Miami Heat Assistant Coach and former player Caron Butler on Bam Adebayo: “When you talk about versatility, when you talk about a two-way defender, I mean, it’s a crime that he hasn’t won Defensive Player of the Year.”
by Goosedukee
@National Basketball Association
20 Comments
I mean everyone around the league is saying this, the media just doesn’t like him all that much for whatever reason
They don’t really reward versatile defenders too much.
AD never won DPOY.
Scottie Pippen also never won DPOY.
Bobby Jones, probably the first versatile defender in NBA history who could guard 2-4 and some 1 and 5, is mostly forgotten today in all time discussion.
Marion never made a single All Defensive team (which is ridiculous).
Kirilenko was often undervalued as a defender when he played, although analytics has helped him out after the fact.
Now there’s Bam.
Occasionally, some versatile defenders like Pistons Dennis Rodman was recognized, but even for him, so you remember that version or the Bulls version? Because the Pistons version was a better player.
two-way defender? i’ve heard of two-way player but not two-way defender
Prob is the most versatile big on D. One of the best at not getting cooked on switches
I haven’t paid close attention to dpoy races though so I’m not sure when he should’ve won or if he should’ve
Bam has never had a year where you could argue he had the best case for DPOY. Saying he should’ve won one by now is lazy. Actually say the year you think he should’ve won and why.
I dont mind if he won last year instead of Rudy
but Heat did not have a good enough season for that.
It’s not but bam likes seeing the support so that’s good
AD hasn’t won and I’d argue he’s better since he can also guard all positions and he’s more dominant at his natural position while Bam might be better against guards.
Rim protection is way more important in the regular season than Bam’s versatility
I love Bam’s game. He always plays Jokic straight up and does it without complaining.
I do think he’s one of the best defenders in the league and and deserves a DPOY in the future, but even as a heat fan I can’t say he has a year where he deserved it yet. His year was actually 2021-22 in my opinion, but he got injured and didn’t play enough games to win it.
However nothing wrong with a coach supporting up his player imo.
if Gobert gets DPOY for being rim protector of the year, they might as well just make the scoring champ the MVP every year too
One thing I really hate about stuff like this is the “it’s a travesty he never even won once!” takes. There are a lot of DPOY (and every award) caliber players every year. The stars aren’t going to align perfectly for every one of those guys at least one time in their entire careers. Unless you want to start advocating for some crazy “you can only win each award once” nonsense, this stuff is always going to happen to *somebody.*
I’m getting tired of this conversation. Hes in the conversation for top 5 defender every year, but it’s not just his turn because other guys have already won it.
The fact that Rudy has won over him should be a crime against humanity
And so the lobbying has begun.
I do think Bam’s excellence on defense isn’t really fully appreciated. He’s as indispensable as the hub enabling one of the most ambitious and interesting defensive schemes in the NBA, one that regularly outperforms the individual defensive talents of it’s players. He’s the back line, the general, the thing that makes it all go.
AD is a more ferocious rim protector while still being pretty versatile, so he has gotten a little more shine than Bam the last few seasons, but I don’t think there’s any reason to think AD is a better defender overall. I’d take either of them over Gobert.
He and AD have been the two best defenders in the league for years. The media is a joke.
Bam does not gets played off the court against anybody, thats the difference
I think he should have one or at least been the runner up, and so does AD. Pinpointing where individual defense stops and team defense begins is subjective, and some award winners of the past got a lot of benefit from defenders around them being pretty good too