What’s behind Bam Adebayo’s uptick in shot attempts for Heat? ‘I feel like it’s growth’
The All-Star break gives coaches and players around the NBA an opportunity to rest, prepare and reassess certain things ahead of the final weeks of the regular season. But the Miami Heat hopes center Bam Adebayo picks up exactly where he left off when the games resume.
The eight-game stretch leading into the break included some of Adebayo’s most aggressive offensive performances in his NBA career. He averaged 21.9 points while shooting 55.6 percent on 15.8 shot attempts from the field and 71.4 percent on 6.1 free-throw attempts, 11.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists to lead the Heat to a 6-2 record over the final eight games before All-Star Weekend.
Adebayo, 24, has attempted 19 or more shots in nine games during his NBA career. Three of them came during this recent eight-game span that led into the break, as Adebayo also tied his career-high of 21 shot attempts twice during that same stretch.
“He’s got to be aggressive, especially at the five position,” Adebayo’s frontcourt partner P.J. Tucker said, with the Heat set to return to practice on Thursday before resuming its schedule Friday against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. “His guy is always usually wanting to help. So those times when he gets in the pocket, we need him to be aggressive and attacking the rim and making plays for everybody else. It’s a fine line and you got to figure out every game which one to do more on different nights.”
It’s a fine line that Adebayo has had to navigate over the last few seasons, as he averaged 5.1 assists and 11 shot attempts per game in 2019-20 and 5.4 assists and 12.5 shot attempts last season. But the addition of veteran point guard Kyle Lowry has allowed Adebayo and co-star Jimmy Butler to focus more on their own offense, with Adebayo’s assists down to 3.5 per game and his shot attempts up to a career-high 13.5 per game this season.
Adebayo averaged 17.6 points on 12.8 shot attempts from the field and 5.8 free-throw attempts per game during his first 26 appearances of the season before his eight-game streak of aggressiveness.
“I feel like it’s growth,” Adebayo said of his recent assertiveness on the offensive end. “I feel like that’s the same mentality, just growth at this point.”
But is the uptick in shot attempts intentional or simply a product of favorable matchups he faced before the break?
“It’s not the matchup,” Adebayo made clear. “I can take 15 shots against anybody. You can get that off at any point. But it’s mainly growth and it’s mainly picking my spots more and finding that I can get a lot more aggressive in certain situations. When you watch film and you see the openings that you have, it’s a reminder in your mind that when you get to certain plays or you get to that certain moment again. It’s just like, alright this is the time that I get to be aggressive.”
The biggest adjustment that Adebayo has made during the past eight games is he has taken his offensive game closer to the rim. Instead of settling for what’s considered in the NBA to be an inefficient long two-point shot, he’s leveraging his athleticism against slower big men.
During the past eight games, 50.8 percent of Adebayo’s shot attempts have come from within the restricted area, 84.9 percent from inside the paint and just 12.7 percent have been midrange looks.
Before this stretch, 43.1 percent of Adebayo’s shots originated from within the restricted area, 80.5 percent from inside the paint and 19.2 percent from midrange.
With opponents sometimes sagging off Adebayo to dare him to take open midrange shots, he has instead taken advantage of that space to get downhill and attack the defense during the past eight games. He has also been more aggressive in looking for his own shot when receiving pocket passes on rolls to the basket.
Those tweaks came from missed opportunities he noticed on film from previous games.
“It was pretty much playing off instinct,” Adebayo said. “Watching it on film, you see you can be aggressive. So you get in that situation again, that’s when you’re like: ‘Alright, I can be more aggressive on this play.’ I have this much space from looking at it on film.”
Other factors that have led to Adebayo’s uptick in aggression: He has been more active on the offensive glass, as he has converted on eight putbacks during the past eight games compared to 11 putbacks over his first 26 appearances of the season. Pitch ahead passes by Lowry have also helped put Adebayo in advantageous transition opportunities.
“You can see it in me and Jimmy,” Adebayo said. “Kyle gets the rebound and if we’re ahead and it’s 1-on-1, he pitches it to us and we get to go after 1-on-1 matchups. I feel like that’s the difference and Kyle is looking for us to score. He doesn’t want us to pass him the ball. He wants to get the assist.”
More shots doesn’t always mean more points, especially for Adebayo. He has averaged 0.91 points per possession in post-up situations, which places him in the 45th percentile among NBA players.
But Adebayo has been a bit more effective in isolation situations this season. He is averaging one point per possession when isolating against a defender (76th percentile), compared to 0.95 points per possession (66th percentile) last season.
Regardless of the results, a more aggressive Adebayo lifts the ceiling for the Heat’s offense. That’s important with the playoffs approaching, as the Heat owns the NBA’s eighth-best offensive rating this season but is only average in the halfcourt.
“It’s something that you continue to get better at night in and night out,” Tucker said of Adebayo finding the right balance between playing as a facilitator and scorer. “In the playoffs, it gets even tougher and we’re going to lean on him even more to get in there and do it. So at that position, it’s really essential. Especially for our team, the way we move the ball, to get it in the middle of the defense first to open everything else up.”
For Adebayo, it’s all about reading the game.
“There is no fine line. You got to figure it out during the course of the game,” Adebayo said. “If my teammates aren’t open, this is my time to go one on one. If they’re going to be open a lot and the other team doesn’t know how to play cuts, it’s a read. It’s not really like a fine line. It’s a read at this point.”
