Inside The Heat

Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo Makes His Case For Defensive Player Of The Year

Adebayo felt he should have won the award over Marcus Smart, Rudy Gobert
Shandel Richardson|
Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo Makes His Case For Defensive Player Of The Year
Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo Makes His Case For Defensive Player Of The Year

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Miami Heat

Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo is normally quiet when it comes to individual honors and accolades. 

He's recently been more vocal about his value on the court. After publicly saying he should be an NBA All-Star, he made it clear he feels he should have won the league's Defensive Player of the Year the past two seasons. He told Taylor of Bleacher Report he had better defensive seasons than Rudy Gobert (Utah Jazz) and Marcus Smart (Boston Celtics). 

"I guard 1 through 5," Adebayo said in the interview. "It's not a lot of us. Me, Draymond [Green], Giannis [Antetoukoumpo] ... Who else?"

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is among those who have lobbied for Adebayo. Perhaps this is the year he finally wins the award. 

"It has to translate and I feel like Rudy in the playoffs didn't translate and Marcus Smart guards 1-4," Adebayo said in the interview. "That's the thing that I thought was different between me and them."

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Shandel Richardson covers the Miami Heat for Inside The Heat.

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star. TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here

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