“Can Defend Any Player”: Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra and PJ Tucker Explain Why Bam Adebayo Deserves the DPOY Trophy

Posted on by Jack Marks

The Miami Heat are the top team in the Eastern Conference, which is shocking. Several fans and observers credit Tyler Herro’s increased output and Jimmy Butler’s All-NBA performance for the team’s success. Bam Adebayo, on the other hand, must be credited with a large part of Erik Spoelstra’s team’s success in this campaign. Bam Adebayo is the Miami Heat’s center, and he is without a doubt a one-of-a-kind defender. He is capable of guarding all five spots and performing a variety of defensive strategies.

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Adebayo is the defensive cornerstone for the Heat, who is one of the finest defensive teams in the NBA. The only reason Adebayo isn’t a serious contender for DPOY is because of the games he lost due to injury. He has an amazing defensive rating of 103.7 (league-best is 103.2).

Bam Adebayo

Bam certainly deserves the coveted individual distinction, according to his Heat teammates and coaching staff.

PJ Tucker and Erik Spoelstra feel Bam Adebayo deserves the DPOY this time

P. J. Tucker spoke on why Bam Adebayo should get the DPOY this season in a recent story by NBA.com’s Couper Moorhead. Tucker stated that in today’s basketball, a “center who can guard guards” is required.

“In this new era of basketball, being a center who can guard guards is key,” P. J. Tucker said. “It’s key to fixing a lot of things and being able to take people out of their offenses and making them do what you want them to do. That’s the key to defense.”

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Coach Erik Spoelstra also mentioned Adebayo’s exceptional defensive flexibility.

“We’re one of the more unique defensive teams in the league,” Spoelstra says. “We have a lot of experienced, highly decorated, veteran defenders, but to do what we’re doing requires a unicorn. That’s what Bam is defensively. He can defend in any scheme and he can defend any player within that scheme.”

Adebayo was placed in the top eight of the current DPOY Ladder despite missing 25 games this season. With the regular season ending in fewer than ten games, it looked improbable that Bam would win the award. There’s no doubt that Bam Adebayo deserves to be considered for the honor.

This season, the Miami Heat boasts a top-five defense, and Bam Adebayo has been a big part of it. P. J. Tucker and Jimmy Butler are terrific defenders for the Miami Heat, but it is Adebayo who underpins their defense. One of the reasons an NBA GM chose him as the league’s second-best big man after Nikola Jokic was his defensive abilities.