What’s behind the shooting struggles of Heat’s Bam Adebayo? Just look in the paint
As usual, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo has taken on a lot of responsibilities this season.
Adebayo is in his second season as the Heat’s captain. He’s also expected to anchor the Heat’s defense, box out and rebound at a high level, serve as a hub on the offensive end and make shots.
Adebayo has done all of those things well, except make shots.
After scoring 18 points on 6-of-19 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting on threes during the Heat’s brutal 123-118 double-overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings on Monday night at Golden 1 Center to begin an important six-game trip, Adebayo entered Tuesday night’s matchup against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco shooting just 45 percent from the field this season. That’s a career-low mark for Adebayo, who has shot better than 50 percent from the field in each of the first seven seasons of his NBA career prior to this season.
“I don’t know, my role changes every day,” Adebayo, 27, said when asked about the challenge of finding the right balance in his game amid all his duties on both ends of the court. “Like I said, sometimes it is where I can just put my head down and go score, sometimes I need to be the point guard and facilitate, make the extra pass so other guys can get going. Other days it can be the stuff that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet. So for me, it changes from game to game. Me and [Heat coach Erik Spoelstra] are trying to figure this out to where we can get a consistent basis.”
Making shots consistently has been a problem for Adebayo, who has been among the most inefficient shooters in the NBA this season.
Adebayo (52 percent true shooting percentage) entered Tuesday with the league’s second-worst true shooting percentage (a shooting percentage that also factors in the value of three-point field goals and free throws) among the 68 players with at least 400 field-goal attempts this season. Only Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet (49.9 percent) ranks below Adebayo in this category among this group.
For perspective, Adebayo has never finished a season with a true shooting percentage under 57 percent in his NBA career.
Why is Adebayo’s shooting efficiency down this season? Most of Adebayo’s shots are non-rim paint opportunities, and he entered Tuesday shooting 41 percent on those shots after making 50.1 percent of those looks last regular season. The only seasons that Adebayo has shot worse from this area of the court were the first two seasons of his NBA career, when he made 25.4 percent of those shots as a rookie in 2017-18 and 40.9 percent of those shots in his second season in 2018-19.
It also doesn’t help that Adebayo is shooting just 65.5 percent at the rim this season, which is his lowest shooting percentage from within the restricted area since his rookie season.
As a result, Adebayo is shooting 50.2 percent from inside the paint this season after shooting 57.3 percent from inside the paint last regular season.
In addition, Adebayo is shooting only 27 percent on a career-high 2.6 three-point attempts per game this season.
But Adebayo, who has made one of the NBA’s All-Defensive teams in each of the past five seasons, remains elite on the other end of the court. He ranks in the NBA’s 97th percentile for estimated defensive plus-minus this season.
“It changes game by game,” Adebayo said of his offensive role. “Some games, it might be start out aggressive. Some games, it might be Tyler [Herro] got it going, Duncan [Robinson] got it going and you get lost in that. So, you fight that battle every day. Couch coaches want you to go out there and get 30 points every night. It’s like, the way we play, not everybody is going to get 30 a night unless you’re super efficient every night. It just depends.”
Adebayo, who signed a maximum contract extension this past summer that keeps him with the Heat through the 2028-29 season when he’ll be 31 years old, knows more is expected of him as a scorer. The Heat doesn’t have enough offensive firepower on its roster to survive Adebayo’s shooting struggles, especially with Heat star Jimmy Butler away from the team as he serves the third game of his seven-game suspension on Tuesday.
TRIPLE-DOUBLE PERFORMANCE
The Heat was not happy after Monday’s double-overtime loss to the Kings. After all, Miami blew a 17-point fourth-quarter lead in the loss.
But there was at least one thing to smile about, as Heat second-year forward Jaime Jaquez recorded the first triple-double of his NBA career. While making his fifth start of the season, Jaquez finished Monday’s defeat with 16 points and career-highs in rebounds (12), assists (10) and minutes (46).
“I just try to go out there and do what I can to help the team win,” Jaquez said following the loss in Sacramento. “Today it was a little bit of everything. I tried to facilitate as best I can. I know on the defensive end, getting rebounds was a big emphasis for us. So, just trying to do all those little things to try to get this win tonight.”
Spoelstra was left impressed, also making sure to point out the fact that Jaquez tied his career-high with five steals along with producing a triple-double stat line.
“He was assertive,” Spoelstra said. “There was no question about it. He was assertive and he was good on the other end, too. Five steals, he did some really good things defensively, came back to help and different things in the zone.”
It was a much-needed performance for Jaquez, too. He’s averaging fewer points and minutes per game while also shooting worse from the field and three-point range than he did last season as an NBA rookie.
INJURY REPORT
The Heat listed Herro as questionable for Tuesday’s game against the Warriors because of a left knee contusion. But Herro was available against the Warriors and has yet to miss a game this season.
However, the Heat was without Butler (team suspension), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) and Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation) for Tuesday’s game.
The Warriors ruled out Jonathan Kuminga (right ankle sprain), Gary Payton II (left calf strain) and Brandin Podziemski (right abdominal injury management).
This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 12:26 PM.
