Miami Heat: Bam Adebayo has what it takes to be the next Dwyane Wade

The Miami Heat had their first real glimpse of Icon status as Dwyane Wade rose through the ranks. Can Bam Adebayo be the next player to reach those heights?

The Miami Heat are a team that has had quite the success over a relatively short period of existence. With three NBA titles and a slew of other notable accomplishments by its players across its time in the association, they’ve come quite far for their time.

They’ve birthed a few NBA stars and even a Hall Of Famer or two, but none have had the impact that Dwyane Wade has had on the franchise, the city, the game, and the world in general off the court. He is not only the greatest player the franchise has ever seen, but one of the classiest and most decent players the NBA has ever seen.

That is something that we all should know well by now as we’ve seen it play out during his time in the league and subsequently in retirement. The benchmark for success and especially for the Miami Heat, Pat Riley heaped similarly high praise on a current potential Heat icon in the making.

The Miami team president had high words for one Miami Heat big man, Bam Adebayo. Here are a few of them, via Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

"“He reminds me a lot of Dwyane, in Dwyane’s attitude,” Riley said. “Dwyane came in, he was a no-nonsense guy. He went right to work. And he became a great player. And he had an attitude and a competitiveness and a killer instinct, besides the talent. But he had this attitude that was above and beyond.“I think that’s what Bam is. Bam possesses this attitude about doing it the right way and doing it every day.”"

Pat Riley made pretty tellin statements in the previous quotes. We are pretty sure how he feels about Dwyane Wade, especially considering the nature, depths, and extent of their relationship. It’s pretty safe to say though, the Godfather has a quite a bit of admiration for Bam Adebayo as well.

While Riley didn’t insinuate that Bam could become the next Heat icon, he did insinuate that he has the right stuff to become it. We are going to go that far though and we are going to do so by comparing him to Dwyane Wade.

Mentality

As the Godfather stated, Adebayo has the right attitude. He goes about his business with a no-nonsense way about him, which is necessary to be the best.

It is also necessary in order to deal with the turmoil that comes with being the best. Equipped with a rock-solid demeanor and a good head on his shoulders, Bam Adebayo has a similar mental makeup as the one Dwyane Wade displayed and is the first reason he could be the next Heat icon.

The Game

When it comes to his ability to actually play the game of basketball, Bam Adebayo is an 11 out of 10 on a scale of 1-10. No matter what you ask him to do on the basketball court, he can and will do it.

While you would definitely have him to take his jump shot a bit more during actual gameplay, the touch is there, the shot isn’t broken, and he can definitely create the space to take it at his own leisure. You are also encouraged that when he has taken it, you’ve seen success.

While Dwyane Wade had the right attitude, he also had the game to back it up from the beginning. Bam has as well and has displayed it all from the beginning too. He waited his turn while contributing where being asked to, showing his stuff along the way and now that he has the keys, he’s driving away in the car.

Star-Power

This is one of those things where you either have it or you don’t. From his infectious smile to his lightning-like style on the floor, Dwyane Wade had it. So does Bam Adebayo.

His name is a built-in marketer’s dream. When you combine that, with its origin (the son of Barney and Betty Rubble of the same name(Bam-Bam) from the cartoon, The Flintstones), his style of play, size, success on the floor, as well as a similarly infectious smile and personality like that of D.Wade’s, you have a package built to sell. The star power is there.

While Bam Adebayo has a ton of work to do before even thinking about crossing into that territory, he potentially has what it takes to be the next Miami Heat great. With his tools and the opportunity before him, he just could do it. We sure hope he does, because that’ll probably mean a ton of good things for the team moving forward.