Miami Heat: Ceiling and floor for Bam Adebayo’s role in 2022-23 season
By Will Salinas
Miami Heat: Floor for Bam Adebayo’s role in 2022-23 season
The floor for Bam Adebayo isn’t really as bad as you think it would be.
Floor: The Same Guy He Was Last Season
The floor for Bam Adebayo is coming back as the same exact player.
In reality, there’s nothing quite wrong with this. He’s a 19 and 10 player who gives you the best defense in the league.
The issue is that he’s better than that and while it wouldn’t be the worst floor on the team, it would certainly be the most disappointing. After watching Jimmy play his absolute heart out, only to fall short, a similar Bam with the same mindset as last year just weakens the championship noise that Miami is trying to make.
Bam has to truly become a second option for the Miami Heat to have a shot at a title, especially if no moves are made. 19 points and 10 rebounds in the regular season is nice, but come playoff time, those numbers need to go up.
The regular season prepares players for that and if he does exactly what he did last year, then he’s doing himself and his team a disservice. If Bam truly is a 20 and 10 player with elite defense, you take that.
Players like that are very rare and Adebayo has such a unique skill set to go along with it all, but if that’s all he can be, Miami will need to look to get Jimmy a true second option. With players like Kevin Durant on the market, it’s highly unlikely, but Bam could be seen as expendable.
If he fails to take that next leap, Pat Riley and the Miami Heat’s hand could be forced. However, that is the absolute worst-case scenario and probably won’t happen because Bam has continued to get better every single year.
Next. Ceiling and floor for Marcus Garrett’s role in 2022-23 season. dark
There’s nothing out there that shows that he can’t take another leap. So, the safe play is to bet on the ceiling.