Miami Heat: Pat Riley Wouldn’t Move Jimmy And/Or Bam For AD Right Now
First off, Pat Riley would never trade for Anthony Davis—right now, especially, but probably more like “at all”. There are several reasons, but they all come back to one thing.
The Miami Heat are the number one seed in the Eastern Conference right now and have been one of the best teams in the league, even with all of their own stuff to deal with. Enduring injury and the same COVID Protocols as every other team in the league, they have done something that every other team hasn’t done.
They’ve endured these times better than anyone, where their game logs (indicative of who and who wasn’t playing) and the overall record says so. That’s the first reason.
Also, why would you trade Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, and definitely the both of them for a banged-up Anthony Davis? Yes, he might be better than both of those guys individually, though certainly not better than both together but still, is that a problem you want to saddle yourself with?
That would be—his injury history? Let’s dig deeper there.
For starters, Anthony Davis has never played 82 games in a season across his 10 seasons, with the most being the 75 games he played in both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. He hasn’t played more than 62 in the four seasons since though.
Bam Adebayo has played 82 once across his five. Jimmy Butler has played in 82 once across his 11.
Out of 368 possible games played for Bam, he has played in 321 of them, over 87 percent. Out of a possible 860 games played for Jimmy Butler, he’s played in 673, over 78 percent of his games.
Out of a possible 777 games for Anthony Davis, he has only played in 601 of them, just over 77 percent. So, while Jimmy Butler is often banged up himself and even with Bam’s lengthy absence this season, they have both still played more games across their careers than Davis.
Since numbers are the thing these days, those should do it for you, right? If they don’t, there is always a bit more.