Danny Avdia's landing in Israel after a record season with the Washington Wizards/photo: Niv Aharonson. Video editing: Shiran Golan
The journalists in the United States continue to vote for the outstanding players of the regular season in the NBA. At the end of the week, Bill Simmons - perhaps the most popular media person in the United States - revealed that he placed Danny Avdia in second place in the rating of the season's most improved player, and now the Israeli continues to receive credit from other media persons as well.
This time it was the turn of Kevin O'Connor, Simmons' friend from The Ringer website, who placed Avdia third on his podium. O'Connor chose Philadelphia's Tyrese Maxey as the season's most improved player, followed by Chicago's Kobe White - the two leading candidates for the title.
"Abadiah improved in every aspect of the game and set new career records in points per game, rebounds per game, field goal percentage and 3-point percentage," wrote the betting site Mlive, where they claimed that the Israeli is one of the top ten candidates to win the award.
As for the title of the most improved player of the season, votes of 12 voters have been published so far. Bill Simmons, probably the most popular sports journalist in the world, chose Danny Avdia for second place, and his friend from the website "The Ringer" Kevin O'Connor placed the Israeli third. Avdia also received a vote for the third place from James Edwards from "The Athletic", and currently he has a good chance of finishing in the top 5, after Tyrese Maxey, Kobi White and Alfern Shangon. Jaylen Branson, Jaylen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein and Donte Dioncenzo also received votes.
ESPN's Zach Lowe gave up his vote this season, but admitted in his latest column that he considered placing Avdia on his podium: "He's improved in every possible area and looks to stabilize his three-point shooting as well. He's averaging nearly 15 points per game, compared to 9.2 points last year. It's much more than just getting numbers in a terrible team." Finally, Lowe placed Jaylen Williams first, White second and Maxey third in the column he published.
The Israeli, who landed in Israel this week, said of his breakthrough season: "I am very satisfied, because I have made progress. From a team perspective, I want to win a little more and be competitive and I believe we will do it. I tried and worked very hard last summer and I am happy that it is bringing results. I feel that there was I have the opportunity to make a big improvement graph and that we are building something good in Washington and that there is something to build on. I am excited to continue playing for this club."
According to the votes published in the meantime - as mentioned, about a quarter of the total votes - Rudy Gober leads the race for the title of Defensive Player of the Season, Victor Wombenyama who ranked second favorite for the title of Rookie of the Season, Naz Reed is currently ranked first in the race for the title of Sixth Player of the Season, while Mark Daigneault from Oklahoma City is the favorite for the title of Coach the season