Miami’s Bam Adebayo wants in on the NBA’s list of elite big men،
LIKE BAM ADEBAYO Entering the Chicago hotel lobby from the team bus, he had a conversation with himself about mind over matter. It was just after noon on game day and a freezing opponent was waiting upstairs.
“I'm trying to get my heart rate up,” the Miami Heat All-Star center told ESPN, looking nervously at the elevator. “So when I get there, it’s not really a shock.”
In June 2023, Adebayo walked off the floor at the end of Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Denver as blue, yellow, white and red confetti rained down on him and his defeated teammates. As the party began for the new NBA champion Nuggets, a bit of clarity hit him.
He suffered a sore hamstring during the playoffs, then a right shoulder injury in the Finals amid a grueling battle against rugged Nuggets star Nikola Jokic. Many teammates were by his side in the training room. Gabe Vincent had a sore ankle. Cody Zeller had a broken nose. Tyler Herro missed almost the entire playoffs due to a broken hand. Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler were banged up.
The Nuggets' injury report, meanwhile, was blank. As he felt frustration, exhaustion, and acceptance, this detail occurred to him.
“That's what really hit when the buzzer went off,” said Adebayo, whose Heat plays the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday (ESPN, 10 p.m. ET). “When you get to the final, those are the two things that matter: who will make the fewest mistakes and who will be the team with the least injuries. I thought, 'Damn, a lot of things factor into the reason we lost.'”
In a reality where a return to the Finals could mean long series against Eastern Conference giants such as Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo or Kristaps Porzingis (and perhaps all three) before a possible rematch with Jokic, Adebayo has taken a refined as he works on his seventh NBA season – one that appears to be the best of his career.
It was with this in mind that Adebayo took a midday ice bath at the hotel after that morning shootout. He could have eaten lunch, taken a nap or done something else, but he's committed to doing more body maintenance this season because, he believes, it can all count.
IF AN UNPLEASANT A 15 or 20 minute dip in ice water in November gradually improves the chances of being healthier in April, May and June, Adebayo is invested in it. If he can get two Pilates sessions a week instead of one, he'll give it a try.
“One of the things I learned: You have to take care of the little muscles,” Adebayo said. “It’s the little things that can count.”
Big things too. In late November, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra came to Adebayo to discuss the left hip injury that had been bothering him for more than a month. In the second week of the season, he fell hard during a game at Minnesota. His instinct then was to do what he had always done: fight.
Adebayo had missed three games at different times when the hip problem flared up. On November 30, his hip was slammed in the first half of a game against the Indiana Pacers, and he felt a pang of pain that forced him to the sidelines. He was determined to get through this with more ice and more treatments. He was putting up huge offensive numbers – Adebayo is having the most prolific season of his career with 22 points per game, a much-needed influx as the Heat faced long stretches without leading scorers Herro and Butler early in the season .
“Coach kind of took it out of my hands. He said, 'You need to sit down,'” Adebayo said. “Throughout my career I've tried to play hard, not think about it and once you get into competition you seem to forget about it.”
But that was Adebayo's old thinking. The new Adebayo, now 26 and trying to live each day with that eye on the playoffs, reluctantly sat out seven games.
Spoelstra put the Heat together while dealing with injuries to several starters — Miami used 14 different starting lineups in its first 22 games — and the team went 5-5 in games without Adebayo.
When Adebayo played, the Heat went 14-9, including a Christmas Day win over the Philadelphia 76ers where Adebayo had 26 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks (Embiid was out with an ankle injury ).
In addition to his career-best scoring, Adebayo's rebounds, assists and blocks are up from last season. Over the last five games, during one of the Heat's toughest stretches of the season, Adebayo averaged 22 points and 14 rebounds as Butler missed time with two different leg injuries .
Scoring was key not only with current teammates missing periods due to injury, but also with the departure of Vincent (Los Angeles Lakers) and shooting specialist Max Strus (Cleveland Cavaliers) in free agency. Adebayo improved his mid-range scoring showing an ever-improving jumper while drawing more fouls. (He increased his trips to the line by two per game.)
