Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo remains underrated on defense.
Not only was he not included in the finalists for the Defensive Player of the Year, which he recently responded to, it seems the one-time All-Star is not even seen as a better defender than Los Angeles Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope by some media members.
Media voting for NBA regular season awards has already been completed. HoopsHype was able to tabulate 18 ballots, some of which were sent privately and some were disclosed publicly through social media.
The poll results show that Adebayo and Caldwell-Pope are tied for fifth place, along with three other players, in the Defensive Player of the Year race.
1. Rudy Gobert (92.9 percent)
2. Ben Simmons (62.4 percent)
3. Draymond Green (16.5 percent)
4. Clint Capela (2.4 percent)
5. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (1.2 percent)
5. Bam Adebayo (1.2 percent)
5. Giannis Antetokounmpo (1.2 percent)
5. Jimmy Butler (1.2 percent)
5. Matisse Thybulle (1.2 percent)
While Caldwell-Pope is a solid defender, he is not as impactful as the Heat big man on that end of the floor.
This season, Adebayo averaged 9.0 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.0 block per game. He is sixth in the league in defensive real plus-minus, which measures a player’s average impact on his team’s defensive performance.
