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Sean Highkin: Deni Avdija on back issues: "I can say it's behind me. It was frustrating because it was lingering. You have to reinvent yourself and understand how you move more efficiently."
Sean Highkin: Deni Avdija on playing next to Damian Lillard next year: "Me and Dame had conversations throughout the year. He has a lot of things we need. We both have mutual goals and we love each other's games. I think we can do great things together, for sure."
Sean Highkin: Deni Avdija: "That experience was needed for me, and as a team, to fight together and see how it is with playoff physicality. I had a lot of fun. We left it all on the court. You've got to stay resilient and do it together."
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Tom Orsborn: Splitter on the Castle-Avdija dustup: "Both teams playing very physical. I just thought that what Castle did was a little excessive and too much and then Deni just reacted, which is normal when you're trying to play and you try to win. I don't think it's a big deal."
As the crew analyzed the Blazers’ best-of-seven series against the San Antonio Spurs in the opening round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs, presented by Google, Barkley drew a striking parallel between the Israeli star Deni Avdija and the late Hall of Famer Drazen Petrovic. “Drazen Petrovic is one of the best players I’ve ever seen from an offensive, aggressive standpoint,” he noted, emphasizing the specific mental shift he sees in Avdija’s game. “Let me tell you something, he wants to score every single time. He’s going straight, he ain’t deviating off that line, and he ain’t going around you, he ain’t going left. He’s like, ‘Hey, I’m going right to the basket.’”
Spurs guard Stephon Castle downplayed his late-game dustup with All-Star guard Deni Avdija in Sunday's 114-93 win over the Trail Blazers in Game 4 of the first-round playoff series. "We're just competing," Castle said. "Nothing crazy."
NBA Courtside: Deni Avdija on the Castle altercation 👀 “I have a lot of respect for him but the thing at the end with shoving the ball in my chest is unnecessary. I don’t play those games. That not who I am. You can be physical but there’s a level of disrespect I’m not going to accept. He’s done a lot of provocation throughout the whole game. At one point it was just disrespectful”
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Sources close to the situation told ESPN that Tiago Splitter was given a raise from his assistant coaching salary and discussed a longer-term contract during the season. The salary presented to him to continue on as head coach was far below a standard NBA head coaching salary, and further discussion was tabled until after the season, sources said. "He got thrown in a difficult situation," Deni Avdija said after the Blazers evened the series on Tuesday night.
Splitter, the team’s interim head coach, had just heard an earful from the masseuse, who had nowhere to provide treatment for the players ahead of that night’s game. And she wasn’t the only one complaining. Splitter eventually called a confidant, and vented his frustration. “I told (Splitter) he can’t be focused on this while he is about to coach his most important game,” the person Splitter called told The Athletic. “And he was like, ‘But what if the masseuse decides that she doesn’t want to do a good job because she’s angry and then she doesn’t do a good job on Deni (Avdija)? Then it affects me, too.'”
