The Portland Trail Blazers are enjoying a breakout season from forward Deni Avdija. The six-year veteran is averaging 24,4 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game in Portland, good for the first NBA All-Star nomination of his career.
Avdija is also working for the Blazers at a bargain rate. His $14.4 million salary would already be a screaming deal. He’s scheduled to earn 13.1 million next year and $11.9 million in 2027-28.
The combination of production and that inexpensive, declining contract has caused Sam Quinn of CBS Sports to name Avdija as the best contract in the entire NBA. It’s a little bit of an obvious observation, but it never hurts to remember what a steal the Blazers are getting in their best player.
[Avdija is] going to make less than 7% of the salary cap in the 2027-28 season, which, based on his aging curve, may be right around his peak. This isn’t just the best contract in the NBA. It’s an all-time NBA contract if he keeps playing at this level. Remember that incredible [Steph] Curry contract we mentioned above? Well, in the last year of that deal, he made $12.1 million. Avdija will make $11.9 million on his… more than a decade later.
This is the rare NBA contract that might actually be too good. It’s basically unextendable. At his maximum 40% raise in the first year of a new deal, he’d still be making something like mid-level money because of that descending structure. Portland would have to get below the salary cap entirely and carve out meaningful space to renegotiate and extend him in 2027 to offer him more than that, but the Blazers have loaded up on bloated contracts for older players like Jerami Grant and Jrue Holiday that will still be going by then, rendering a lot of the value this contract should be adding moot. Still, we’re judging these contracts in a vacuum. The Blazers may have mismanaged their books in other ways, but the Avdija trade was a home run. Not only did it get them a cornerstone young player, but it did so at a historically low price.
Quinn is correct in pointing out the difficulties inherent in retaining Avdija, coming down the road. It seems likely that Portland will have to let Avdija hit unrestricted free agency in 2028, then negotiate a whole new contract with him, shedding enough players to open cap space to do same. That’s when the salaries of elder statesmen Grant and Holiday will come off the books.
Until then, the Blazers can enjoy one of the best deals in the league, steak and lobster production for chain-restaurant prices. Thanks, Deni!
