Bam Adebayo is one of the finalists for this year’s NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. Rudy Gobert or Victor Wembanyama will likely take home the trophy, but one NBA media personality begs to disagree.
Speaking on the Dan Le Batard show this week, Amin Elhassan said that Bam Adebayo should at least be considered for the award following his efforts against the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of their best-of-seven series in the first round.
“He’s the best defensive player in the league, and it’s not even close,” Elhassan said about Adebayo. “How did they bottle the Celtics offense in the second half? It was Bam Adebayo as the primary defender on Brown, on Tatum, on Porzingis, even guarding Jrue Holiday a couple of times.”
What made Bam Adebayo’s defense more impressive is that he’s also contributing on the other side of the court, as he recorded 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field in the 111-101 victory to make up for the absences of Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier.
Bam Adebayo leading the way for the Miami Heat
If the Miami Heat ultimately upset the Boston Celtics, it’ll likely be on the back of a superb series from Bam Adebayo. So far in the first round, the Team USA center is averaging 22.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game on 61.3 percent shooting from the field.
“Any time the game gets crazy, they go on a run, we find the ball in Bam’s hands,” Tyler Herro said about Bam Adebayo recently. We get him the ball. We know he’s going to make the right play or a hole in the defense. To have a guy like that on the team, it’s huge for us.”
Bam Adebayo will most likely not win Defensive Player of the Year this season, but he should be in contention for the award in seasons to come.
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