{"id":78406,"date":"2024-05-22T15:06:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T19:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=78406"},"modified":"2024-05-22T15:06:50","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T19:06:50","slug":"miami-heat-center-earns-first-all-defensive-first-team-honors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/22\/miami-heat-center-earns-first-all-defensive-first-team-honors\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat Center Earns First All-Defensive First Team Honors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Individual awards keep stacking up for the Miami Heat as three-time All-Star center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/adebaba01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bam Adebayo <\/a><\/span>was recently named to first-team All-Defense and earned third place in the Defensive Player of the Year race.<\/p>\n<h2>Miami Heat Center Earns First All-Defensive First Team Honors<\/h2>\n<h3>Bam Adebayo Earns His Fifth Consecutive All-Defensive Nod<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Miami Heat center and paint stalwart <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/12\/miami-heat-offseason-plan-top-priority-bam-adebayo-extension-who-else-will-or-wont-return-and-trade-possibilities\/\" target=\"_self\">Bam Adebayo<\/a> was named to the NBA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/21\/nba-reveals-historic-all-defensive-teams\/\" target=\"_self\">All-Defensive First Team<\/a> yesterday. This is his fifth All-Defensive Team selection in seven years with Miami. Notably, this was Bam&#8217;s fifth straight selection good for the longest active streak in the NBA. Furthermore, Adebayo joins Heat stars <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lebron James<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mournal01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alonzo Mourning<\/a> as First Team selections, both of whom achieved it at least twice. James earned the award three times. While Mourning was a two-time DPOY with the Heat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Familiar names surround Adebayo for the First Team as they did for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/20\/france-has-4-players-projected-to-be-selected-in-2024-including-2-top-5-selections-is-the-french-taking-over-the-nba\/\" target=\"_self\">Defensive Player of the Year<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goberru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rudy Gobert<\/a> of the Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs\u2019 rookie phenom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wembavi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a>\u00a0equally notched All-Defensive First Team nods. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/joneshe01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Herb Jones<\/a> from the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans rounded out the First Team selections.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The 2023-24 Kia NBA All-Defensive First Team!<\/p>\n<p>Bam Adebayo<br \/>\nAnthony Davis<br \/>\nRudy Gobert<br \/>\nHerbert Jones<br \/>\nVictor Wembanyama<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Kia<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBAAwards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NBAAwards<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6P2mEdG4te\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/6P2mEdG4te<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1792980267738526028?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 21, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Adebayo Led Miami&#8217;s Top-Rated Defense<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earning the third-most points with 91.0 including three first-place votes for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/awards\/awards_2024.html#dpoy\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Defensive Player of the Year<\/a>, the three-time NBA All-Star finished the 2023-2024 season with a 109.3 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/player\/1628389\/advanced\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">defensive rating<\/a>. He averaged 1.1 steals and 0.9 blocks on top of 19.3 points and 10.4 rebounds. The Miami Heat center was heavily relied on this year to play a heavy offensive role due to Miami\u2019s ever-present rash of top-roster player injuries. Besides guarding almost every position efficiently, his performance on the offensive side of the floor didn\u2019t hinder his defensive game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Miami\u2019s struggle to score points was evident throughout the regular season and into the playoffs. However, Miami\u2019s impressive and stout defense ranked them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/opponent?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=OPP_PTS\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">third<\/a> in points allowed per game. Additionally, opponent field goals made per game, and opponent offensive rebounds per game contributed to that ranking. Much of this success was mainly due to Adebayo&#8217;s paint presence and ability to be strong on the boards.<\/p>\n<h3>Heat President Wants More From His All-Star<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Eligible for an extension,<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Adebayo and the Heat will likely reach an agreement over the summer.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0However, in recent weeks, it has become apparent that Miami Heat President Pat Riley is looking for more from Adebayo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Riley has remarked that Adebayo needs to sit down with Head Coach Erik Spoelstra to look at how he can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hardwoodheroics.com\/miami-heat-pat-riley-bam-adebayo-challenge\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">improve<\/a> his game to an even higher level. Considering that he had to pick up after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/butleji01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jimmy Butler<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/herroty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Herro<\/a> for large parts of the season due to injury, one could argue that Adebyao has pulled his weight more than ever. Riley, contrarily, wants to see more. Likening Adebayo&#8217;s current situation to that of another former star under Riley&#8217;s ranks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsma02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Magic Johnson<\/a>, Riley simply wants Adebayo to expand his game, as Magic did with the Los Angeles Lakers. Riley and Johnson had a conversation that resulted in Johnson changing his game. From that point forward, his play and presence on the floor grew exponentially.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Off To Paris For the Miami Heat Center<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Adebayo should look to continue his success at this summer&#8217;s Olympics as Team USA looks to bring home the gold. Expectations will continue to be high for the Miami Heat center going into next year&#8217;s regular season. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Individual awards keep stacking up for the Miami Heat as three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo was recently named to first-team All-Defense and earned third place in the Defensive Player of the Year race. Miami Heat Center Earns First All-Defensive First Team Honors Bam Adebayo Earns His Fifth Consecutive All-Defensive Nod Miami Heat center and paint [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":78416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,16,3],"tags":[2174,240,1010,583,4112,38,755,639,419,394,1896,4669],"class_list":["post-78406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-heat","category-news","tag-alonzo-mourning","tag-anthony-davis","tag-bam-adebayo","tag-erik-spoelstra","tag-herb-jones","tag-lebron-james","tag-magic-johnson","tag-nba-all-star","tag-pat-riley","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-tyler-herro","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}