Bam discusses next frontier. And Bradley Beal on downside of playing in Miami or elsewhere
Bam Adebayo, who once hit 60 of 100 corner three-pointers in a Heat pre-draft workout, now watches his teammates shoot threes at a volume superior to any Heat team in franchise history.
So now, as he continues to expand his game, and his range, it’s natural for him to wonder whether he will join the three-point parade at some point in his career. Achieving more consistency with his mid-range jumper - and his hope of one day becoming an occasional but respected three-pointer shooter - remain among the final frontiers for the first-time All Star.
Adebayo has attempted 13 three-pointers this season, making just one. For his career, he’s at 4 for 35.
He knows he can’t start launching them in games at this point but said he envisions incorporating that into his game at some point in his career.
“That will become a conversation [with Erik Spoelstra] because at the end of the day, he wants me to get better,” Adebayo said. “He wants me to be unguardable. He wants me to help this team win. In the future, it will be a conversation we will have.”
For this season, the goal has simply been developing consistency with his 10-to-16 foot face-up jumper. And the growth there has been tangible, even though there have been struggles in that area in the past week.
Last season, Adebayo shot 37.3 percent from 10 to 15 feet (22 for 59). This season, he’s at 40.8 percent (42 for 103).
From three to nine feet, he’s shooting 45.7 percent (96 for 210), compared with 41.5 last season (49 for 118).
But it remains a challenge beyond 15 feet. Last season, he shot 7 for 16 (43.8 percent) from 16 feet to the three-point line. This season, he’s at 8 for 32 (25.0 percent).
So on all shots beyond 15 feet, he’s 9 for 45 this season. But that doesn’t tarnish an All Star season in which he has established himself as one of the most productive and versatile power rotation players in the game.
If Adebayo maintains his current statistics (16.0 points per game, 10.5 rebounds per game and 5.0 assists per game), he would join Oscar Robertson as the only players to average at least 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists before turning 23.
“The level he’s playing at now, he’s going to be considered one of the guys for most improved player,” Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said. “Where he’s really made the biggest jump is offensively. Doing some things offensively I’m not sure anybody thought he was capable of. He’s been very consistent on some of his post moves and some of the footwork he’s had.”
Adebayo, whose scoring average has nearly doubled from 8.9 last season, has labored countless hours in the gym working on his face-up jumper. For now, his most reliable offensive work comes off the dribble.
“Tough cover,” Magic coach Steve Clifford said of Adebayo’s ability to put the ball on the floor. “It puts a lot more pressure on both the guy defending the cutter and the big defending.”
But as much as Adebayo has enjoyed expanding his offensive game, he doesn’t want Jimmy Butler to defer to him.
“I defer to him,” Adebayo said. When he has “the hot hand,... don’t pass me the ball. Do your thing.”
BEAL DOUBLES DOWN
Wizards guard Bradley Beal - whose team plays Miami on Sunday night - told me in December that he considered the Heat before agreeing to an extension that binds him to the Wizards through at least 2021-22.
But in an essay for The Undefeated, Beal said: “Jumping ship is kind of the easy way out. But at the same time, there’s no guarantee that you’ll win. I can sit here and say, ‘Yeah, I can go to Boston, I can go to Toronto, I can go to Miami’ … I can go everywhere everybody wants me to go. But what would that look like? It wouldn’t necessarily be my team to where now I’m in a situation in Washington where I’m being built around….
“For me, I look at Kobe, I look at D-Wade [Dwyane Wade], I look at Dirk [Nowitzki], U.D. [Udonis Haslem], how they can stay in one situation for a long time. I hate change. If it happens, it happens. But if I can control it, I will finish in D.C.”
But Washington entered Sunday at 23-39 and Beal, who is averaging 30.5 points, admits: “I’m not somebody who is going to come out here and just try to score 50 every game. That doesn’t bring me joy. It’s pointless, because you scored these many points and you lose… I know I’m going to have to take these bumps and bruises. I knew this last summer.”
MORE ROBINSON RECORDS
Two nights after setting the Heat record for most three-pointers in a season, Duncan Robinson enters Sunday’s game at Washington with a chance to become only the third NBA player ever to hit at least eight three-pointers in three consecutive games.
By doing that in the Heat’s past two games (against Orlando and New Orleans), Robinson became only the sixth player in history to achieve that feat, joining Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, JR Smith, James Harden and George McCloud.
Curry and Lillard are the only players to ever hit at least eight threes in three consecutive games. Nobody has done it more than three times.
Robinson is also the first player in history to make at least eight threes in two consecutive games without attempting a two-point shot in either game.
And Robinson - who hit 10 threes last season for Miami while spending most of his time in the G-League on a two-way contract - entered Sunday needing only to hit one more three to break a tie with McCloud for the record of biggest increase in number of three-pointers from one season to another.
▪ ESPN’s Tim Legler cited two reasons why the Heat matches up well against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks: “You play smaller lineups and attack them with dribble drive kick-outs to that many guys that can shoot, that’s a problem. Miami is very dangerous because of the way they shoot.”
And Legler said “zone is something you can use” to flummox Milwaukee at times, and the Heat does that.
Here’s my breakdown explaining why the Heat has been so much worse on the road this season.... Jae Crowder remains in concussion protocol and will miss Sunday’s game.
This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 10:13 AM.