Adebayo, a two-time All-Star and four-time All-Defensive, is already known for his defensive versatility and skilled ball-handling for a big man. The ability to force a stop, grab the rebound and then initiate the offense is highly valued in the modern game and he is one of the few who can do it at an elite level.
But, looking back on his revelation in the finale, Adebayo is pushing for more.
“I look at my stat line and I’m like, ‘How can I be better?’” Adebayo said. “Instead of an average of 20 [points per game], how can I average 23? Instead of averaging nine rebounds, how can I average 11? Instead of averaging three assists, how can I average five? Instead of averaging 0.8 blocks, how can I average 1.4?
And you start to calculate that. You really start to focus on your preparation…how many times you go to the gym, how many times you work on consistency. And then it's about taking care of your body during that you're fighting in the summer, obviously trying to gain more weight, get stronger.”
LATE AT NIGHTEspecially after the losses, Adebayo found himself watching film and taking notes on his phone to talk with the coaching staff the next day.
“My coach is an insomniac,” Adebayo said. “I know he's watching [film] Also. But I'm saving the texts for the morning.”
“That's the life of great players in this league. You take on a lot of responsibility,” Spoelstra, the admitted insomniac, told ESPN of Adebayo. “People didn't really notice how much he improved every year and it really started in the playoffs four years ago. He was protected and he put in the work in the offseason to really develop a go-to shot right in the middle of the paint.”.
This dotted jumper – the pull-up in the middle of the paint – has become an Adebayo staple, but it pushes his range further. This season, Adebayo is making more shots from 10 to 16 feet than at any other time in his career and is making them at a rate of nearly 50 percent. It’s a mid-career wrinkle that expanded a tool in his game.
“Our scouting report on Bam was if he gets the ball at the elbow, you have to keep it there. Don't let him drive to get to that dotted line, get fouled or draw help from the defense so he can throw it back to a shooter,” an Eastern Conference scout whose team faced the Heat in the playoffs last season told ESPN. “But now it might evolve after observing it this year.”
This goes to the heart of what Adebayo wants. Last season, the Heat's scouting report on Jokic was painfully basic: pick your poison, do your best to not let him get comfortable, and hope for the best. For elite big men like Jokic and Embiid, there is no guarantee of stopping them.
Adebayo wants to be on this list.
“That’s what I want everyone in the league to respect about my game at this point,” Adebayo said. “Where they say, ‘We just have to hope he misses,’ and that’s what you work for.”
There's another list Adebayo has his eye on: All-NBA. He thought he would get there last year, but lost some pace after the All-Star break. His scoring average dropped about four points, with three fewer rebounds per game, and the Heat were playing .500 basketball.
Then came his monster playoffs. The triple-double of 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in the final game against the Milwaukee Bucks to end a stunning upset against the top seed. The record of 22 points and 17 rebounds against the Boston Celtics in the conference finals. Game 2 of 21 points and 9 rebounds in Denver in the final. To name just a few, but not forgotten by Adebayo.
His strong start is remarkable, but this season Adebayo wants a strong finish to put himself in position for that big honor. Yes, if Adebayo makes All-NBA (and plays in 65 games), he can qualify for a supermax contract extension of up to $245 million next summer — a factor he's definitely considering.
“You can’t run away from those kinds of numbers,” Adebayo said. “The money we make now is ridiculous. Coming from the background I come from, where my mother and I managed to get out of a simple caravan in the countryside. “You think about how many lives you can change. So that plays a role, it's important, but it's not the only reason I pursue it. “
But for a player who enters his early years with growing aspirations and demands on himself, there is also something else.
“I am [also] I'm pursuing it because I feel like I'm going to get to that point where people are going to be like, “It's guaranteed to be All-NBA.” [I’m] one of them.' It's not primarily for the money, it's primarily because [of] respect from your peers and obviously respect from everyone else. »
