Edrice "Bam" Adebayo helped bring the University of Kentucky from good to dominant. The athletic Big Man brought presence inside on defense and a guy who can help your offensive flow. Kentucky had a good year behind De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, and Bam Adebayo. Bam is a star on the court and for any NBA team.
Height: 6'10"
Weight: 243 pounds
College averages: 13 ppg, 8 rpg
Strengths
Bam Adebayo's first strength comes right from looking at him. His physical build is money for the NBA. He's long with a 7'2" wingspan, he's strong and also athletic. Bam came into college weighing in at 260 pounds and at the recent draft weigh-in, he came in at 243 pounds.
Bam's best attribute is his ability to attack the glass and get rebounds. He only averaged 8 rebounds per game for Kentucky, but there were some games where he just worked the glass. He's so strong and athletic that when you tell him to go rebound he'll go get you rebounds. His defensive upside is a big positive for the NBA. He played well defensively at Kentucky and can switch onto smaller guards. He will be a big threat on defense because of that ability to switch. He'll make your guards shoot tough, contested shots when they come off the pick and roll.
Weaknesses
The largest weakness of Bam's game is his lack of offensive abilities. He isn't going to be a guy to build around on the offensive end, but he will be a guy that can give you 15 points and 10 to 12 rebounds a night.
He'll thrive in a system that has pace and space, where he'll sit in the lob area and clean up misses or catch lobs from the point guard. He could be a Clint Capela type of player. He won't be asked to do a lot, he'll set hard screens and be in the dunker's position. One big weakness of his offensive game is his decision-making and skill.
He tends to make decisions to shoot a jumper rather than use his athleticism to his advantage and get to the rim. His post-game from the block is average at best and his jumper isn't near consistent enough.
Out of the post, Bam doesn't find many shooters or cutters to get scores. If the ball goes down low to him it typically gets sucked down there and doesn't find it's way back out.
Bam will have to work on making that extra pass and finding a shooter for a better shot than a contested post-up.
Bam Adebayo has some notable weaknesses, but this should not deter NBA teams from investing in him. He's going to be an every night big man and he's got the potential to be a Dwight Howard type of player.
