With the 4th overall pick in the FanSided 2017 NBA redraft, the Phoenix Suns selected Bam Adebayo. Here are four ways the Suns would be better off with the versatile big man.
FanSided’s 2017 NBA redraft allows us to use the power of hindsight to figure out who teams should have chosen and there is no other lottery team who wishes they could have their pick back more than the Phoenix Suns
Ok, well, maybe Philadelphia 76ers fans would argue they have some serious buyers’ remorse with Markelle Fultz at #1, but still, at least he is in the league and producing something. Josh Jackson, who the Suns took at #4 overall, is meandering somewhere in the G-league.
In the FanSided redraft, with Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, and De’Aaron Fox off the board, the Phoenix Suns selected Bam Adebayo from the University of Kentucky.
Adebayo exploded in productivity in this, his third season in the NBA, averaging 16.2 points, 10.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.3 blocks, and 1.2 steals per game. He made the All-Star team and won the NBA Skills Challenge the same weekend. But here are four specific ways the Phoenix Suns would be better off with him:
#4: Defense
I’ll dive deeper into his assists in just a minute, but elite passing isn’t the only trait that makes Bam Adebayo a versatile big man. Look at his ability to disrupt passing lanes on defense as well. Bam averaged (is averaging? I don’t know how to handle verb tenses during this whole hiatus thing.) 1.2 steals per game, which ranks him 3rd in the league amongst centers behind only Anthony Davis and Andre Drummond.
Compare that to Deandre Ayton, who ranked 27th in steals per game for centers.
Bam is only 6’9″, so it stands to reason his blocks aren’t up there with the league’s lanky 7-footers, but his 1.3 per game ranks him tied for 17th amongst big men this season.
Adebayo is a basketball utility knife and his under-appreciated defense is the pull-out nail file that you didn’t realize how helpful it was until you needed it. The bottle opener that puts the utility knife in the must-have category, though, is his passing.
#3: Big Man Passing
The Phoenix Suns led the NBA in assists this season. I feel like that sentence is said a lot, but not enough.
The Phoenix Suns led the NBA in assists this season.
Of course, you’d like to see that ball movement translate into more wins, but still, it is a very encouraging truism. Just think if the Suns also had one of the best passing big men in the league.
In the entire 2017 draft class, Bam Adebayo ranks 5th in total assists amongst all positions, and of course, he is surrounded in this ranking by nothing but point guards. The next non-guard on this list is Kyle Kuzma at 11th overall, and he gets to pass to LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Bam’s passing doesn’t stick out just in this draft class. This season he ranked 2nd amongst all centers in the league in assists per game, trailing only Nikola Jokic. That type of interior passing is hard to come by.
Imagine how many open inside-out 3-pointers this could have provided to Devin Booker. Or cuts to the lane leading to posterizing dunks for Kelly Oubre Jr.
Bam’s versatility would have been a great fit for the Phoenix Suns, assuming they were patient enough to give him until this third year to shine, something that we haven’t exactly seen with other players.
#2: Winning
As I mentioned earlier, great passing (and for that matter good steal/block numbers) don’t necessarily translate into the most important statistical category: wins. However, in Bam Adebayo’s case, they do.
Out of all the players in the 2017 NBA draft, Adebayo has the highest win share at 19.2. For those who lose track of some of these advanced metrics, win share is an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player. 19.2 is a lot in that short amount of time.
This season alone, Bam Adebayo ranked 9th overall in the entire league amongst all positions in win shares at 8.1. That ties him with stars like Chris Paul and, ahem, Luka Doncic, but more on him in a minute.
Like Arizona State head football coach Herm Edwards will tell you, you play to win the game. Throughout all the statistical accolades, this is what matters most, and Bam Adebayo contributed to more wins for his team than anyone else in the 2017 NBA draft.
To put it mildly, the Phoenix Suns could have used that.
#1: The Domino Draft Effect
One of the reasons the Phoenix Suns might not have selected De’Aaron Fox at #4 in the real 2017 NBA draft is because they already had an inordinate amount of point guards on the roster already. However, Brandon Knight stayed hurt and Eric Bledsoe didn’t want to be here, and soon their myriad of point guards whittled down to zero.
Drafting based on need is one of the most hotly contested sports philosophies out there. Do you pass up on a player who might be better only because you already have someone who plays that position on the team?
History almost always points to drafting the best player available, regardless of position, but in this hypothetical, we will assume the Suns keep with tradition and pass on players they might like if they already have a player in place in that spot.
That brings me to the 2018 draft. If Bam and his win shares play a factor his rookie year, there is no telling where the Phoenix Suns would fall in the lottery in 2018, but let’s say they say in the top three.
Instead of drafting a Deandre Ayton, who likely wouldn’t play well alongside Bam, they could look at the best backcourt player available. That would be, you guessed it, Luka Doncic.
Now we are really living in a fantasy land with this hypothetical, but it is one that could have actually played out had the 2017 draft played out like the future FanSided version. Booker, Luka, and Bam? Sign me up.
If only the Suns had a blogger with three-years-in-the-future knowledge, how different this franchise would look.