Bam Adebayo not happy he was snubbed as finalist for DPOY
When the NBA announced the finalists for all six major end-of-season awards on Sunday night, most eyes fixated on one notable snub.
Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo, who played at Kentucky during the 2016-17 season, was not named as one of the top three options for the NBA’s 2022 Defensive Player of the Year award. Instead, the finalists came in as Marcus Smart (Celtics), Rudy Gobert (Jazz; three-time winner), and Mikal Bridges (Suns). Smart was announced as the winner on Monday night, receiving 257 total points. Bridges was second with 202 points, Gobert third with 136, and Adebayo right behind in fourth at 128 points.
Adebayo, who is in his fifth NBA season and has been tabbed as a Second-Team All-Defense member the last two years, was not exactly pleased when he received the news of his snubbing, either.
In fact, Adebayo recently deleted all of his social media. So when the awards were announced online Sunday night, he didn’t catch the results (so he says). He was asked about the snub following a practice session on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s Game 2 matchup against Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks, to which he claimed it was the first time he’d heard of it. But that didn’t stop him from explaining why he should have been one of the three finalists.
“Disrespectful, obviously,” Adebayo told the media on Monday. “I feel like I can do anything that two out of the three can do besides that I can’t teach height. But they all three play on TV more than me, so I would expect that. They get more TV games and they get more exposure. People like to talk about them more. Nobody wants to talk about us. So it’s whatever at that point.”
To his note on the nationally televised games, Adebayo does have a point. The Suns appeared in 34 national TV games this season, the Celtics 32, and the Jazz 26, while the Heat was given just 22. But Miami finished the 2021-22 regular season as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference with a 53-29 overall record and the league’s fourth-best defense. Adebayo was the best defensive player on a top-five defense, although Smart’s Celtics (No. 1 overall defense) and Bridges’ Suns (No. 3 overall defense) also checked that box.
“Hopefully Tyler (Herro) gets Sixth Man of the Year, I think it’s deserving. And I’m just really stunned that Bam is not a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said on Monday. “I don’t know what people are watching, and he’s played enough games so I don’t want that as an excuse either. That’s probably the biggest disappointment.”
Adebayo played 56 games this season, fewer than any of the finalists. Bridges appeared in all 82 games, Smart in 71, and Gobert in 66. So I’ll go against Coach Spoelstra and say that the games played number should play a factor in this case — and I ultimately believe it did.
However, Adebayo’s case is built on his versatility, something that the other three candidates simply can’t match. He’s the only one among the group who can legitimately defend all five positions on the floor. Gobert did play 10 more games than Adebayo, but the Jazz finished with the 10th ranked defense and was not a team in sync throughout most of the season. Miami was, and Adebayo’s impact was a clear reason why.
During Sunday night’s Game 1 matchup against the Hawks, Atlanta shot just 38.7 percent from the floor and 27.8 percent from 3-point range. Adebayo’s offense wasn’t up to snuff, but his defense sure was. It didn’t matter if the Hawks got him in a switching situation — that’s essentially what Miami was looking for. Adebayo locked up Hawks sharpshooting guard Trae Young (who finished with a 1-12 shooting mark) whenever the two went one-on-one.
Had he not sat out for 22 consecutive games from Dec. 1 through Jan. 15 due to injury, Adebayo probably wins this award running away. Miami went 14-8 over that span without Adebayo but posted just the 12th-ranked defense in the league. Since his return, the Heat have registered the league’s second-best defense behind Smart and the Celtics. Remember, key Heat players Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler missed 19 and 25 games, respectively.
“I thought it was just unfortunate that Bam wasn’t one of the last three finalists for Defensive Player of the Year,” Tyler Herro, who attended Kentucky during the 2018-19 season and is now teammates with Adebayo in Miami, also said on Monday. “I just don’t think that anyone in the league guards one through five like Bam can. I think to this point, he has proven his worth as a Defensive Player of the Year. It was just unfortunate to see that.”
Herro is a finalist for Sixth Man of the Year for Miami, while Spoelstra is up for Coach of the Year.
Defensive Player of the Year isn’t an award that can be judged based solely on statistics — those don’t tell nearly the entire story. Advanced defensive numbers just aren’t quite up to the level they are on offense to properly tell us who is good and who is bad on that end of the floor.
But those who have watched the league closely this season believe that Adebayo was worthy of at least a finalist spot. ESPN’s basketball expert Zach Lowe even tabbed Adebayo as the Defensive Player of the Year on his official ballot, as did Dan Devine of The Ringer and Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. Adebayo held the second-best odds to win the award just last month.
Adebayo is still very likely to make his first All-Defensive First-Team when those rosters are revealed, but winning DPOY is something he’s been vocal about in the past. It’s an award he clearly wants to win and believes he can win. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen this season.
The best way to make up for a snub? Make a deep playoff run. Adebayo’s Heat squad is up 1-0 on the Hawks in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Miami will return to action on Tuesday night for Game 2 at home. Adebayo is currently listed as questionable with a quad contusion but is expected to play.
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