Jimmy Butler led the Miami Heat to a win over the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in their second-round series. Butler dropped 40 points in a great performance to upset Milwaukee. A big story of the game was also how subdued Giannis Antetokounmpo was. One of the reasons for that was the defense Bam Adebayo played on him. Adebayo ended game one with a whopping 17 rebounds.

Adebayo recently lost the Most Improved Player award race to Brandon Ingram of the New Orleans Pelicans. However, Butler feels that his teammate was snubbed over the award. He told Sam Amick of The Atheltic,

“(Adebayo) can fucking play man. And I’m happy for (Brandon) Ingram, and (him) winning Most Improved Player. But I think Bam has been that for us. So on this team, he’s that for us. He’s the Most Improved. He’s everything to us. To think about what he has to do on both ends of the floor. Way harder than my job, especially in this series, because he’s got to guard everybody. He’s gotta start out on Giannis, switch out on (Khris) Middleton, switch onto whoever else, and he never, ever, ever once complains, man. Never. Never.”

Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo: The unlikely championship duo?

If you told anyone that Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo would be leading the Heat to a possible playoff series win over the Milwaukee Bucks at the start of the season, you would have been laughed at. Well, Pat Riley is the one laughing, as his team has blossomed into title contenders in year one.

The young Heat team has taken direction from Jimmy Butler and succeded. The young players apart from Adebayo also coalesce around Butler on the court. We see this with the way Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn have developed. However, there are other mentors on the team like Udonis Haslem as well.

While the MIP snub must feel bad, Adebayo has bigger fish to fry. Brandon Ingram’s Pelicans didn’t even make it to the post-season, while Adebayo is in a position to eliminate the title favorites. I don’t think Adebayo would want to switch positions with Ingram at this moment. Instead, he can focus on growing alongside Butler and eventually bringing the glory days back to Miami.