Heat’s Adebayo reveals change he will make. And Haslem explains why he has roster spot
Fresh off a European vacation, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo was in Las Vegas to catch some summer league basketball Wednesday night.
And he delivered a message that will be well received by some Heat fans: He plans to look more for his shot.
Adebayo sat courtside at Cox Pavilion alongside Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and teammate Caleb Martin as they watched Miami’s summer league squad take on the Philadelphia 76ers on UNLV’s campus. The Heat, which continues its Las Vegas Summer League schedule on Friday against the Toronto Raptors (10 p.m., NBA TV), fell to the 76ers 75-71 on Wednesday.
Toward the end of the game, Adebayo appeared on 790 The Ticket’s ongoing broadcasts of summer league action and spoke about a wide range of topics that included his trip to London, the Heat’s offseason moves and his new offensive approach.
“They call me ‘No Ceiling’ for a reason,” said Adebayo, who turns 25 on Monday. “Just being a more efficient scorer. I feel like my shot attempts are going to go up. The guys want the ball in my hands. They want me to score more. My job is really easy this summer.”
That’s in line with Heat president Pat Riley’s comments from earlier this offseason, when he spoke about Adebayo and said “there’s another level at his age now that we need more consistency in his ability to get good shots, create good shots for himself and us and score.”
Adebayo was again a defensive force this past season, finishing fourth in the Defensive Player of the Year voting and earning a spot on the NBA’s All-Defensive Second Team for the third consecutive year. He also averaged career-highs in points (19.1 per game) and shot attempts (13 per game) to go with 10.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game in his third full season as the Heat’s starting center.
Despite those impressive numbers, Adebayo still has plenty of room to expand his offensive game.
While shooting 73.2 percent from inside the restricted area, he shot 42.2 percent on all other two-pointers (126 of 279 or 45.2 percent on non-rim paint shots and 42 of 119 or 35.3 percent on midrange attempts) and 0 of 6 on threes this regular season for an effective field-goal percentage (measures field-goal percentage adjusting for made threes being more valuable than made twos) of 55.9 percent that ranked in the NBA’s 46th percentile among bigs, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Adebayo also generated 0.98 points per possession (63rd percentile in the NBA) in post-up situations this regular season.
Riley wants Adebayo to find more consistency in creating his own scoring opportunities. Just in the Eastern Conference finals, Adebayo’s aggressiveness in that department fluctuated with four shots attempts in Game 1, six shot attempts in Game 2, 22 shot attempts in Game 3, five shot attempts in Game 4, 15 shot attempts in Game 5, six shot attempts in Game 6 and 21 shot attempts in Game 7.
“This could be a year, and [Erik Spoelstra] and I will sit down and talk about how can Bam be developed in a way to improve his consistent shot ability every night,” Riley said, “Getting 15 shots every night and quality shots that he can get, that he can create. Whether it’s in the post, whether it’s at the elbow or whatever.”
Adebayo is drawing motivation from the way the Heat’s season ended. Miami finished one win short of reaching the NBA Finals, as it dropped Game 7 of the East finals to the Boston Celtics 100-96.
With the Heat trailing by two points, Heat star Jimmy Butler missed an open three-pointer with 16.6 seconds left that would have given Miami the lead in the final seconds of what turned into a season-ending loss.
“It’s mandatory to get back to where we were and have a different result,” Adebayo said. “It haunts you. Because you get that close to something, one shot away and you look at the game, there were so many moments where we could have taken advantage of the game.”
As it stands right now, it appears that most of last season’s Heat roster will be back to avenge that season-ending defeat.
So far in free agency, the Heat has re-signed three of its players (center Dewayne Dedmon, guard Victor Oladipo and Martin) and has yet to make any outside additions. The only player on the Heat’s current 15-man roster, which includes 13 signed to contracts, who wasn’t on the team last season is first-round pick Nikola Jovic.
“It’s good to feel like we can run it back and do something different this year having Caleb, Dewayne, Victor [all back], guys who know our system, and everyone just falling in line,” Adebayo said.
But change is still possible. The Heat remains linked to trade talks for Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant and Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, although The Athletic reported Wednesday night that the “the Jazz and Knicks have begun discussions on a potential trade to send three-time NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell to New York.”
Whatever happens, Adebayo doesn’t want to fall just short of a championship again next season.
“It puts that battery in your back to do something special,” he said. “You get to the conference finals, get to the Finals, that exciting environment where you get that moment of you’re really here.”
Of his vacation to England, which included a trip to Wimbledon, Adebayo told Heat broadcasters Jason Jackson and Eric Reid: “I think the best part about the trip was the food. I went to one of the best restaurants in the country and I had authentic ravioli. I’m not a fan of fish and chips.”
HASLEM WEIGHS IN
During an appearance on Duncan Robinson’s podcast, Udonis Haslem took issue with those who question why he takes a roster spot while barely playing. Heat players and executives have raved for years about Haslem’s off-court impact, in helping mentor, develop and help teammates.
“Another misconception is that I take up a roster spot,” Haslem said during this week’s podcast episode of “The Long Shot with Duncan Robinson and Davis Reid” that was released Thursday. “People don’t know we have the most undrafted people in the NBA in our team. There is something going on here people, but you dumb [expletives] can’t understand. You are so focused on my age and why I’m here. There’s a reason why I’m [expletive] here. Look at Caleb Martin. Caleb Martin just got paid.”
Haslem, 42, then referenced his work with Max Strus and Gabe Vincent.
“I appreciate you guys for listening to me and valuing what I’m saying. People think I’m taking a spot. I’m actually giving. You are so focused on why I’m here. There’s a reason why I’m [expletive] here.”
Robinson then added: “There are so many stupid people that have platforms saying things that make no sense. People can’t even begin to wrap their minds around the way you move the needle internally.”
Haslem said: “You guys trust me. I can’t let you guys down. That means a lot to me. Every night I think about the what the [expletive] I’m going today. I take that responsibility personally. I lose sleep over that, if I don’t feel like I’ve got the most out of a certain guy.”
Haslem is expected to return for a 20th season but stopped short of saying that on the podcast.
Haslem addressed other issues:
▪ On the Heat sending team executive Tim Donovan to meet him in Orlando when free agency started to make clear to Haslem that the team wanted him back for a 20th season.
“I said what the bleep are you doing here? Once he explained everything, I was grateful. SUV pulling up on me. Nobody was supposed to know I’m here. My wife [told the Heat]. It was all love. It was appreciative, how people feel about me and what I mean to the organization. The conversation was what’s next for me.”
▪ Haslem took issue with Draymond Green saying late in the Heat-Celtics series that Boston would win the series.
“I don’t have a problem with Draymond at all. But there’s a warrior code. And I consider Draymond one of those warriors in this league. The warrior code is we don’t do that talk; let media do that talk.
“We hadn’t even saddled up. I think that was a little disrespect. There is a difference between saying who you want or win or think is going to win and who is going to win. He said who was going to win. I thought that was a little disrespect, a little premature... If somebody steps on my guys’ toes, I feel that’s disrespectful.
“We led the East all year but nobody ever talked about it; it’s always about other teams and other people. And that’s fine. We can take that from the media. We’re not going to take that from other players.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2022 at 10:02 AM.
