Last week, in their excellent podcast, Nate Duncan and John Hollinger re-selected the Draft 2020 players - that of Danny Abdia - and while the Washington Wizards' Israeli was expected to show better ability so far in some notable areas, the duo still placed Lost around 14-10 among NBA second-year players.
True, this really indicates a relatively weak cycle.
But it also shows that Duncan and Hollinger are serious professionals, and that probably in the context of Abdia they did their homework, and understand the process going on for ex-Maccabi, who was selected in ninth place in the previous draft.
Otherwise it is difficult to explain how they did not lower it lower.
After all, in points per game he is only 20th among his draft players, in assists he is 19th, and in shooting rates and "advanced" figures he is around only 30th.
And they are not alone - a brief Google search brings up a host of examples in which American journalists, professionals, and even Abdia's teammates and professional staff - shower compliments on him.
So how is it that deep into his second season, with relatively weak numbers in quite a few categories, there are still a lot of people who see Abdia as a relatively promising prospect, a positive and useful NBA player - even with his average numbers of 7 points, 5 rebounds, one assist, less than 70 Percent of the line, and 31 percent of three, so dull?
Do not need the ball
The reason lies, first of all, in the fact that Abdia celebrated only 21 yesterday.
It's still very young, and many of the things it saw in Abdia at a younger age - especially elements of the "impossible" type like game intelligence, motivation and approach to the game, the combination of height and "good hands" - are still definitely there, and still cause when looking to the future Of Abdia, one can on a good day see a special actor.
Abdia.
We did not expect him to be such a significant defensive player, Photo: EPA
But it does not end there.
Because Abdia - again, though it's really painful to see his shooting lessons - presents in addition to his well-known good qualities two more things.
The first is an improvement graph. True, almost all of his outstanding personal numbers are quite similar to those he gave in the rookie season. But a closer and deeper look reveals that today he properly completes basket entries, for example, more frequently and with more confidence. As of Monday night, he has finished 6 of his last 8 games with a double-digit number of points, putting 11.6 points per game in those games, with more assists, steals and blocks - and not a bad percentage of almost 36% for threes and 75% for penalties. This is compared to 29% and 66% of these ranges previously.
The second thing that impresses him is his ability to influence the game - even without "filling" the box-score with personal data.
Thus, he is fourth in the group in points that his team scores per 100 passers, and second in the group in points that the team absorbs.
In the last 15 games, Washington has won only five and lost ten, absorbing 86 points more than it scores.
At that time, Abdia - who is on the field half the time with 24 minutes per game - was in the plus-minus of +1.
This means that without him, in about 360 minutes, the team would have been at minus 87. And in about 360 minutes with him, it would have been positive.
He does it without really needing the ball - his "usage" classes are one of the end places in the group.
He mostly excels on defense, successfully retaining a variety of players every night, including rival stars, whether outside or inside.
And here it is no longer just an "improvement graph", but an absolute element of surprise.
No one, two years ago, expected Abdia to become perhaps the NBA's most significant defensive player already during his second season.
And this surprise is first and foremost a result of what we already knew it had - the right attitude, motivation, intelligence, and good physical abilities.
Now all that remains is to score those free threes.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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