Bam Adebayo has been known as one of the best defenders in the NBA for the last five seasons, but he hasn’t been in contention to win Defensive Player of the Year in any of those years. Adebayo is still seething over being repeatedly ignored for award consideration despite anchoring a defense with fewer defensive pieces around him.
“A point guard (Marcus Smart) got it over me, a center (Rudy Gobert) got it over me, a power forward (Jaren Jackson Jr.) has gotten it over me. The goalposts move for me, to certain degrees. It’s me and a lot of undrafted dudes, and we still have a top-five defense. These other guys have All-NBA dudes (around them).”
Adebayo just wants the goalposts to not be moving all the time.
“Some of it is, they don’t really care about us and that’s fine. I think they should pay attention to consistency because being top five DPOY, I think I have the longest streak of All-Defensive teams, so the goalposts move for me.”
The calling card behind the Heat’s success in the Jimmy Butler era has been defense, as they have been a consistently poor offense that wins games and series on the strength of their defense. That defense is anchored by Bam, who averaged 19.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 1.1 steals, and 0.9 blocks last season.
Personally speaking, I had Adebayo as my choice for DPOY in both 2022 and 2023 when he lost out to Marcus Smart and Jaren Jackson Jr. In 2022, the Heat had the best record in the East primarily due to the incredible defensive performances by Adebayo but the Celtics’ late-season defensive surge prompted people to favor Smart.
The Heat were much worse record-wise the next season, but they were still a top-five defense in the NBA. Nonetheless, Adebayo was overlooked for Jaren Jackson Jr., who had a monster season when it came to putting up defensive stats (1.0 steals and 3.0 blocks per game).
Erik Spoelstra Went Off On NBA GMs For Not Recognizing Bam Adebayo’s Defensive Ability
Ahead of the 2023-24 NBA season, the annual NBA GM poll saw no mention of Adebayo when it came to the best defenders in the league. This incensed Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who went off over Bam’s defense being ignored.
“That one is just unbelievable to me. I think Bam is the best defensive player in the league and I just can’t understand why he’s not recognized for how impactful he is on that end of the court. So, he’s just going to have to prove it again and just do it this year until everybody notices. I think that’s a good award to go for.”
Adebayo’s defensive reputation clearly improved this year as he made his first appearance on the All-Defense First Team. He has made All-Defense every year since 2020, the longest active streak of All-Defense appearances.
With the emergence of Victor Wembanyama, Adebayo may legitimately never get another shot at winning the award given how close Wembanyama came to winning it as a rookie with over 60 losses on the season. The current Team USA backup center will have to lead the Heat to a special season as a defender to even be in contention again.
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