For the first time in his NBA career, Deni Avdija has a more conventional summer offseason in front of him to improve his game and come back better next season. Before his rookie year, he was drafted less than a month before reporting to training camp and last summer was spent with a longer than anticipated rehab process. The 21-year-old is not naive to the numerous aspects of his game that will need to improve for him to take the next step in the NBA and he welcomes it.

“I have so much stuff to improve,” Avdija said late in the Wizards’ past season. “That’s what I like. It doesn’t make me nervous to go and really explore more things in my game and get better. I think I’m doing a lot of stuff ok and the next step is to do all the stuff good and then better and better and at the end of the day excellent. I’m very positive, I know what I need to work on. I feel like with my growth, learning, and getting bigger it will be even easier. I’m looking forward for the next season and the summer.”

Washington Wizards team president and general manager Tommy Sheppard alluded that Avdija would not participate in the NBA’s Summer League in July given the busy summer with the Israel national team for EuroBasket and possibly World Cup qualifiers that Avdija’s NBA club supports fully and even prefers given the higher level of competition.

“You know I’m a very big supporter of players playing for their national team,” Sheppard answered about Avdija possibly playing in Summer League. “He actually has to do a World Cup qualifying segment this summer and for EuroBasket with Israel. I think FIBA games, especially World Cups, especially EuroBasket, the level of competition in those games, those are high-level games and I believe he’ll get more out of that and being one of the key players for Israel will give him the kind of experience, the kind of pressure we want him to have that probably Summer League doesn’t exist there. I think Deni will be tremendous in those competitions and I know his coaching staff with the Israeli team, we’ll have great connection with those guys, I look forward to working with them.”

Almost like a seasoned veteran not wanting to show his cards, Avdija would not get overly specific about the aspects of his game he plans to improve this summer. That did not stop Sheppard or head coach Wes Unseld Jr. from stating some of the obvious areas where Avdija will need to be able to counter the rest of the NBA next season: using his left hand, improving around the rim, shooting the 3-point shot with confidence and consistency, and not reaching and getting caught with touch foul calls.

“Be more engaged, be more aggressive,” Avdija did pinpoint more of a mentality than a skill to enhance. “I was a little shy off the ball a little bit in the beginning of the year, even last year. It feels great, playmaking for others, making big plays down the stretch and hopefully it can just continue. The role is going to grow and hopefully we can bring DC to the place it belongs.”

“He had plenty of opportunity to [play make] this year. So we looked at it this summer and that was something we came in wanting to see we he capable of not only playing pick and roll, pushing in transition, making the right reads, at times orchestrating the offense,” Unseld started on information he learned about Avdija’s game this past season. “It’s a testament to him and his efficiency when teams start to game plan to try and take him out of pick and roll or take him off his right hand. That’s a sign of respect. … Continue to improve his finishing, work with his left hand. He’s shooting the ball with more confidence so continue that trend as well.”

“The more he watches himself, he sees these refs were actually probably right, that probably was a foul. He’s got to learn that,” Sheppard said about Avdija’s astonishment with officials following foul whistles at various times throughout the season.

With the expectation that Bradley Beal re-signs to stay in Washington long-term this summer, there will be a push to contend in the Eastern Conference immediately to keep the franchise player happy and not thinking about a trade out. That means there will not be as much playing time used for development anymore and court minutes will require production. After starting the majority of his rookie season under Scott Brooks, Avdija predominantly came off the bench for Wes Unseld Jr., but in theory, a strong offseason could push veteran Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for the starting small forward position. Maybe unlikely given the balancing of egos, but late-game minutes will go to whoever earns them.

“That’s going to have to be determined by him,” Sheppard answered a question about Avdija’s role moving forward. “He’s going to have to come into training camp and carve out his role, carve out his minutes by production. This year, it’s a work in progress. I was very impressed, he came up. Still his left hand has more fingerprints on it than his right hand. He’s going to have to go left more, he’s going to have to cut some turnovers down. I give him a hard time because I know how good he can be. Putting him in DHOs [dribble handoffs], making him a secondary playmaker, I saw him bring the ball up and initiate the offense. Those are things he wasn’t doing a year ago. We know he’s far more capable of more.”

It is not guaranteed that Avdija is on the Wizards roster next season if he is used to acquire a starting point guard that the organization is on the hot seat to properly fill for the first time since bad injury luck hit John Wall in 2017-18. I would not think Washington wants to move Avdija at a time when they would be selling low for a player who has barely scratched the NBA surface, but if a team greatly prefers his ceiling over say Rui Hachimura or Corey Kispert, the Wizards may have little choice in the matter. Of course, without any talks of trades in mind, Tommy Sheppard left Avdija with a simple thought before he returned to Israel to start his offseason.

“Be great at the things you’re good at and I think Deni took that on yesterday,” Sheppard said last Tuesday, the day after completing exit interviews with players to mark an end to the 2021-22 season.