Friday Donuts: Adjusting to Life Without Bam, A New 3-Point Problem and DJ Khaled's Wings
It's Friday, which means another fresh delivery of Friday Donuts, a collection of weekly observations, thoughts and musings.
Bam Adebayo’s injury means everyone must adjust. Adebayo will have to adjust to being sidelined with the first major injury of his career, and the Miami Heat will have to adjust to being without their most versatile player.
“We need a little bit of time just to assess everything and formulate a new plan, a new direction,” coach Erik Spoelstra said after Miami’s 111-85 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday night. “We’ll make the necessary adjustments. When you lose an All-Star player, it’s never easy. But this is the league.”
The Heat learned Wednesday morning that Adebayo will miss approximately six weeks with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb. Making matters worse, they could be without Jimmy Butler until next week. Butler has missed the past two games with a linger tailbone injury and will miss the next two road games in Indiana (Friday) and in Milwaukee (Saturday).
Meanwhile, Adebayo figures to miss 15-20 games with this injury.
“Today was a downer,” Adebayo said after watching his team drop its second straight game and the fourth of its last six.
Entering Thursday, Miami (13-9) is in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, but there are eight teams within a game of the Heat in the standings. Every game counts. Spoelstra, his staff and veteran players will have to make the correct adjustments quickly.
“There will be some things that we’ll have to do differently,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “There’s no way that we can make it look like the same. [Adebayo] is an absolute hybrid on both ends of the court.”
Added Kyle Lowry: “We’re going to have to change some stuff.”
First, the obvious. Dewayne Dedmon will start at center while Adebayo is sidelined. He finished Wednesday with 11 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks in 31 minutes — the most he’s played for the Heat since signing late last season.
Behind him, Spoelstra went with third-year forward KZ Okpala. At 6-foot-8 and 215 pounds, Okpala isn’t someone who can stand up against traditional centers, but Miami feels he can switch and blitz ball-handlers when they dial up the aggression of their defensive scheme. Okpala played 15 minutes Wednesday and finished six points and a rebound, but was thoroughly bullied by Cleveland’s Jarrett Allen.
Watch as Allen shoves Okpala aside like he’s walking through a door with one arm full of groceries for the buzzer-beating tip-in. This sort of thing happened a lot.
Miami’s other young center, Omer Yurtseven, didn’t enter the game until garbage time. It’s clear the Heat don’t trust him to play meaningful minutes, even though Spoelstra publicly praised the work he’s put in behind the scenes. In fairness, it’s too much to expect a lot from a first-year center.
Instead, the Heat experimented with PJ Tucker at the five in small-ball lineups. Tucker has some experience playing center from his Houston days, and Lowry trusts him to make the right play.
“If P.J. is in that position, he knows how to play the game and he knows what to do,” Lowry said. “With him in that lineup, we know the right decisions will be made all the time.”
Only the other part of playing small requires running opponents off the floor by spraying 3s, and Miami has shot better than 35% from beyond the arc just once during this recent skid.
Offensive changes will be made, too. Without Adebayo, the Heat ran more pick-and-roll with Dedmon. Even though Lowry will have to work hard to get him and others the ball, there will also be more pressure on him to be a scorer. Lowry’s 10.2 shot attempts per game are his fewest since 2013, and his scoring opens up things for others. The Heat are 7-3 when Lowry attempts 10 or more shots this season, and 5-5 when he attempts fewer.
The ironic thing is that Adebayo had joked several times that Lowry was stealing his assists. Now, with Adebayo out, the ball will be in Lowry’s hands even more. Lowry ran much more pick-and-roll in Toronto than he has in Miami, and that could be something Spoelstra explores.
The Heat won’t completely ditch the dribble-handoff/side-to-side movement that has become their identity, but without Adebayo — who prefers to play in the mid-post — Spoelstra could spread the floor leaning into the pick-and-pop games of Dedmon, Okpala, Yurtseven and Tucker.
For a team that has struggled to shoot the 3, that might not be a bad thing. It would also create openings in the paint for Lowry and Butler. Against the Cavaliers Dedmon, Tucker and Okpala combined to attempt seven 3-pointers.
Still, Wednesday’s game isn’t much of an indication of what Spoelstra and the Heat will do. They had only a few hours between learning of Adebayo’s status and tipoff, so Spoelstra threw some stuff against the wall. Over the next few days, he and his staff will review the film, experiment, and see what sticks.
A Different Kind of 3-Point Shooting Problem
Most of the conversation this week has been about Duncan Robinson’s persistent shooting slump, but there’s another problem lingering for the Heat from beyond the arc: They’ve given up better than 50% shooting from 3-point range in each of the last two games.
