Inside Bam Adebayo's Aggressive Offensive Evolution: 'He took it personal.'
How the worst loss of the season helped Bam Adebayo flip the switch.
As the Miami Heat boarded the team flight from Boston, Bam Adebayo retreated within his hoodie and ruminated over his role in the team’s worst loss of the season.
It was the last night of January and the Heat had gotten rolled by the Celtics by 30 points. Sure, they were without Jimmy Butler (ankle) and Kyle Lowry (personal reasons), but Adebayo felt as though he had let his teammates down.
“He didn’t take it well,” said assistant coach Malik Allen over the phone. “He took it personal.”
The issue? Adebayo had attempted only 11 shots in his nearly 32 minutes, as many as two-way contract player Caleb Martin. The team’s lone available star, Adebayo played more like a role player, and he knew it. And it gnawed at him. After all, over his five NBA seasons he’s been trying to work this lack of aggression out from his game. Based on Adebayo’s play over the past two weeks, that chilly loss in Boston may have been the impetus that tilted Adebayo’s offense in a more star-like direction.
As the team set off for a game in Toronto the next night, Adebayo told coaches and teammates “I need to be aggressive. Not just for me, but for the whole team.”
Adebayo and Allen reviewed film of the Celtics loss and pointed to opportunities where Adebayo could have done more to create offense. A settled-for jumper here and a half-speed cut there drained Adebayo’s game of his top-1% athleticism. Allen encouraged Adebayo to lean into his unique physical gifts. When faced up with a slower big, Adebayo has the first step to blow by him. When he releases from a screen, his speed and size make him a red-alert lob threat.
In other words, “Here are the spots where you can look to be aggressive, where you're having success, and here's where you're continuing to grow offensively,” Allen said. “And these are some of the outcomes that are happening from your attacks.”
The next night, Adebayo dropped 32 points on 13 for 17 shooting against the Raptors. Over his last six games, he’s averaging 23.2 points on 15.8 attempts per game and shooting 57.9%. He’s matched his career-high of 21 shot attempts in two of his last four games and the Heat have won five straight going into Tuesday night’s matchup against the Dallas Mavericks.
Fewer of Adebayo’s shot attempts now come from the mid-range (18% to 13%). At the beginning of the season, he tried to make the jab step a thing, but that’s not how Adebayo best unlocks his physical gifts. Rather than hesitate in the mid-post area and settle for a 17-foot jumper, Adebayo is attacking slow-footed bigs off the dribble, trading those jab steps for attacking drop steps.
He’s moving around the floor and setting screens with more purpose, too. A staple of Miami’s offense for years has been Adebayo facilitating for shooters with dribble handoffs. But a problem with going to a staple play too often is that it can become monotonous and predictable for the opponent. Sometimes it appeared as though Adebayo was just going through the motions.
He’s ad-libbing more. When a defender overplays him on the perimeter, he’ll shoot off towards the rim.
He’s also looking for the space behind his defender, knowing he can blow by his man and initiate a domino effect that creates an open shot for him or others.
Adebayo has always done these things, he’s just now doing it more often and trimming the fat from his offensive diet.
All of this heightens Miami’s offensive potential. The Heat have the seventh-rated offense in the NBA, but are merely average in the halfcourt. This version of Adebayo – the one we’ve seen the last two weeks – can elevate the Heat’s offense in time for the playoffs.
It also helps that Lowry has returned and the Heat are finally getting an extended look at the trio of Butler, Lowry and Adebayo. Partly because Adebayo missed 22 games with a thumb injury, those three had played just 14 games together before the flight from Boston.
In their last five games, the Heat are outscoring opponents by 26.9 points per 100 possessions in the minutes Butler, Lowry and Adebayo share the floor, posting an elite 115.7 offensive rating and a fearsome 88.7 defensive rating.
It’s a small sample size, but Lowry’s inclusion has lightened the playmaking loads of Adebayo and others. Like Miami’s assistant coaches, Lowry has a hand in coaxing the most out of his teammates. After a play or during film study, he’ll pull a player aside and review the possession. Make yourself available here, I’m going to lead you here, then you’ll have these options to finish the play.
“It has been a great adjustment for Bam and for the team to have another playmaker of Kyle’s caliber,” Allen said. “That makes everybody more dynamic.”
“He makes everything click,” added Adebayo.
As the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets got stronger at the trade deadline, the Heat did not make any major moves. Many have pointed to the eventual return of Victor Oladipo as a mid-season addition that could push the Heat forward, and that may end up being true, but Adebayo taking a sustained offensive leap would elevate Miami’s ceiling more than anything else.
This is what team president Pat Riley anticipated from Adebayo before the season when he said, "I think you might just see a flat-out scorer this year… It isn't getting permission from your head coach, it's having the offense evolve where it gives you permission to play."
For many reasons, it took nearly three-quarters of the season for Adebayo and his teammates to get to this point but something, perhaps during the flight from Boston to Toronto, has clicked. Adebayo is less passive — less patient even — and quick to go to his bag.
“Just being aggressive,” Adebayo explained after scoring 21 points against the Wizards last week. “Not too much to overthink.”