Incredible Bam Adebayo defensive sequence, should be uncontested DPOY

[Egg Nog]

Bam has been great, but suggesting he should be "uncontested DPOY" is ridiculous

[Hatrick Ewing]

My beekeeper’s uncle compared Alonzo Mourning to Bam last week at Cracker Barrel. Not in terms of their styles, but who was a better Heat center. I’d take Zo, but Adebayo could be there for longer and continues to surprise as he improves, so I thought it was worth mentioning

[Lockdown504090]

I think Bam Adebayo should easily be considered the DPOY this season.

I understand that Giannis or Gobert are playing well too, but I think Bam should easily be the winner this season.

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He does many things well defensively and the Heat are much better defensively when he’s on court, but “uncontested” is a strong word and Bam isn’t an “uncontested” DPOY type player. DRPM and DRAPM and On/OFF DRAPTOR look great. He’s become a better communicator on defense and helps QB that defense (having Lowry helps).

Something that takes away from his DPOY candidacy is his mediocre rim protection. A ing players who have played 30+ games and contest 2+ shots at the rim per game, Bam ranks 97th in the NBA, allowing 63%+ at the rim. https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact/?sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT&dir=-1&CF=GP*GE*30:DEF_RIM_FGA*GE*2&Season=2021-22&SeasonType=Regular%20Season

Rudy, Giannis, and JJJ are way ahead of him here. Additionally, he only contests 3.5 shots at the rim per game.

He’s a great ISO defender, can come out on guards, disrupts ball-screen actions and gets out on pick and pops, average at contesting spot up shooters, and average at def ending in the post.

Thats fair, but i just wonder, is what he does more valable than rim protection in todays game? teams want to involve screening with their center because they know, generally nba teams dont want to switch the 5 man. if bam is containing that attacking pressure by switching and playing iso defense, which is what the heat really force you to do by switching so much, how is he supposed to be protecting the rim much anyway?

Think about the situation in which bam is protecting the rim. hes not getting chances while playing in drop coverage, because he doesnt really need to play it much, and if so, the players not getting to the front of that basket unless they are UBER fast. alot of the plays he makes i would argue ARE rim protection anyway because hes preventing the ball from even being shot at the rim. The heat are allowing the fewest points in the paint in the whole league. we have all maligned at how much the bucks sell out to protect the paint as a team, but the heat just switch bam or have him play high, and just keep people out of there in the first place.

its not a runaway by any means, but this race is so interesting because these are 3 guys who do VERY different things on defense. Giannis is a weakside monster, gobert is a no-fly zone around the bucket, and Bam is just everywhere on the floor seemingly at once.

[xdrta+]

I don't know, he looked kind of weak when the rookie Kuminga went around him several times last night.

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[BoatsNZones]

Sorry but no. Mikal Bridges is the rightful front runner. He has won almost twice as many games with as an extra 1k minutes, while also playing absolutely elite defense.

Mikal Bridges:
Games Played - 72
Games Won - 58
Minutes played - 2,544

Rudy Gobert:
Games Played - 56
Games Won - 38
Minutes played - 1,787

Giannis:
Games Played - 59
Games Won - 39
Minutes played - 1,940

Bam:
Games Played: 47
Games Won: 30
Minutes Played: 1,545

"Front Runner" to who? The clear favorites to win the award (objectively, not subjectively from myself) are Bam and Gobert, followed by Giannis. I will be shocked if Bridges gets even 5 of the 100+ first place votes.

[ForeverTFC]

I’m just gonna say Marcus smart deserves serious consideration

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He's been great on that end but bigs that anchor a defense just have so much more impact on D than lock-down perimeter defenders. It's really tough to make a case for a 1 or a 2 as DPOY given how today's defenses play. E.g. How much does it help Smart's numbers that Timelord is floating off-ball ready to contest the shot at the rim? It likely makes his matchups more hesitant and think longer, helping Smart defend better.

Top 5 for this year are all bigs - Gobert, Giannis, JJJ, Timelord, Bam. And Draymond would have likely won it if he kept up what he did in the first half of the year - another defensive anchor.

[Baski]

Because of one sequence?

[Duffman100]

Love Bam so much. Honestly a special talent.

[somerandomdude]

He's only played in 48 games.... missing 25. What kind of DPOY misses over a 1/4 of the season.

Rudy Gobert did in the 17-18 season (56 games). Bam is on pace to play more games than him.

That is true, good observation.

