Where Adebayo stands after postseason, with strong on-court response offered to critics
With a forceful, aggressive and impactful Game 7, Bam Adebayo changed what otherwise might have been the offseason narrative, a negative one that ESPN emphasized when the Heat was down 3-2 in the Eastern Conference finals.
And this is what I found interesting after Adebayo scored 25 points (12 for 21 shooting) and had 11 rebounds and 4 assists in Game 7:
Erik Spoelstra, who often deflects questions about Adebayo’s uneven offensive aggressiveness because he does so many other things well, made a point to praise his attacking mentality late Sunday night.
“I liked his assertiveness,” Spoelstra said. “We needed it. It was tough to generate good, clean looks. I thought Bam’s assertiveness was vital. It was really important for us to put some pressure on the rim and create some opportunities out of nothing, not out of a play call but just driving and making some plays.
“That’s definitely something he’ll be able to build on. He has reinvented himself every offseason. Every year in the last three or four years, he should have been considered most improved player.”
Adebayo’s big Game 7 left him with these final postseason averages: 14.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.7 blocks.
That compares with his regular-season averages of 19.1 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks.
So Adebayo was down in virtually every category in postseason, except free-throw percentage (76.3 in postseason compared with 75.3).
Here’s a big explanation for the scoring drop: Adebayo attempted 9.7 shots per game in the playoffs, compared with 13 in the regular season.
He actually made a higher percentage of his shots in the playoffs (59.4) than he did in the regular season (55.7).
And to his credit, he set excellent screens and held the player he guarded to 40.1 percent shooting, compared with the 48.7 percent those same players shot overall.
Jimmy Butler said Adebayo displayed in postseason “what he’s capable of when he has the opportunity to be that guy. I’ve said it all year long, he’s the engine that makes us run on both ends of the floor. He does so many things well.
“I’m very grateful to be able to play with an individual like him, along with so many other people on the roster. I think the more comfortable that Bam gets, that he knows that he’s a star in this league, you can’t put a cap and a ceiling on his talent and his abilities. As long as he’s comfortable, he’s going to be hell whenever he’s out there on the floor.”
Neverthless, there was plenty of Bam-bashing ater Game 5.
ESPN’s Richard Jefferson said “he has severely underperformed to his capability.”
Kendrick Perkins said: “I can’t let Bam off the hook. I’m trying to figure out: When is Bam going to take that leap and be considered the best player on a team and be a No. 1, No. 2 option that you can lean on?
“Right now, 18 and 10 is cool but that’s not good enough. In today’s league, you need that 30 and 15 or sometimes a 40 and 20. Consistency from him and showing he can actually lead this franchise and be a franchise player. He’s the one not getting it done.”
ESPN’s Jalen Rose said Adebayo “treated the paint like it’s surrounded by an electronic fence.”
For Adebayo, one oddity about the Celtics series was the disparity in shot attempts from game to game: 4 in Game 1, 6 in Game 2, then 22, 5, 15, 6, then 21 in Game 7.
As a result, his point total also varied widely: 10 in Game 1, 6 in Game 2, then 31, 9, 18, 6 and 25 in Game 7.
Adebayo and the Heat have said he shouldn’t be judged by his point total, and he reiterated that during these playoffs.
“People who actually know basketball and love the game and know what they’re looking at, they cherish that rather than me getting 30 or us possibly losing,” Adebayo said. “If we’re winning, you shouldn’t be mad about shots. There have been a lot of nights P.J. [Tucker] has one shot and we win and you never see P.J. say a word.”
And ESPN’s Zach Lowe made an interesting point: “I think the discussion of Bam is getting too negative. I don’t know why we we all expect Bam to be this 25-, 28-point-a-game scorer. That’s not who he is. The player he is is really good.”
Perkins countered by saying Adebayo “set the bar” for higher expectations by “making the All-Star team.”
When asked whether Adebayo is the second option on a title team, Lowe said: “Not right now, and I don’t think the Heat ever had any illusions that he could be.”
NOTABLE
▪ Game 7 of Heat-Celtics on ESPN was viewed in 12 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets, similar to an average Dolphins game. That 12 rating is well below for South Florida’s average Eastern Conference finals rating (23) of the Big 3 era (Heat-Pacers in 2014).
With 9.8 million viewers nationally, it was ESPN’s most-watched conference finals game in four years. Viewership was 40 percent ahead of last year’s Bucks-Hawks Eastern finals.
