Tag: bam adebayo

Pair of Heat players finish second in NBA award voting

It’s awards season in the NBA, as winners of the league’s regular season awards are announced during the playoffs. Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting on how Miami Heat players fared in the results:

With Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant on Thursday being named NBA Rookie of the Year, the Heat’s two finalists for 2020 NBA awards have had their second-place fates settled, Kendrick Nunn for Rookie of the Year and Bam Adebayo for Most Improved Player (behind New Orleans Pelicans guard Brandon Ingram). While the Heat have had previous Most Improved winners in Rony Seikaly (1990) and Ike Austin (1997), the franchise remains without a Rookie of the Year in its 32 seasons. As a matter of perspective on Nunn’s finish, consider that Dwyane Wade placed third in the 2004 Rookie of the Year vote (behind LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony), Caron Butler third in the 2003 Rookie voting (behind Amare Stoudemire and Yao Ming), with those the top previous Heat finishes. (Michael Beasley placed seventh in 2009 as the No. 2 pick in 2008.)

Some Miami Heat player notes from the season

Had the global coronavirus pandemic not put a stop to things, today was to be the final day of the 2019-20 NBA regular season.

The Miami Heat were having an excellent season, and while Jimmy Butler is their most well-known player, plenty of other guys share the credit, including do-it-all first-time All-Star forward Bam Adebayo, and talented young guards Duncan Robinson, Kendrick Nunn and Tyler Herro. Here’s the Miami Herald with some notes:

Adebayo: If this is the end of the regular season, Adebayo will join Oscar Robertson as the only players to average at least 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists before turning 23.

Robinson: No player other than Steph Curry has ever hit as many three-pointers in a season at such a high rate of accuracy. Let that marinate for a minute.

Nunn: With 972 points, Nunn scored more in his first 62 games than any other undrafted player during the common draft era (post-1966) except Connie Hawkins (1,494).

Herro: Among players with at least eight clutch three-pointers this season, only Joe Harris shot better than Herro on threes in clutch time, among all NBA guards this season.

With games on hold, if the regular season was declared over but the playoffs to begin, the Eastern conference No. 4 Heat would be playing the No. 5 Pacers in the first round.