Steven Adams’ 2016-17 Season in Review: Kiwi Steve is Underrated Again
The 2016 NBA playoffs were a bit of a whirlwind for Steven Adams. Up until then, in the general American basketballing conscience, he was that dude with the moustache who old veterans used to try fight all the time. A tough fella from New Zealand with heaps of brothers and sisters, one of whom is a multi-Olympic medallist shot putter. Then those playoffs happened.
Within the space of a couple weeks, Steven Adams was now acknowledged as one of the most underrated players in the league. A future top-five centre, some even said. The dude plays strong defence and can finish around the rim – a good old fashioned paint-dominant five in the era of floor stretchers and small ball line-ups. Sign him up, they demanded. Give that man his contract!
So they did. A four-year US$100m extension that is about to come into effect next season. A deal that he put pen to paper to, fittingly, on Halloween. What followed was a hugely confusing season in which a hand injury slowed him down at times and that almost inexplicable free throw shooting at the start of the season – hitting an astonishing 34 of his first 38 attempts – crumbled as he made a mere 46.8% of his FTs after the All Star Break. He was 4/11 in the playoffs. Adams’ field goal percentage dropped from last time but that was probably as much as anything to do with taking a career high 38.9% of his shots from that 3-10 foot range, as opposed to living off those dunks and layups (72.1% of his FGAs in 15-16 were from within three feet, only 55.5% in 16-17 were). Overall his FG% of 57.1 this season was seventh best in the NBA among qualifiers.
Then there were the rebounds, up a full board for a career-best 7.7 per game, though it was the offensive ones he really dined on. While his overall rebounding figures see him sitting back in 32nd overall, there were only seven players with more total offensive boards than ol’ Kiwi Steve. 26 times he had double figure rebounds, 48 times he had double figure points. He only fouled out once all season, which was a big problem for him early on his career, and there were 16 double-doubles in there. A personal best scoring night of 24 points against Houston in December, a PB in field goals made (11 (of 14)) against Chicago in January, twice he made 8 FTs in a game which is a new best and the 10 offensive boards he got against Memphis in February are a career high too. Plus he even got 20 votes from fellow players in the All Star stakes, for what that’s worth.
Western Frontcourt votes from NBA players for the 2017 ASG - worth 25% of the total vote
But the Thunder regressed by eight wins and two playoff rounds in Billy Donovan’s second season in charge. For the first time in his career, Adams notably regressed himself after the All Star Break and that general NBA consciousness which hailed him as so underrated nine months earlier were now checking back in with the playoffs on the horizon and wondering why Steven Adams hadn’t pierced the national attention span more often. When Adams then played a stinker in game one against the Houston Rockets in the first round of the postseason, the narrative was set. Steven Adams was not worth the big extension he’d been given. He hadn’t broken out like he was expected to. Steven Adams was now overrated.
Ain’t it funny how that works? His playoff numbers weren’t even that much worse from last season, other than his free throw shooting and defensive rebounding, but expectations were much higher and for not exceeding those again, he’s now rated lower than he was when he was rated higher than he was supposed to be… if that makes sense.
The reality is that he’s not as consistently good as he was against the Spurs last season but he’s much better than he looked early on against the Rockets. And to be fair to him, he played very well late on in that series. The Funaki’s defence was never that poor again, even when switched onto Harden, and he really hammered that home in the final two games of the series where he shot a combined 11/14 FGs and had 7 total blocks. 18 points in game four is a playoff best for him too.
Which brings us back around to a funny circumstance. When people realised that Steven Adams was an underrated NBA player, the echo chamber of people exhorting that idea then turned him into an overrated one. And now that he’s dismissed as overrated, he’s actually resumed his role as an underrated player. Geez, this NBA stuff gets confusing.
Of course those of us who have followed this lad from the beginning know that the true value of Steven Funaki Adams isn’t shown on the stat sheet. He’s a bloke who defends well in the paint and out of the pick and roll. He sets a mean screen and, sure, his offensive game is beginning to flourish… but he’s hardly an every-night option yet (maybe he should be but… eh, next year). The best attribute that Adams has is a humble attention to detail, a refusal to skip steps or get complacent about the basics. He’s tough as hell and never flinches. The bloke, simply put, does his job.
Hence why expecting major strides in his game was always a reckless idea. Adams has made a career of doing the little things right and he was never gonna be the dude to start flexing his range from distance – he tried one three pointer this season and it was a half-court heave at the buzzer. That emerging hook shot of his did improve his range but it was a gradual thing. This guy practices his jump shots for sure but don’t expect to see it in a game on the regular until he fully trusts it.
Nick Collison to NewsOK: “I think with [Steven] the big thing is confidence. That's always been the case, and a comfort level, and I think the further he gets along in his career, the more that he'll just feel more at peace and comfortable on the court, and he'll just continue to improve. But he's capable of doing a lot of things, and he's going to do the work and he's going to compete.”
You can bet that Billy Donovan feels a similar way and after playing him in 2389 on-court minutes this season, yet another personal record, the coach clearly sees Adams as a crucial piece in the puzzle. Nothing in his career to date suggests he’ll stop improving during that big contract either.
But the thing that has to be kept in context over this season is the Durant/Ibaka factor. Both former icons, one a defensive lynchpin and the other a flippin’ MVP… both gone this last offseason. The disappearance of KD meant defences had no worries collapsing the lane when Westbrook, an iffy three-point shooter, had the ball in his hand – which he did for a record usage rate. That took away so many of those gorgeous alley-oops that Russ and Steve thrived on the previous season and it also meant that Adams was pretty much reliant on Westbrook for his touches too. Russ did everything for this team in running the offence. It’ll probably win him an MVP award but it also meant for an inconsistent connection with his big man... particularly in fourth quarters.
Plus Westbrook’s triple double odyssey required a lot of defensive rebounds. So often Adams was there to strategically box out the opposition centre and allow space for Russ to swoop through and take the board, turning the corner and attacking before the defence can be set. It’s a handy tactic but it also means that Russell Westbrook, a 6’3 point guard, had 727 defensive boards while Steven Adams, a 7’0 centre, had only 333 in roughly 400 fewer minutes. By the way, the Thunder were the best rebounding team in the NBA this season so keep that in mind with any criticism of Adams’ numbers.
And not having Ibaka thrust Adams into a defensive leadership role. He and Andre Roberson were the pair that bossed this defence. Their movements determined where others went and that’s a huge responsibility that probably drew a few mistakes. This was a very young Thunder team as well. Adams will continue to grow into his role and expand it as he does – he’s still only 23! – but at the same time he’ll be helped by the developments of shooters like Alex Abrines and Doug McDermott, as well as bigger lads such as Domantas Sabonis and Jerami Grant. Two of those four were rookies in 2016-17, the other two third year players in their first season with OKC.
It’s hard to know what Oklahoma City will do from here, it all depends on Russell Westbrook re-signing first of all. Despite hogging a few of Adams’ stats (no coincidence that Adams especially dropped off in the numbers down the stretch as Russ’ record TDs came into sight), he’s the lifeblood of this team and without him they’re a dead-set lottery side. Chances are that he’ll stay but even then, they need to address this bench because it killed them in the playoffs. Second-year improvements aren’t gonna make up that difference alone.
But as far as Kiwi Steve goes, we learned an important lesson over the last 12 months. His game moves at its own steady pace and no amount of hype is gonna take him outta his curve. That’s cool, we all realise that now. And if his wider reputation has dropped off then no dramas. He’ll probably always be underrated.
Kiwi Steve knows the value of the little stuff, why not take his example and do little good for the Ol’ Nichey Niche by slapping one of them page ads? Chur.