That said, the competition then was no where what we have in this particular season. Gobert stood head and shoulders above anybody else as evidenced by has 89/100 first place votes. Considering that a 2nd year Embiid who only played 66 games himself should be self explanatory.

Honestly, I'm not here advocating for Bam and I actually had something written up explaining why I'm not a fan of Bam/the Heat's defense and how we would be better off if he didn't try guarding 1-5, how he actually gets beat off the dribble a lot (one example in OP's video), and how we've been better with Yurtz at the 5, all with video examples. I just didn't post it because I don't wanna come off as hating on the guy and he's not as terrible a defender as my post would've made it out to be.

Anyway, I just don't think the GP argument is valid here because it wasn't an issue for voters a few years ago. If 56 GP is enough to award someone a DPOY, it's good enough for every candidate there on out.

[Antinomy]

He's only played in 48 games.... missing 25. What kind of DPOY misses over a 1/4 of the season.

Rudy Gobert did in the 17-18 season (56 games). Bam is on pace to play more games than him.

I’ve seen this brought up a bunch of times, but in reality, there was nobody else in contention for the award that year.

[celticfan42487]

He's only played in 48 games.... missing 25. What kind of DPOY misses over a 1/4 of the season.

Rudy Gobert did in the 17-18 season (56 games). Bam is on pace to play more games than him.

I’ve seen this brought up a bunch of times, but in reality, there was nobody else in contention for the award that year.

yeah winning it with that few amount of games screams outlier and shouldn't be brought up like it's a norm.

Especially when you know this year there are many candidates for it.

That said that was a great sequence individually! Team wise I question a bit why Bam was facing 3/4 players in a row off of switches.

[somerandomdude]

He's only played in 48 games.... missing 25. What kind of DPOY misses over a 1/4 of the season.

Rudy Gobert did in the 17-18 season (56 games). Bam is on pace to play more games than him.

I’ve seen this brought up a bunch of times, but in reality, there was nobody else in contention for the award that year.

You're the same guy who took issue with Herro and 6MOTY because of his minutes and needed to have it pointed out that more than half of 6MOTY winners averaged >= 30mpg.

I think you've established by now that your opinion about the Heat are very biased and should be ignored.

As I've stated before, I don't even care if the Heat win one of these awards, I'm just throwing in my 2 cents where I think people are creating a narrative that doesn't seem to apply to any other players on other teams.

[JN61]

I don't buy the premise here.

[Antinomy]

Rudy Gobert did in the 17-18 season (56 games). Bam is on pace to play more games than him.

I’ve seen this brought up a bunch of times, but in reality, there was nobody else in contention for the award that year.

You're the same guy who took issue with Herro and 6MOTY because of his minutes and needed to have it pointed out that more than half of 6MOTY winners averaged >= 30mpg.

I think you've established by now that your opinion about the Heat are very biased and should be ignored.

As I've stated before, I don't even care if the Heat win one of these awards, I'm just throwing in my 2 cents where I think people are creating a narrative that doesn't seem to apply to any other players on other teams.

You’re upset because I asked a question & used the Heat as an example?

Besides, what the hell does that have to do with what I said about Gobert winning in the 17-18 season?

[Mogspan]

Too bad he’s played 4 games this year

[whitehops]

you absolutely need a center like bam to even run an effective "switch everything" defense, though they ultimately aren't as valuable as a "shut the paint down" center like gobert.

the pistons switch pretty much everything and it's because stewart can do things like this:

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i haven't watched a ton of the heat but it's because you have a center like bam who can move their feet that even makes it a viable defense, which has value in itself to throw out different looks.

[Lockdown504090]

I don't know, he looked kind of weak when the rookie Kuminga went around him several times last night.

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Jk doing that to everyone. I’m thinking about rookie forwards, who has been a stronger, more agile, explosive and faster 19-20 year old than him?

[cbosh4mvp]

I think Bam Adebayo should easily be considered the DPOY this season.

I understand that Giannis or Gobert are playing well too, but I think Bam should easily be the winner this season.

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The Raptors have 3-5 players that can do this.

Scottie
OG
Pascal
Precious
Boucher

Not sure whats so special about this.

[Madhouse]

Bam is the DPOY yes

[Fencer reregistered]

Impressive. That would be an unusually good sequence even for a Celtic.

Seriously, while Robert Williams can do everything Bam did there, I can't immediately think of a play on which he defended 3 different guys and ended with a block. I think it's more or less happened before, but not in such a stark and clean way.