RADIO
Deni Avdija is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 23 of the 2022-23 NBA season.
BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues
ROSTERED IN: 8% of leagues
ANALYSIS: The surge of Deni Avdija in all fantasy leaderboards has a very easy-to-grasp reason and that's Kyle Kuzma missing time with an injury. Ruled out Sunday, that made it four consecutive outings missed by the Kuz, which has clearly opened the door for Avdija to play a much larger role with the Wiz of late. So much so that he's even made it to the starting five after not appearing in one (almost) for the last three months.
Although Avdija started 29 of the first 32 games played by the Wiz through December 20, he only had five starts in the following 38 matches up until last week when he grabbed back-to-back starts against Denver and San Antonio on Wednesday and Friday (I'm writing this before Sunday's game, though Kuzma is out and Deni should be in the starting unit once more).
Avdija also played 28 minutes on March 18 and 34 three days later before getting into the starting lineup, which ultimately might be the right move because of his extraordinary production. In Deni's last four matches through Saturday, he's averaged a 14-10-5-1 per-game stat line. He's scored 15+ points in three consecutive games, shooting 83%, 77%, and 64% from the floor on increasing diets of six, nine, and 14 FGA.
The third-year wing is entering a developmental zone in which he's seemingly stuck and not moving that much. In other words, this Avdija is probably what he is going to be for the remainder of his career unless he becomes the face of the franchise in a rebuilding effort and gets the benefit of playing the classic "somebody has to do something" boosting role.
Avdija is scoring a lot on a little bit of an unsustainably-high FG% while also grabbing tons of boards and contributing a bunch of dimes nightly. The turnovers are very hurting, though, with 11 total possessions lost in his last four games alone. As long as Kuz keeps missing time, and even coming off the pine, Avdija is worth roster spot ROS in most deeper formats.
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