Why the Wizards chose Deni over Rui

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Why the Wizards chose Deni over Rui

In his most direct and telling interview this week, Tommy Sheppard made it very clear that Deni Advija was the primary reason behind Rui's trade to the Lakers.

Why did the Wizards choose Deni over Rui? The answer is defense. Here are some key quotes from Sheppards interview:

"When we really looked at what we needed it was to get Deni more responsibility and more opportunities to play."

"Sometime to you make moves to open more playing time for players on your roster...Getting more minutes from Deni Avdija...was a big reason behind this trade."

"Defensively, I think he (Deni) is one of our best defenders. Certainly, point pick and rolls he is one of the best in the league".

On offense, Sheppard thinks the Wizards are in a good place which also explains why Rui was the one to move on.

"The points will come, we score points, with KP without KP, with Brad without Brad...scoring is not the problem (but) we got to stop the other team from scoring and we need more defense out there."

Side note-funny how Tommy did not mentioned Kuzma here.

On offense Deni has struggled especially from the 3-point line but with Rui gone he may also have the opportunity for higher percentage shots in addition to his extra minutes. Chase Hughes from WTOP news explained like this:

"Avdija could now play closer to the basket, as more of a power forward than a small forward. That may be for the best given he’s shooting just 27.5% from three this year, a career-low in his third NBA season. Avdija takes 42.5% of his shot attempts from 3-point range which is quite a bit considering his efficiency."

You can check out Tommy Sheppards full interview below:

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