I thought the following analysis from ESPN was interesting:
In Game 1 of this series, Adebayo scored 20 points with five assists. In Game 2 he was even better, pouring in 22 points, grabbing 17 rebounds and dishing 9 assists. He had 15 defensive rebounds in that game, repeatedly picking the ball off the rim and racing to the other end to start the offense, trademark plays that show why he's so valued for his versatility.
But Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla has shelved his "double big" lineup and moved Robert Williams III to the bench, and his team, smaller and quicker, has used that package to move more active defenders in front of Adebayo to cut off his playmaking options.
And for the past three games, and especially the Boston wins in Games 4 and 5, Adebayo has been forced into dribbling more, turning the ball over and assisting less.
The result: just 13 points a game, with 10 turnovers combined in Games 4 and 5, as the Heat's offense failed to break 100 points in both losses.
Some takeaways from this analysis:
1. While everyone rightly talks about Jimmy Butler as the star who has propelled the Heat forward in spite of a lack of great overall talent, we shouldn’t overlook the prowess and importance of Bam Adebayo.
2. Versatile scoring bigs can be and often are among the top two players on championship contenders as we’ve seen with Bam as discussed in this article, but also Jokic and Embiid.
3. Bigs can be neutralized by small-ball in today’s NBA as this article illustrates has happened the last two games of the Miami series.
Since I’m always looking for some insight into the Wolves situation, I think what we’ve seen in the playoffs underscores the fact that KAT is the type of big who can fit well as a top 2 player on a championship caliber team. On the other hand, as we’ve seen with Embiid and Bam, it’s a small-ball League and, unless your big is the other-worldly Jokic, you need need to build primarily around athletic, skilled players especially as your #1. Miami has Butler as their #1. Boston has Tatum, Brown and Smart as they’re #1, 2 and 3 in that order. Of course, Denver has Jokic, but he’s a freak. And lest we forget, Murray was huge for the Nuggets in the LA series and the Nuggets got nowhere in the playoffs with Jokic the prior two years without Murray.
Note that none of the teams that advanced beyond the first round this year have, as one of their top 3 players, a big who can’t score more than a foot from the rim or reliably catch the ball. Note also that none of them has two starting bigs who can’t guard in space. OK, somehow I’ve managed to bring this back to Rudy Gobert and the Rudy/KAT dilemma. Shocking.
There’s no debating the fact that the Gobert deal was a terrible one for the Wolves. But I’ve tried to put the deal out of my mind and focus on Gobert the player. The deal was terrible, but Rudy Gobert is a good player. And I’ve written several times that I’d be content bringing back both Rudy and KAT for at least another season. However, the more I watch these playoff games and reflect on the Wolves situation the more I’m convinced that one of them has to go if we want the Wolves to be a true championship contender with Ant as our #1 and probably Jaden as our #2 or 3 in a couple years. As to which one of them should be traded, I continue to believe it should be Gobert.
None of the teams that advanced past the first round this year have a max player like Rudy. It just doesn’t work in today’s game. In fact, as successful as the Jazz were with Rudy in several regular seasons, he was widely regarded as a problem for them in their post-seasons. I recognize that the Wolves would have to trade KAT if we’re going to get valuable assets in return. Therein lies the dilemma in my view. Trade Gobert for salary relief, a marginal rotation player and one future pick or trade KAT for a player like Quickley and a lot of future draft assets. If you believe this team can be a contender with Ant, Jaden, KAT and Slo Mo along with some additions using full salary-cap exceptions, then it makes sense to trade Rudy. If not, then trading KAT is the way to go.