Some of that can be chalked up to the Nuggets and Cavaliers making tough shots. Both teams made several deep and contested 3s. But without Butler for both games and Adebayo for one, Miami’s young players had more responsibility and didn’t exactly step up.
And while Caleb Martin and Gabe Vincent haven’t been perfect, Max Strus has had a particularly rough time this week. He was caught out of position too many times and was involved in some of Miami’s worst defensive possessions.
Some of it is basic KYP (Know Your Personnel). Here, Strus is admittedly in a tough spot forced to cover two Cavaliers in Miami’s zone. But one is Isaac Okoro, whose biggest knock is that he can’t shoot 3s, and the other is, well, Kevin Love. Strus freezes and isn’t in position to guard either one. When Love gets the ball, Strus’ eyes come out of his head like The Mask.
And here, Strus helps on a drive by Dylan Windler, who seems like a nice guy but by no means deserves to draw a double-team. Strus leaves Lamar Stevens, a 36% 3-point shooter, wide open.
Then here, it doesn’t appear that Strus would be at fault since Love makes a 3-pointer on the opposite side of the court. But after Darius Garland and Allen run this pick-and-roll, Miami’s defenders need to scramble. Okpala traps Garland and Tucker tags the rolling Allen. Only, Tucker is on the weak side and the only defender in position to guard Love. It should have been Strus, on the strong side with help from Tyler Herro, who should have helped off Okoro and tagged Allen.
Maybe this seems like I’m picking on one player on a shorthanded roster, but there’s a reason Strus didn’t play for a two-game stretch earlier this season. After Miami’s loss to the Wizards last month, the film showed similar gaffs. Strus is a reliable 3-point shooter and has potential as a two-way player, but he needs to improve on the defensive end in order to remain a part of the nightly rotation.
Collective IQ
Part of Lowry’s charm is that he’s unpredictable. It’s how he remains one of the best point guards in the league. Despite his relative lack of athleticism, he makes up for it by being a step ahead mentally. Few players keep opponents guessing as much as he does. He’s a situational mastermind.
For example, you remember Miami’s inbounds play to get Lowry an easy layup to ice Saturday’s game in Chicago. However, there was another play that caught my eye. After that layup, Lowry hoodwinked the Bulls offense by pretending to guard the inbounder before suddenly aborting that mission to double the man he thought the inbounder was trying to pass to.
The first time, Lonzo Ball is about to pass to Zach LaVine before Lowry jumps in that direction. Ball changes course mid-throw and tries to get it to DeMar DeRozan in a tough position on the sideline. On the second attempt, Lowry plays Ball’s eyes and takes away the 3-pointer, leaving only a fruitless layup.
Doing this requires an accurate internal clock and impeccable anticipation. It’s this sort of situational basketball that could end up setting Miami apart.
Presented without comment
🍩 What I’m eating: On Thursday night, my fiancé and I decided to order from DJ Khaled’s ghost-kitchen, delivery-only wing restaurant Another Wing. If you haven’t heard of it already, basically it’s a wing place that can only be ordered from delivery apps such as Uber Eats and Door Dash. All the flavors are given (insert air quotes) clever names that sound like Khaled just went with the first thing that came to mind. So we decided to give the Don’t Quit Nashville Hot, Un Un Unbelievable Buffalo and You Loyal! Lemon Pepper with a side of Baby, You Smart Blue Cheese (which is actually just Ken’s blue cheese) a spin. Were they good? Well, they were perfectly DJ Khaled. Not exactly oozing with mastery or artistry, but fun (it comes with lots of stickers) and it gets the job done. The Nashville hot chicken tenders were the winner, the buffalo wings were solid and the lemon pepper wings are as advertised, both flavors and all. Would I order them again? Sure. All I do is wing, wing, wing no matter what.
🍩 Sunday pick: The Dolphins are four-point home favorites over the Giants. They’ve won four straight games, Tua is finding success in Miami’s revamped RPO offense and the defense has stepped up. Do you believe like I do? You can have your dirty points, I’ll take the Fins.
🍩 Spotify Wrapped: It’s one of the best things of the year. No, really, I love hearing about other people’s music interests on social media. What? I’m serious! Why does this sound sarcastic no matter how I type it?
The Wes Side is a reader-supported newsletter. Please consider subscribing and taking an active role in my independent coverage of South Florida sports. Feel free to forward this post to family and friends. All subscriptions, for now, are free and every article is delivered directly to your inbox.