Top 5 biggest snubs from the 2021-22 All-NBA Teams: 3. Bam Adebayo
At the stacked center position, it’s not a surprise Bam Adebayo didn’t make it onto an All-NBA team, but he did have a legitimate case for inclusion.
This was the best season of Adebayo’s career. He averaged a double-double for the second time, posting an average of 19.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. The points were the best of his career.
Adebayo also flashed some stealing skills this season. The center has averaged at least one steal per game in each of the past three seasons, but this season proved to be the apex of his thievery, averaging 1.4 steals per game.
His importance on the offensive end is growing. Adebayo’s usage percentage this season was 25 percent. Meanwhile, he’s working on cutting down on turnovers, dropping his turnover percentage to 14.4 percent.
Part of Adebayo’s improvement on the turnover front is his avoidance of sloppy passing. In 2019-20, he had 94 bad passes lead to turnovers, then 82 the following season. This year, however, he was down to only 59 bad passes.
Adebayo is one of the best defensive players in the league, even if the stats don’t always jump off the page. He’s finished in the top 15 for defensive win shares in each of the past three seasons and made the All-Defensive Second Team each of those years as well. His 104.2 defensive rating this season ranked third.
The big man may never be as much of a scoring threat as Jokic, Embiid, or Towns, but his contributions on the defensive end are all the Miami Heat really need from him. If he keeps improving on offense, All-NBA should be in the 24-year-old’s future.