis and Luka. When you play a music festival with Def Leppard and The Police, you’ll talk about it to your children for years. If it’s just your band, Bag o’ Fritos, and Skeeter’s Lumps, it’s not the same even if those bands are objectively great.
I don’t see a great solution to this other than maybe lowering the bar for qualification a bit? 65 games seems a little high. It’s easy to envision an injury and a couple of nagging problems costing a player 17 games over the course of a season. Playing two-thirds of the schedule should be enough to qualify you for postseason awards. That works out to 55 games, not 65. Let’s get real, I don’t think the Nuggets are sitting Jokic one game more than they have to anyway. If a team is going to circumvent the system, awards aren’t going to stop them. You might as well retain the basic idea while leaving a little more space for wear and tear on an athlete’s body. That’ll cover the majority of cases.
I think it’s possible to positively incentivize participation too. Why not recruit a company that wants to advertise the durability of their product to fund an Ironman Team, putting up sponsorship money to award the players who gave it all and endured each season? Qualifications would be 80 games, 20 minutes per. Any players who reached that threshold would be eligible to be named to the Ironman squad. Maybe the best five would split the majority of the sponsorship money (as the official Ironman Team) and everybody else would get a spiff. 19 players would have qualified last season. I don’t think honoring a team of Mikal Bridges, Jalen Green, Jaden McDaniels, Jarrett Allen, and Ivica Zubac would be a bad thing. Nor is it horrible to get “Ironman” appended to your description when you’re negotiating your next contract.
Anyway, circling back to the original question, especially with injuries taking otherwise-qualified players out, I do think Deni Avdija has a chance at making an All-NBA team this year. He’s served enough poster material to opponents across the league to get his name noticed. If he does it, it’ll be a big boon for him and for Portland…well, until his contract comes up. Then the Blazers will (appropriately) pay big time for it. But that’s a problem for another day. For now, take the award and run if you get it! It would be a nice coda to an interesting season.
Thanks for the question! You can always send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll try to answer as many as possible!