There is a version of Deni Avdija that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans remember with great fondness, a teenager with impossibly soft hands in traffic, a knack for slowing the game down when everyone around him was speeding up, and an instinct for contact that made the paint feel like his personal office. That version still exists. It just wears a Portland Trail Blazers uniform now, and it has been upgraded.

In a candid conversation, the Israeli forward opened up about the delicate balance between shedding old habits and preserving the ones that made him special in the first place.

Unlearning to Grow: The Foul-Drawing Evolution

When asked what he had to unlearn in his transition from EuroLeague basketball to the NBA, Avdija did not hesitate. The European game, with its emphasis on spacing, off-ball movement, and patience in the half-court, rewards players who can manufacture contact in subtle ways. But the NBA, with its physicality, length, and officials who reward aggression rather than artistry, demanded a different vocabulary.

“What I kinda gained is probably becoming smarter and knowing how to be physical and draw fouls,” Avdija explained to Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson. 

That shift is reflected in the numbers. Avdija has developed into one of the more reliable foul-drawers at his position, not through flopping or theatrics, but through an educated understanding of how NBA referees track contact. He learned that the league at this level rewards players who initiate, who attack downhill, who make defenders respond rather than react. The passive craftiness that served him in Tel Aviv needed to be complemented by assertiveness, and he put in the work to develop exactly that.

What He Refuses to Let Go

But for every adjustment Avdija has made, there is something he has guarded fiercely. “I refuse to give up the craftiness in the paint, the fakes, the slow-steps,” he said with visible conviction.

It is a small sentence that explains a great deal about why his game translates so effectively at the highest level. European big wings are often stereotyped as jump shooters who struggle when the game gets physical inside the arc. Avdija defies that narrative entirely. His ability to operate at multiple speeds in the paint, to use a hesitation step that forces a defender to commit before delivering a finish off the glass or drawing iron, is a skill set that was forged in youth academies and refined under EuroLeague pressure. No amount of NBA conditioning has dulled that instinct, nor should it.

Positionless Basketball, Personified

For the Portland Trail Blazers, Avdija’s leap to All-Star status this season is not a surprise so much as a long-awaited confirmation. The organization, still in the middle stages of a rebuild, needed someone who could anchor both ends of the floor without demanding the ball be run exclusively through him. What they got was a player who has become the living embodiment of “positionless” basketball—a concept the league discusses endlessly but rarely sees mastered.

On any given possession, Avdija might be switching onto a point guard on the perimeter, sealing a center in the post, or leading a fast break after ripping a contested defensive board. His versatility is not cosmetic. It is structural. Coaches do not have to hide him anywhere on the floor, and opponents are forced to make uncomfortable decisions about who guards him and how.

The Intangibles That Define a Leader

Beyond the film study and the box scores, it is the intangibles that have cemented Avdija’s standing inside the Blazers’ locker room. Veterans and young players alike have noted his evenness, the same disposition whether Portland is on a winning streak or grinding through a five-game road trip in January. In an era where young stars can disappear during stretches of team adversity, Avdija has become a stabilizing presence, someone teammates look to when the game tightens or a shooting slump threatens confidence.

The hidden challenges of the NBA, the relentless schedule, the cross-country travel, and the unforgiving pace of an 82-game season are things he now navigates with veteran ease. He arrived from Tel Aviv as a prospect. He is leaving this regular season as a cornerstone.

Play-In Stakes and the Road Ahead

As the Blazers prepare to face the Phoenix Suns tonight in a high-stakes Play-In contest, the weight of the moment will not be lost on the man carrying much of Portland’s postseason hopes. But if history is any guide, Avdija will meet that weight not by forcing things, but by doing exactly what he does: reading the floor, slowing it down when others rush, and trusting the instincts that were sharpened over thousands of hours in gyms from Tel Aviv to Portland.

The slow steps and the fakes remain. The rest has simply been refined.