The clock continues to tick down toward Sunday evening, when the San Antonio Spurs will open their 2026 playoff run against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Before diving into what Stephon Castle, De’Aaron Fox, and Devin Vassell had to say about defending All-Star Deni Avdija on Friday, here are a few other resources to get ready for this series.
First, there’s the in-depth round one playoff preview I published Thursday morning.
Then, later that evening, guest Collin Reid and I recorded a new episode of Small Market Bias, going even further into the upcoming matchup between the two teams.
And now to Friday’s quotes and analysis.
As mentioned above, Castle, Fox, and Vassell were asked questions about the upcoming playoff series with Portland, and a few of their quotes stuck out to me regarding defending Avdija. There was also a Fox comment about who he thinks will defend him most of the time in the series, a little further into the article.
The Challenge of Defending All-Star Deni Avdija
“He’s the head of the snake for them, so we expect him to be super aggressive,” said Castle of Avdija Friday. “We don’t know how early on, but we expect him to be aggressive throughout the game, so, yeah, he’s definitely a focal point of ours.”
“I mean, he’s just a relentless driver, that’s what makes him who he is,” said Fox of Deni. “You know what he wants to do; he knows what he wants to do. I think the arena knows what he wants to do, but it’s can you stop it? You’re not going to just shut him down; you’re not going to stop him, because he is relentless. You just try to make his night as inefficient as possible. That’s a tough thing to do. That’s why they were able to beat a good Phoenix team, and that’s why they made the playoffs.”
Regarding Deni’s driving ability, just look at some of his numbers on drives per game this season from NBA.com/stats:
19.4 drives per game - Most in the league
6.3 shots on drives - 13th
51.1% accuracy on drives
3.8 free throw attempts on drives - Tied for 1st with Paolo Banchero
10.1 points per game on drives - Tied for 6th with Anthony Edwards
9.4 passes on drives - Most in the league
2.4 assists on drives - Tied for most in the league with Kevin Porter Jr.
1.4 turnovers on drives - Most in the league per game
When asked about Castle being the primary defender on Avdija, Fox said it has to be a whole team effort.
“You guard him with the team,” said Fox. “It’s going to be a collective effort. We want to do a good job on the ball, send him where we want to send him, but you know you’re going to have help, you’re going to have Vic behind you, so we’ve prepared enough, so I think we’re going to be in good shape.”
