Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo called the voting for the Defensive Player of the Year finalists was disrespectful towards him. Adebayo was excluded from the three finalists for this season’s award.
Phoenix Suns wing Mikal Bridges, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert and Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart were named the finalists Sunday. Adebayo said Monday it was “disrespectful” to leave him out of the top three defenders of the season.
“I feel like I can do anything that two out of the three can do besides, I can’t teach height,” he told reporters. “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.”
The Heat were scheduled for 10 national TV games, but, they are a bigger market team than Utah and Phoenix. Bridges, Smart and Gobert have strong cases for the award.Gobert’s is a generational defensive talent and his struggles in the playoff had to do more with the perimeter defense of his team than with him.
Brigdes had a great season as the best defender in the best team in the NBA, while Smart was a big reason for the Celtics’ turnaround in the second part of the regular season.
Although, Adebayo averaged 0.8 blocks, the Heat big is a great switch-all defensive big being able to guard multiple positions despite his size. The All-Star center kept his opponents to 42.8 percent shooting this year.
Adebayon is on the way to add his third All-Defensive nod in resume, but, he will need to wait at least for one more season for the Defensive Player of the Year award
Comentarios