Adams ‘the strongest man in NBA’
New Zealand basketball powerhouse Steven Adams has been labelled ‘‘the strongest, most physical guy in the league’’ as he bids for All-Star honours in the NBA.
The praise came from Scott Brooks, who was Adams’ first NBA coach at the Oklahoma Thunder.
These days Brooks is in charge of the Washington Wizards and he returned to Oklahoma to oversee a 116-98 thrashing in their clash earlier in the week.
But Brooks couldn’t help but note the way Adams dominated everyone early in the game.
‘‘Steven does that with everybody. That guy is the strongest, most physical guy in the league,’’ he said of Adams.
And he has been thrilled to see the rapid progress of his former rookie.
Brooks said the Thunder management always believed Adams was going make his presence felt and improve quickly when they nabbed him as the 12th pick from the 2013 NBA draft.
‘‘When Sam [Presti] drafted him and we had him in the predraft camp, we knew that he had a lot of talent,’’ Brooks said.
‘‘He had great hands and did a lot of special things not knowing really how to play. He hadn’t played a lot of basketball, so we knew we definitely had a talented player.
‘‘And then you saw every day his work ethic. When you have that talent and you work as hard as he works with coach [Mark] Bryant, you’re gonna get better. Their staff has done a great job with him.’’
Those thoughts have been echoed by ESPN senior basketball writer Zach Lowe, who penned a piece on the 10 things he does and doesn’t like in the NBA right now.
Adams was clearly in his ‘‘like’’ column as Lowe marvelled at his continual development as the All-Stars get set to be named on January 24.
‘‘Adams has never made the kind of one-year mega-leap that generates most improved player buzz. He just gets a little better at everything, every season,’’ Lowe wrote.
‘‘He has quietly transformed as a player without transforming the fundamental nature of his game. We should do more to acknowledge that sort of gradual improvement – the product of unceasing, almost tedious work.
‘‘Adams is averaging career highs in points, rebounds, steals and assists. The Thunder fall apart on the glass when he sits.’’
Lowe felt statistics backed up the general feel about Adams’ emergence as a legitimate force in the game’s toughest league.
‘‘He’s turning the ball over and fouling at career-low rates,’’ he wrote. ‘‘The Thunder ask a lot of Adams on defence – perhaps too much given his size and so-so athleticism. But he dutifully blitzes pick-and-rolls as the point man in Oklahoma City’s frantic, turnover-forcing assault. He never takes possessions off.
‘‘In return, he asks for nothing. He doesn’t even care that playing alongside Westbrook has left him with a career defensive rebounding rate barely above that of Andrea Bargnani.
‘‘The Thunder just don’t work the same way, on either end, without him.’’