Wizards' Michael Winger Drops Exec-Speak to Explain Deni Avdija Trade With Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers are seen as many to be the undisputed winners of their 2024 offseason swap with the Washington Wizards of Deni Avdija and Malcolm Brogdon, who has since retired, plus the 2024 No. 14 pick, which turned into Bub Carrington, a 2029 first-round pick, and two second-round picks. Avdija is on a team-friendly deal and will be on an even friendlier deal to the Blazers' books over the next three years. He's also a bargain of an All-Star after steadily rising during his two years in the Rip City.

One would think that made Washington the clear loser of the deal. Wizards President Michael Winger does not believe so. Winger outright said, "It was not a mistake," when asked point-blank about the deal nearly two years later.

"I'm very, very happy for Deni. We're all very happy for Deni. We saw Deni as a very high-level, ascending player. Super happy for him, super happy for the Blazers. We've got a lot of friends there with the Blazers. But no. Because we did it for the reasons we said then, which is to, in effect, take us back a couple years, so that we could reset the roster and everybody was sort of on the same age curve. And Deni's ahead of that," Winger said Thursday.

"As a reminder, we are not pursuing short-term success. We are not pursuing moderate success. We believe that mediocrity, frankly, is just easily achievable, but there's a very low ceiling on hope."

Michael Winger in Denial About NBA Reality in Trades

Good for Winger for being honest about his team not looking to win games right now. Good for Winger that he came up with a gameplan to justify trading a player who could've fit into any rebuild on his cheap deal.

Joe Cronin has earned trust in Portland for his work, chiefly, the Avdija deal. Meanwhile, Winger is the GM who now did more damage than just helping make the league-altering decision to trade Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks, and two pick swaps for Paul George, though Lawrence Frank lives in infamy for engineering the PG-Kawhi Leonard coup of the 2019 offseason.

The Wizards have to hit on those picks. Avdija has outplayed his contract so emphatically that Washington is now under pressure to have gotten nothing for the Israeli star.

More often than not, the Wizards don't hit on picks, regardless of who is in charge. To have sold the farm on Avdija will only age well if Washington goes against the odds, not only their own history, but general NBA history, and receives at least one Avdija-level player in return in the long-run. They knew they weren't getting that with Brogdon. Carrington has time, but it's not yet looking likely. The future picks are obviously unknowns.

Unfortunately, how well Avdija performs could directly work against them if/when the Blazers' picks are no longer in the lottery.