Miami Heat: Set it in stone, Bam Adebayo will be an All-Star this season

As each game passes, it’s harder to deny Bam Adebayo his rightful spot as an All-Star. It’s time to stop denying, the Miami Heat big will be an All-Star this year.

For a while now, whispers of Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo making an All-Star appearance someday soon have been growing louder. Those whispers have increased in volume to the point where they’re becoming statements made by credible people in broad daylight.

We can comfortably start narrowing down when that “someday soon” will be. That nearby date will be this season’s All-Star game, just a couple months down the road.

That’s right, Adebayo is not just doing those impact things that can’t be easily-documented statistically, but the stats are starting to become dramatically impressive on a game-by-game basis.

Adebayo is fourth in real plus-minus (RPM) among all Eastern Conference centers at +2.45 and fourth in that same group in player impact plus-minus (PIPM) as well. The Miami Heat are 5.1 points per 100 possessions better when he’s on the floor than off it.

He’s playing 34.1 minutes per game in his first full season as starter after usurping the starting spot Hassan Whiteside a year ago and making him expendable. He’s shooting 57.3 percent from the floor and 68.9 percent from the free throw line.

Thus far he has posted career-highs in most major categories, averaging 15.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. Adebayo is one of only two players in the NBA who are averaging more than 15 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 1 steal: The other is Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Adebayo was named Eastern Conference Player Of The Week just a couple weeks ago thanks to two triple-doubles in three games, and he has 16 double-doubles in his 31 games this year.

While Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid are likely going to be the starting bigs on the front lines for the Eastern Conference, there’s no way Adebayo will slip through the cracks and be overlooked by the NBA’s coaches, who choose the All-Star game’s reserve players.

This may not be the year he gets the starting nod, but this is the year Bam Adebayo becomes an NBA All-Star.