There's no question the Miami Heat have one of the best defensive players in the NBA in Bam Adebayo. But he has never won the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year Award so far in his career. Bam Adebayo is currently a member of Team USA preparing for the Olympics and it was in Las Vegas where he let his frustrations be known regarding his DPOY snubs as per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.
“That's one thing that irks me, it's not my fault I'm versatile,” Adebayo said. “I've been top five in DPOY voting the last five years, there's been guys y'all (media) been giving it to over me.
“A point guard (Marcus Smart) got it over me, a center (Rudy Gobert) got it over me, a power forward (Jaren Jackson Jr.) has gotten it over me. The goalposts move for me, in certain degrees. It's me and a lot of undrafted dudes, and we still have a top-five defense. These other guys have All-NBA dudes (around them). Some of it is, they don't really care about us and that's fine. I think they should pay attention to consistency because being top five DPOY, I think I have the longest streak of All-Defensive teams so the goalposts move for me.”
Since the 2019-20 season, Bam Adebayo has been named to the All-Defensive First Team but has not won a DPOY Award. This past season, Adebayo finished third in the Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama. Adebayo may have point in that he takes on a larger role on his team than some of these other players have on their respective teams.
As per Goodwill, Bam Adebayo was in line for a significant contract extension from the Heat, larger than the one he signed, had he won the DPOY award any of the past three seasons. Adebayo recently came to terms on a contract extension with the Heat for three years and $166 million.
Bam Adebayo continues to anchor Heat defense
While Bam Adebayo may not have a Defensive Player of the Year Award to his name, he's still the glue that holds the Heat's defense together. Simply put, where Adebayo goes, the Heat go. There's a case to be made that he's the Heat's most important player.
Adebayo has significant defensive responsibilities in addition to having to be arguably the key cog in the Heat's offense, a playmaker and a strong rebounder. Of the players who received first place votes for DPOY; Rudy Gobert, Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday, only Davis has arguably the same level of importance on the court for his team as Adebayo.
This past season, Adebayo appeared in 71 games at exactly 34 minutes per game. He was named to his third career All-Star selection. He averaged 19.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.1 steals with splits of 52.1 percent shooting from the field, 35.7 percent shooting from the three-point line and 75.5 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
The Heat finished in the play-in for the second straight season. They managed to grab the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference but fell to the Boston Celtics in five games in what was a rematch of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals.
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