Deni Avdija’s Future With the Blazers Is Already a Problem: What the New Update Means
Portland finally found a star, and the update on his future is not encouraging.
Sam Quinn of CBS Sports said this week on the Third Apron Podcast that the Trail Blazers are not setting themselves up to retain Deni Avdija. Quinn’s point is mechanical rather than emotional: Portland needs extra cap space to renegotiate and extend Avdija’s contract, and the Blazers are not currently positioned to have it.
That is a brutal sentence for a franchise that just got its first good news in years.
Avdija, 25, was a revelation last season. He averaged 24.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game, emerged as one of the league’s most efficient off-the-dribble scorers, and earned NBA All-Star honors. Portland put together a winning season behind him and made its first playoff appearance since 2021.
Now the math. Avdija is signed for $13.1 million next season and $11.9 million in 2027-28, the residue of an inexpensive frontloaded deal he signed with the Washington Wizards back in 2023. That contract was a steal the day Portland acquired him. It has quietly become the organization’s biggest headache.
The problem is the extension rules. A veteran extension caps Avdija’s first-year raise at 140 percent of his current salary, which lands nowhere near what an All-Star forward is worth on the open market. To pay him fairly, Portland has to renegotiate, and renegotiating requires cap room the Blazers do not have.
This is where new owner Tom Dundon enters the picture, and that is the part that should worry Portland fans. Dundon has been watching costs closely since taking over, and his penny-pinching approach has already sparked backlash around the league.
A cost-conscious owner and a star who needs a creative, expensive financial solution are a bad combination. If Dundon declines to pony up, the 6-foot-8 Avdija is positioned to hit free agency in 2028 as one of the most attractive players available.
Here is the stance: Portland cannot let that happen, and there is no version of this where letting it happen looks defensible.
The Blazers spent the better part of a decade searching for a franchise cornerstone after the Damian Lillard era ended. They found a 25-year-old All-Star who scores efficiently, rebounds, creates for teammates, and wants to be there. You do not get many of those, and you certainly do not get them in Portland often.
Losing Avdija over a cap-space puzzle that other front offices solve every summer would be an organizational failure, not bad luck. Teams clear room. Teams restructure. Teams take on short-term pain to keep a player of this caliber.
The clock is not urgent yet, which is both the comfort and the danger. Avdija is under contract through 2027-28, so nothing breaks tomorrow. That also means Portland can drift, tell itself there is time, and wake up in 2028 watching an All-Star in his prime sign elsewhere.
Avdija has given the Blazers every reason to invest in him. The question is whether ownership wants to.
Right now the reporting suggests the answer is leaning the wrong way, and Portland fans have earned the right to be nervous about it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.