greg4012 wrote:A lot of our own fans like to pretty regularly sh*t on Bam and downplay his impact and contributions on the court. I don't care what the media says, Bam is the best defender in the NBA and has been for the past 3 years. This is only further validated by the fact that his defensive skillset and utilization is tailor-made for the NBA playoff basketball. Yes, some guys can rack up nice blocking and rim protection in regular season basketball (usually while only covering a small portion of the baseline & paint area). But, Bam does everything on defense and is the foundation to Miami's playoff success on defense and defensive approach, as a whole.
So, let's think about Bam in the context of DPOY level players. On the other side of the ball, Bam is an efficient 20 ppg scorer within the flow of the offense (never a ballstopper). He's also the key cog for our offensive movement (between his elite screens and his action moving the ball from the elbows he literally is how we keep our offense in motion).
Who are the DPOY winners in the 21st century that have put up greater offensive outputs in their DPOY season than Bam does regularly?
- Giannis (2020)
- Kawhi (2015-2016)
- Dwight Howard (2009 & 2011)
That's the whole list.
If we want to go back into the 1990s you can add Zo (1999--MVP runner up & 2000), Gary Payton (1996), Hakeem, David Robinson.
Man you are spitting absolute facts that majority on here don’t want to hear unfortunately. Thankfully 80% of the fan base and the entire organization/players know how important he is. Just gotta chalk it up as the haters not knowing ball and not knowing how to judge a player in the don’t get 30+ points.
We’re talking about the best defender in the world like you said who also gave you a 20 point triple double while also locking up Gianni’s who was 1-8 shooting in the 4th/OT and his only score came on a blatant travel. He had this dude so bottled up he literally didn’t even want to touch the ball, I’ve never in my life seen Gianni’s so timid. You’re talking about a guy many consider the best in the world, most dominant and physically imposing player in the world. A 2 time MVP, a champion and finals mvp.
Then last night, we flat out don’t win without Bam single handedly getting us back in the lead in the 2nd after going down 14. Not only was he just dunking on everyone (all and1s) and drilling jumpers over Robinson he was bottling up the entire offense on the other end but majority probably didn’t notice what he was doing on that side of the ball. A dude that just said fuxk it I’m not losing tonight, I’ll do it all if I have to. We went away from him too much in the 4th for my liking and I realize that’s Jimmys time but he was struggling. That ankle is really bothering him right now.
And that’s not to mention if you missed like a 2-3 minute stretch to start the 4th last night you wouldn’t have even realized randle was playing lol I wonder why?
How anyone could hate an elite 2 way player who’s still only 25 and has added something new and improved his game literally every single season is beyond me.
