Wizards Face Blazers as Deni Avdija Returns to Capital One Arena

The Washington Wizards return to action on Tuesday to host the Portland Trail Blazers for the first of two meetings, also kicking off a five-game homestand into February.

Portland will enter the matchup as one of the hottest teams in the NBA after winning 11 of their last 15 games to get back to .500 ahead of Monday's loss vs. Boston.

But Tuesday will also mark the return of former Wizard Deni Avdija in what should be his first full performance in DC since being traded from Washington.

Avdija, the Wizards' first round pick in the 2020 draft, spent four seasons with the organization and steadily increased his production along with the way, averaging nearly 15 points in his final season. But the front office would end up capitalizing on his rising stock in a Draft night deal with Portland, sending Avdija to the Blazers in exchange for Malcolm Brogdon, a 2029 first round pick, a pair of future second round picks and the 14th selection during the 2024 draft which proved to be Bub Carrington, now a key piece of the Wizards future.

Fast forward 18 months later, Avdija enters Tuesday's game averaging a career-high 26 points, ranked 12th in the NBA, while adding 7.1 rebounds and 6.9 assists in nearly 35 minutes en route to his likely first All-Star appearance next month. But that doesn't mean the move was a mistake after Monumental Basketball President Michael Winger noted the team was still in the "deconstruction phase" - a phase that's now complete after acquiring Trae Young.

“No, it was not a mistake," Winger said during a press conference on Jan. 22. "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 was to take us back a couple of years so we could reset the roster and everybody was on the same age curve and Deni’s ahead of that.”

Avidja, who played just six minutes in his first return to DC last offseason, will get a chance to prove that he could've been part of the rebuild. After all, for a Washington team that has the third-lowest payroll in the league in 2025-26 and enter the offseason with the second-lowest payroll next season. But as Wagner said, "there are only so many roster spots" when looking ahead at building on the Wizards' foundation ahead of this season's trade deadline and beyond.

For Washington and Avidja, maybe it proved to be a win-win given Carrington is now part of a young Wizards core the front office is looking to build around as Avidja stepped into a feature role en route to his first All-Star appearance. But after missing the first leg of a back-to-back, Avidja will get a chance to step back into Capital One Arena with a chance to extend the Wizards' losing streak to ten, the team's longest losing streak since losing 14 straight through the first month of the regular season.