According to PJ Tucker, Bam Adebayo is one of the very few centers in the league that can guard players of all positions.
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However surprising it is, the Miami Heat are the best team in the Eastern Conference. Several fans and analysts attribute this success to the increase in production of Tyler Herro and the All-NBA type performance by Jimmy Butler. However, a huge reason behind Erik Spoelstra’s boys’ successes in this campaign has to be credited to Bam Adebayo.
The Heat are one of the best defensive teams in the league, and Adebayo is their anchor on that end of the floor. With an impressive defensive rating of 103.7 (league-best is 103.2), the only reason why Adebayo isn’t one of the strong contenders for the DPOY honor is because of the games he missed due to injuries.
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However, according to his Heat teammates and coaching staff, Bam is surely deserving of the prestigious individual honor.
“In this new era of basketball, being a center who can guard guards is key,” P.J. Tucker said. “It’s key to fixing a lot of things and being able to take people out of their offenses and making them do what you want them to do. That’s the key to defense.”
“You can’t be the Defensive Player of the Year if you can’t play in most fourth quarters. That’s insanity to me,” Tucker said, referencing how the game has changed with teams like Brooklyn playing Kevin Durant at the five in closing lineups. “Just look at fourth quarter lineups, that’s the game.”
“Bam Adebayo is our unicorn defensively”: Erik Spoelstra
Coach Erik Spoelstra also spoke about Adebayo’s unique versatility on the defensive end.
“We’re one of the more unique defensive teams in the league,” Spoelstra says. “We have a lot of experienced, highly decorated, veteran defenders, but to do what we’re doing requires a unicorn. That’s what Bam is defensively. He can defend in any scheme and he can defend any player within that scheme.”
“Switching is a big part of our pick-and-roll defense and that looks great, sounds great, but if you don’t have somebody that can really see plays before they happen and get things organized as the initial backline of the defense, and then you [become] the frontline of the defense on the switch, that’s not as easy as it may seem,” Spoelstra says.
“This league is driven by these amazingly skilled perimeter players that have incredible range and handles and know how to draw fouls and know how to get people off balance. We’re switching our center onto so many of those guys night in and night out, that just shows you his level of defensive prowess, IQ, physical ability.
“The majority of the teams just don’t have that sort of player to be able to do this scheme.”
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Despite missing 25 games this season, Adebayo was ranked in the top 8 of the latest DPOY Ladder. With the regular season coming to an end in less than 10 games, it seemed highly unlikely that we see Bam lift the award.
