If the Miami Heat were looking for another reason to experiment with Bam Adebayo at power forward, his performance in Wednesday’s Team USA win over Serbia provided maybe the greatest case yet.
Playing mostly at power forward alongside center Anthony Davis, Adebayo finished wth 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting, including 3 of 5 from 3-point range. He also had eight rebounds and three assists in 19 minutes.
Adebayo’s first 3-pointer came off a similar action the Heat like to run for their shooters in the corner. It’s called “splash” – a timing action where a player sets a down screen a few feet in front of a teammate to create the space to catch and shoot.
Here’s an example from last season:
And here’s Adebayo’s 3-pointer for Wednesday’s friendly:
Adebayo made a second 3-pointer in the corner and a third from above the break. That a majority of his looks came from the corner is meaningful in and of itself. Because of Adebayo’s position in Miami’s offense, most of his 3-pointers last season were straight-away looks from the middle of the floor, above the break. Only seven of Adebayo’s 3-point attempts last season came from the corner.
That’s because Miami’s offense asked Adebayo to act as a playmaking hub in the middle of the floor. Erik Spoelstra has told Adebayo to practice shooting from above the break more than from the corner because of where he’s typically positioned. Adebayo still shot 35.7% from 3-point range last season, but shot 43% from the corner.
On Team USA, with Anthony Davis manning the middle and his fellow Olympians capable of running the offense on their own, Adebayo has the freedom to drift to the corner. It’s worth mentioning that Spoelstra is on the Team USA staff. My guess is that he designed the set with the splash action and might be able to take something away from head coach Steve Kerr’s decision to play Adebayo primarily alongside Davis in the front court.
Since the Heat selected Kel’el Ware with the 15th pick in the draft, there’s been a lot of internal thought as to how (and how often) Ware and Adebayo can play together. It’s true that Ware is nowhere close to the player Anthony Davis is, but it’s also true that pairing a 7-foot shot-blocker who doubles as a willing 3-point shooter is an idea with merit.
FIBA rules are different than the NBA. The 3-point line is a foot closer to the basket and the game generally has more flow. LeBron James calling Adebayo, “the new splash brother” after the game is a bit premature.
But Adebayo has been working on his 3-point shot for years and finally started to let it fly at the tail end of last season. If that, his Team USA performance and the Heat’s moves this offseason offer any indication, the Olympics could be the jumping-off point for 13 to spend more time at power forward.