NBA: Power ranking the 30 projected starting small forwards on each team

27. Deni Avdija, Portland Trail Blazers

I'm not truly sure I understood the trade of Malcolm Brogdon for Deni Avdija, but the Portland Trail Blazers did score a new starting small forward. I'd tend to believe this may not be a long-lasting role for Avdija considering there's probably a good chance Shaedon Sharpe overtakes him as the starter at some point this season. At least for now, Avdija is the starter for the team. And he's probably a bottom 5 starter in comparison to the rest of the league. That doesn't mean that Avdija is a bad player but it just indicates that he may not be the long-term answer for the team at the position.

To be quite honest, I'm not sure there would be much pushback with that belief. In respect to Avdija, he is coming off the best season of his career with the Washington Wizards in which he was arguably the second-best player on the team for the majority of the year.

If he can build off last year, perhaps there is more to his ceiling than we aren't quite giving him credit for. However, I do have to see it to believe it. Avdija is a good player but I'm not sold on the idea of him being a long-term starter in the league.