LAS VEGAS — Just one year after re-signing Hassan Whiteside to a four-year, $98 million contract, the Miami Heat shocked draftniks by using the 14th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft to take Bam Adebayo out of Kentucky. With a ton of upside coming out of his one year in Lexington, it wasn’t necessarily surprising that he was drafted at the bottom of the lottery, but the fact that it was the Heat who took him did turn some heads.
At the time, Miami might have been better off looking for help on the wing, especially with Whiteside locked up to a huge contract to be their starting center. But as it turns out, Adebayo’s play in his rookie year made the Heat look awfully smart, leading many (including yours truly) to think that he may be the best center on their roster.
As is customary among non-superstar rookies, Adebayo is back for his second run in the NBA Summer League, and while the statistics haven’t been special (he’s shooting just 37.5 percent from two-point range), he’s showing off more of the all-around game that makes him a perfect fit for the modern NBA. Before the festivities kicked off, Heat Summer League head coach Eric Glass told the Palm Beach Post that Adebayo would have the chance to do a bit of everything.
So far, we’ve seen Adebayo handling the ball in short roll situations, rim-running for lobs, and even stretching his shot out beyond the three-point line. In four games in Sacramento and Las Vegas, results have been mixed at best, with Adebayo committing more turnovers than Miami would like in short roll opportunities, plus still looking for his first made three-pointer of the summer.
He remains a phenomenal lob threat in pick-and-roll situations; his athleticism even stands out at the NBA level, so it’s no surprise that he’s on another plane against Summer League competition when it comes to getting up for big finishes at the rim.
Heralded for his playmaking at the center position in his rookie year, things haven’t gone quite as well as one would hope in Summer League. He’s not able to catch with as much space around him — defenses aren’t nearly as afraid of Matt Farrell as they are of Goran Dragic — and the shooters surrounding him aren’t hitting at the same rate they do in the regular season. This has led to Adebayo posting twice as many turnovers as assists through four games, though a handful of his turnovers have come in relatively unorthodox situations.
Take, for instance, this one against the Lakers in Sacramento, in which he brought the ball up the floor and turned it over on a dribble hand-off.
True to their word, the Heat are enabling Adebayo to be a lot more than just a rim-runner in Summer League, which sometimes leads to unorthodox situations in which he’s not quite comfortable at this point in his career. They’re also giving him carte blanche to grab and go in transition, which won’t be a big part of his repertoire once the regular season rolls around.
Still, there have been flashes of what makes Adebayo a potential star in this league. His handle, passing, and vision are miles ahead of most of his competitors at his position, in Summer League or the NBA, and when he’s able to catch and survey the defense, he’s a high-level passer to spot-up shooters and cutters.
As teams have been doing throughout Summer League, the Lakers brought over the weak-side defender to essentially double-team Adebayo on the roll, but he’s able to see around the defense to find the cutter with a nice bounce pass for a dunk. While he won’t bring up the ball a ton for the Heat in the regular season, his ability to break out a right-to-left crossover will be good enough to generate an advantage against a vast majority of centers.
The versatility to Adebayo’s offensive game is fascinating — it’s easy to imagine him catching in pick-and-pop and uncorking that crossover to leave his recovering defender in the dust. If he’s ever able to convert some of those pick-and-pop situations into a jumper, whether it’s all the way out to the three-point line or just to the elbows, then his handle should become even more dangerous.
Adebayo still needs plenty of polish before he’ll be an above-average center at the NBA level but he’s well on his way after just one year in the league. His ability to play away from the basket in pick-and-pop and short roll situations makes him an ideal partner for Dragic, who can penetrate to the rim in pick-and-roll or string out the defense laterally to create more room for Adebayo in the middle of the floor. His passing and vision from those spots, along with a developing outside jumper, makes him immensely more valuable than a traditional pick-and-roll center, but in situations where the Heat need a strong finisher inside, he can do that as well.
He’s not ever going to be an all-around force through whom a team can run their entire offense, but as a role player with capable point guard play and shooters around him, Adebayo provides value as a playmaker from the free throw line and elbow areas in addition to his jump-out-of-the-gym athleticism.
