The Miami Heat will have an All-Star as the season heads toward that portion of the calendar! However, it’s probably not the one that many were expecting or think.
With Jimmy Butler certainly being worthy of being named to the team, an “All-Star caliber” player shall we say, it’s actually alright that he wasn’t named to the team. But what would have been a complete travesty of the NBA and everything about the NBA All-Star situation is if Bam Adebayo wouldn’t have been named to the Eastern Conference side.
Let’s chat a bit about why.
When you look at him at his core, he’s a defensive savant. And by savant, you do mean genius, “one with detailed knowledge in some specialized field”, a defensive masterpiece on most nights.
He guards all five postiions on the opposing team, he protects the Miami Heat’s paint and rim, and though he isn’t the super high level shot blocker that most bigs are that are considered elite defenders, what he does is so much more valubale that just that alone, while he does, again, also protect the rim area in his own unique way.
The Miami Heat only had one All-Star and though two guys were definitely worthy, they chose right. Here’s why Bam Adebayo had to be there though.
To be plain, he’s a top two defender in the entire NBA, minimally. And that’s being fair and to be sure that it is without fallacy, as he’s probably the very best defender that the league has to offer.
On offense, he’s always had the skill to be the guy he has become this season. A top 30ish scorer on the year for the Miami Heat, just a click below the Batman to his Robin along his home roster in Jimmy Butler, he’s finally begun to take the every night onus on himself that his ability deems he should have been.
And he’s doing it with great ease and effectiveness too, getting to what is becoming his signarture midrange shot in the paint, attacking the rim with force, using his all-around ball skills to keep opposing teams and bigs off balanced, and all while not sacricing much, if anything at all, on the other side of the floor.
Simply and effectively, that’s why he’s an All-Star this season and that’s why it would have been such a drastic miss had he not been.
And if he can continue to play this way as the season continues, which you assume he will and considering what Jimmy Butler has shown capable of across his few seasons thus far with the Miami Heat, the sky is still the limit for this club if they can position themselves effectively in the second half of the year.