Miami Heat: Will Bam Adebayo dictate the team’s plans this offseason?
How Bam Adebayo will dictate the Miami Heat’s offseason plans
Fresh off a sensational (and quite unexpected) run to the NBA Finals, there’s plenty of optimism for the Miami Heat heading into the 2020 offseason and beyond. However, with their eyes set on their pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the summer of 2021, there are still some dangerous waters that they have to tread through over the next couple of months.
The goal for the Heat even before their impressive run through the Eastern Conference in the 2020 NBA playoffs revolved around maintaining the flexibility to get in the room with Giannis and offer him an opportunity he couldn’t refuse. Depending on what the Heat elects to do this offseason, those plans could be in jeopardy.
Heading into the offseason, there are many ways the Heat can keep its flexibility as it pertains to its free agents, ones they plan to target from the outside, and what they plan to do at the NBA Draft. One place where they can’t really keep flexibility is if they extend Bam Adebayo, who is eligible for one (and a max one) this offseason.
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Bam is coming off one of the most impressive playoff runs in team history, save for Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. He was arguably their most important player in the playoffs (and that was evident in the NBA Finals, where he was far from 100 percent.
During the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics, Bam averaged 22 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists on 60 percent shooting from the field – all while being the key to their defense. Bam was a player that Boston simply couldn’t match up with and was arguably the sole reason why the Heat made it to the NBA Finals.
While Jimmy Butler deserves a good amount of credit, the Heat doesn’t make it to the NBA Finals without Bam’s huge presence on both ends of the floor. And Jimmy would echo that.
With Bam’s emergence, it would be smart for Miami to take care of him financially. The problem with that, however, is that if the Heat does so this offseason, it would all but eliminate them from having sufficient cap space to sign Giannis outright in 2021.
It should be noted that Andy Elisburg is one of the best number-crunching front office executives in the NBA. If there’s anyone that could find a way to make it all work, it would be him. Though, it doesn’t look great.
Thus, the Heat is in an interesting spot. They could either lock up Bam, a certainty or try to kick Bam’s extension down the road (to next offseason) and risk upsetting him if he wants his money now (as insurance).
And perhaps the latter is what it ultimately comes down to. The big question for the Heat this offseason is whether or not Bam will be in on the plan. Is Bam willing to play ball with the Heat, as they’ve done with many players over the last two decades, in an attempt to swing for the fences next summer?
Or will Bam want his money now, which would all but change Miami’s approach to 2021?
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Bam Adebayo was the key to the Miami Heat’s magical NBA Finals run in 2020. Interestingly enough, he’s going to be the key to what course of action the Heat takes during both this offseason and the 2021 offseason. It’s Bam’s world and the Heat are now living in it.