As De’Aaron Fox trade buzz picks up, what is Bam Adebayo’s Heat pitch to interested stars?
Bam Adebayo plays a lot of roles for the Miami Heat. He’s the Heat’s captain, defensive anchor ... and liaison to some of the NBA’s top stars.
As a highly regarded player who has also built relationships with some of the league’s stars during his time with Team USA, Adebayo was among the reasons Damian Lillard and Kevin Durant were interested in joining the Heat in recent years before they were eventually traded elsewhere.
With ESPN’s Shams Charania reporting Tuesday that the Sacramento Kings are expected to begin talks for a potential trade of star guard De’Aaron Fox ahead of the NBA’s Feb. 6 trade deadline, the attention has again turned to Adebayo as a potential pitchman.
That’s because Adebayo and Fox developed a close friendship as roommates during their lone college season at Kentucky in 2016-17. They’re so close that Adebayo was a groomsman in Fox’s wedding in 2022.
“That’s my man,” Adebayo said this week when asked about his friendship with Fox, with the Heat coming off Wednesday night’s 126-106 blowout home loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers to fall back to .500 at 23-23 for the season. “That’s my college roommate. Our relationship, for me, I think is very solid. I was in his wedding, I was a groomsman. That just shows the level of respect. That just shows the level of respect and obviously the bond that we have.”
But Adebayo said Wednesday that he has not talked to Fox about any trade possibilities.
Also, it has been reported that the San Antonio Spurs are Fox’s preferred trade destination. But Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports said Wednesday night that the Heat and Houston Rockets are also on Fox’s list as second-tier options behind the Spurs.
The question is, does the Heat have enough to get a deal done for Fox?
For now, it appears the Heat’s focus is still on working to trade Jimmy Butler ahead of next week’s NBA trade deadline.
A league source close to the situation indicated Wednesday that the Phoenix Suns are still the team pushing the hardest for the disgruntled Butler. While other teams have called the Heat registering some level of interest in Butler, the Heat’s most serious discussions regarding a Butler trade have been with the Suns up to this point.
The issue is Bradley Beal needs to be part of any Suns trade package (since Devin Booker and Durant are off the table) to make the salary-cap math work, but the Suns have been unable to find a match for Beal. Not only does Beal have two years and $110 million left on his contract beyond this season, but he also can veto any trade because of his no-trade clause. The Heat is still not interested in taking on Beal in a Butler trade.
The Golden State Warriors are another team that has recently expressed some interest in Butler.
Could a Butler trade give the Heat enough assets that can be flipped into a deal for Fox? Or could a Butler trade grow into a bigger deal that brings Fox to Miami and reroutes assets to the Kings? Those might be the only ways the Heat has enough to land Fox from the Kings.
That’s because the Spurs — reportedly Fox’s preferred trade destination — currently have nine tradeable first-round picks that they can include in a deal to the Heat’s one tradeable first-round selection. San Antonio also has young talent such as Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell and others who it can add to any trade package for Fox.
While the Heat might not be Fox’s preferred landing spot, the allure of playing for the Heat is obvious to Adebayo.
“For me, they know that it’s all about basketball and what I’m going for,” Adebayo said, with the Heat in the middle of a two-day break before beginning a four-game trip on Saturday against the Spurs. “When you’re in an organization that obviously we want championships, we have a coach that cares about not just championships but your players. When you have situations like that, you can’t take those for granted.
“There are a lot of dudes who have been in organizations where in 10 years, they had seven or eight different coaches. They’ve had teams where it’s all young dudes because they’re in the lottery all the time or dudes that have never been past the second round. They see the success here and they want to be a part of it.”
Buzz surrounding a possible Fox trade is picking up now because he has been reluctant to sign an extension with the Kings.
Fox’s current contract runs through the 2025-26 season, as he’s on a $34.8 million salary for this season and a $37.1 million salary for the 2025-26 season before he can become a free agent during the summer of 2026.
But Fox doesn’t need to hit free agency because he’s eligible to sign a four-year, $229 million extension this upcoming offseason,
Fox can sign that same extension with any team he’s traded to, but he will need to wait six months after he’s dealt to become eligible to do it. The four-year extension would begin in the 2026-27 season and run through the 2029-30 season.
Fox, 27, is averaging 25.1 points, five rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 46.8 percent from the field and 32.1 percent 6.3 three-point attempts per game this season for the Kings.
Fox is one of six NBA players who entered Thursday averaging at least 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and one steal per game this season. Along with Fox, that list includes Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Dallas’ Luka Doncic, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball and Boston’s Jayson Tatum.
Does Adebayo go out of his way to pitch players on playing for the Heat or does he wait for them to approach him?
“I wait for the question,” Adebayo said. “Obviously, if you’re intrigued by the situation, you’re going to ask anyway.”
Then Adebayo tells them exactly what it’s like to play for the Heat.
“The thing is I’m telling you the whole truth. It’s not a recruiting pitch to me,” Adebayo said. “I’m telling you the truth. You’re going to get here, you know what it is. There is no BS, there is no, ‘I’m going to get my numbers.’ No, no, no. This is team basketball here. We’re going to play both sides of the basketball. So that’s 82 games, plus playoffs. I’m not sugarcoating anything. You make your decision from there.
“To me, if I consider you like family like De’Aaron, I’m not going to lie to you. You’re getting a coach that’s not going to let you go below your standard and sometimes that does get annoying. Sometimes that does rub you the wrong way. But it’s a coach that expects more out of you because he sees something. When you have a coach like that, you can’t take that for granted. There have been many coaches in some organizations that they’re there for a season. How are you supposed to bank equity with a coach who’s only there for a season, two seasons? You can’t really hone in and become something when it’s like that. For us, we got a coach that’s going to be here for a very long time that really cares about winning, but also cares about us.”
