Is it fair to expect Bam Adebayo to solve the Miami Heat’s superstar issue?
Training camp may still be roughly two months away, but it seems that the Miami Heat will enter next season without a significant upgrade to its roster. For better or worse, the Heat will likely have to run it back (sans PJ Tucker).
Miami will have to lean on internal development in hopes of taking a tangible step forward this season in the Eastern Conference. And while most will point to the continued development of Tyler Herro as the team’s best chance of repeating as contenders in the East, I firmly believe that most of that pressure will fall on Bam Adebayo.
Bam is coming off one of the best seasons of his career and probably should’ve won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award, but when watching the Heat in the postseason you can clearly see that there’s still room for him to grow as a player. Especially on the offensive end of the floor.
On the surface, Bam is close. He’s coming off a season in which he averaged 19 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists per game. For a player that ranks third in shot attempts, that’s pretty good. And close to superstar status.
However, the question around Bam has always been about whether he has that superstar gene or not. And one area of concern is that more often than not, he doesn’t seem to have the aggressiveness that separates most superstars from stars.
And we saw that time and time again in the postseason. During the playoffs, Bam only averaged 15 points and eight rebounds per game. When the Heat needed a second star next to Jimmy the most, he was not consistent enough for it to matter in the conference finals.
The Heat has a superstar issue in which it truly doesn’t have one. For as good as Jimmy Butler has been over the past three seasons for the Heat, he’s not a player that has been able to get the Heat over the hump. And that’s what superstars do.
Bam is a likely candidate that could potentially develop into one. Or so it seems, that’s what has been pushed through the media recently.
I suppose the better question would be, is it fair to expect Bam to solve the superstar issue that the Heat faces?