Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo has taken the NBA by storm the last two seasons. After spending a majority of his first two seasons in the league coming off the bench, Adebayo got his shot in the starting lineup in 2019 and has run with it.
Last season, Adebayo turned some heads en route to making his first All-Star game. He averaged 15.9 points, 10.2 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.3 blocks in 33.6 minutes per game. He was just as consistent under the bright lights of the NBA Playoffs in the Orlando bubble, averaging 17.8 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.8 blocks per game.
This season, Adebayo is once again making a strong push toward being an All-Star. While the Heat aren’t having as much success in the win/loss column, Bam is still producing at a high level.
Adebayo is averaging 19.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. The increase in points per game can be directly tied to his improvement at the foul line, where he is making a career-high 84.1 percent of his attempts.
The former lottery pick out of Kentucky has drawn the eyes of people around the league. One person who has taken notice is Golden State Warriors’ head coach, Steve Kerr.
Kerr and the Warriors played against Adebayo and the Miami Heat on Wednesday evening. While Golden State got the best of them, Adebayo still had one of his patented games with 24 points, five rebounds, seven assists and two blocks.
Kerr made an interesting comparison to Adebayo in the process.
That is high praise for Adebayo, as Draymond Green helped the Warriors revolutionize the game of basketball with their small ball. Similarly to Green, Adebayo is a monster on the defensive end, capable of defending anyone on the court whether it is on the perimeter or banging down low near the basket.
Both are All-Defensive team members, but both are as impactful on offense. Despite being frontcourt players, both are great playmakers and have a lot of their team’s offenses run through them.
Having diverse skill sets like that is such a blessing for coaches as they can mix and match the rest of their lineups depending on opponent matchups. Adebayo has a more diverse offensive game than Draymond Green ever had, but you could almost guarantee Bam would trade all of the offensive stats in for even one of the three Larry O’Brien trophies Green has helped win.
