Having initially been listed as questionable for Tuesday’s game due to a left quad contusion, Heat big man Bam Adebayo said today that he’s playing, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
Adebayo, who expressed on Monday that his finish outside of the top three in Defensive Player of the Year voting was “disrespectful,” told reporters on Tuesday that he’s moving on from the perceived snub and is focused on Game 2, according to Jackson.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Viewed as one of the Heat’s most important reserves entering the season, Markieff Morris was limited to 17 games this season due to a neck injury and was a DNP-CD in the first game of the playoffs. He has discussed his situation with head coach Erik Spoelstra, but says he “has to accept it” and hasn’t complained, per Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. “Obviously, I’m one of the top guys on the team. But we’ve had success without me,” Morris said. “It happens to be one of those things – and I understand — if I’m needed, that’s when I’ll play. There’s nothing I can really do. It has nothing to do with my game or my career. … This situation now, it’s not broken, so no need to fix it.”
- The Heat have had an inordinate amount of success with undrafted players, including Duncan Robinson, Kendrick Nunn, Gabe Vincent, and Omer Yurtseven in recent years, not to mention 19-year veteran Udonis Haslem. In a story for ESPN.com, Andrew Lopez takes a look at the impressive work the franchise has done developing players who have been overlooked on draft night. “It’s an organizational philosophy of ours,” Spoelstra told ESPN. “We’ve done it now for several years. We know what we’re looking for. We’re not for everybody, but we love to be dream makers.”
- Veteran forward P.J. Tucker has embraced the idea of being a mentor for the Heat’s younger players, saying this week that he wishes a veteran had taken on that role with him earlier in his career. “I think so many times when I was younger, coming into the league, being a young player, I wish I had somebody to kind of help me, teach me little tricks of the trade, little things you got to do, how to stay focused,” Tucker said, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Also, Caleb Martin- one of their best bench scorers- was undrafted in 2019, DeWayne Dedmon was undrafted in 2013, Haywood Highsmith was undrafted in 2018 and just got a multiyear contract, and both their 2-way players -Javonte Smart and Mychal Mulder- were undrafted as well. This team has a very unique talent in being able to spot diamonds in the rough, that most people believed would amount to close to nothing
I love to hear Markieff’s honestly delusional self-evaluation as one of his team’s top performers hahaha
Yeah, that was a pretty ridiculous quote. I understand that Miami has a deep team and playing time might be hard to come by, but I don’t understand how he managed to convince himself that he’s one of the team’s “top guys”
Morris will play at the 5 when the matchup comes up, just as I said when they signed him. Otherwise, his effectiveness is super limited as a 4, besides some specific matchups
Miami Heat culture. As I’ve said many times, identify those players, and if it fills a need, those players will get opportunities
Bam “no doubt” is top 3 DPOY. He could of won it this yr. Defensive rebounding is part of being a good defender. And he’s a better rebounder than smart. Rudy is top D rebounder in league. And the real DPOY.
He is also significantly better at isolation defense, and in some other areas…I’m a big Marcus Smart fan, but he also wasnt himself at least the first couple of months of the season, maybe more than that. I also think awards are based on narratives. There are also many examples of players losing dpoy 1 year for 1 reason, and someone else winning it another year for that exact same reason.
That being said, there are definitely guys that could have been in that spot, including Bam, but there were weird variables this year. Jimmy Butler plays on the same team, and arguably takes votes away as well
Smart may have had votes taken away by Williams & Horford. There were good candidates across the board.
It seems defense has become fashionable for youngish players, even those who may have disdained it a while back. (Not a popular opinion Im sure!— One might retort “So where is it, this defense”)
If it is a trend, it doesn’t hurt Miami’s recruiting!
Why isn’t Spo playing Dipo at all? They are winning and that’s what matters but why not keep Dipo fresh, he looked great.