Miami Heat: Bam Adebayo Is Typically A Top-2 Defender On Floor, Is Gobert?
This, then, provoked the arguments around him winning the award. There is one side of the room that thinks Gobert is completely unplayable, he’s useless when switched on the perimeter, and therefore, is totally undeserving of the award.
Again, it is much more complicated than that but that’s the basic premise. The other side has this counterpoint.
Gobert’s primary service is as a rim protector, while asking him to be in the paint and along the perimeter at the same time is unreasonable, which is true. They contend that he deserves the award because of what he provides at the rim but also how much other teams avoid the rim when he’s on the floor.
Therein lies the problem though. Defense is as much about preventing actions as it is about blocking shots from others.
How do you account for all the things that didn’t happen in a play?
You really can’t.
As a defender, is it better to have a low field goal percentage around the rim or low field goal attempts? The answer is somewhere in the middle of both but then, what matters more?
This, then, gives way to the real problem with this award. Defense is very much a team aspect.
Even if we want to focus on specific players and their impact, the defensive aspect of playing basketball is heavily dependent on the coaching and the other four players, as much as it is about one talented one.
Because if you were giving the award to the best individual defender, it has to be Bam Adebayo, right? No one single defender can do as much as he can do, as well as he can do it, for as long as he can do it.
If you look at all three finalists, Gobert, Mikal Bridges of Phoenix, and Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics—Bam can do what all of them can do on the floor defensively, while none of them can do everything that the others can.
Again though, this isn’t that.