'Modern-day big man' Adebayo continues to do wonders for scorching Heat

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey – Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo just grabbed a rebound off New York Knicks point guard Kemba Walker’s miss. 

The 6-foot-9 Adebayo dribbled the ball like a point guard across the court. He stopped just before the 3-point line and made a hand-off pass to his sharpshooter teammate Duncan Robinson. Adebayo used his body to screen Robinson’s defender. 

The result? 

A wide-open Robinson 3-pointer for the Heat’s first field goal. 

Robinson made seven 3-pointers to fuel the Heat’s wire-to-wire 110-96 rout of the spiraling Knicks Wednesday night (Thursday, Manila time) at the FTX Arena in Miami, Florida. 

Three more Heat players scored at least 20 points, but Adebayo was not one of them. The Heat center only scored six points on seven shots. But his fingerprint was all over the dominant victory that kept the Heat a half-game ahead of the Chicago Bulls for the top seed in the Eastern Conference. 

Adebayo dished out a career-high 11 assists with his gravity pulling the Knicks’ defense toward him, creating open opportunities for his teammates. But it takes skill, especially for a big man, to hit his open teammates. 

Before the game, New York coach Tom Thibodeau described Adebayo as a modern-day big man. 

“He’s unique in his position,” Thibodeau said. 

Thibodeau wasn’t wrong. His statement proved to be the harbinger of doom to his Knicks, who lost for the fifth time in their last six games. 

The 255-pound Adebayo runs like a guard. He is mobile and agile. The combination of his size, basketball IQ, vertical and lateral quickness makes him a menace on defense as much as he is an offensive hub. 

In a twist of fate, one of Thibodeau’s assistants has helped Adebayo become one of one (Adebayo aptly goes by his username @Bam1of1 on Twitter).  

Kenny Payne, the ex-Kentucky assistant coach and a one-time PBA import with the Gordon’s Gin (now Ginebra) in the Philippine Basketball Association, worked with Adebayo as he did with former top overall picks Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns, lottery pick but currently struggling Knicks’s star Julius Randle in Lexington. 

Adebayo rose from an obscure lottery pick in 2017 (14th overall pick) to become one of the most important big men in the NBA today. Two of his Kentucky teammates — De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk — were picked ahead of him. But Adebayo has enjoyed far success individually and on team-level. 

Over his first three seasons in the league, Adebayo has become an All-Star (2020) and made it back-to-back to the NBA All-Defensive Second team while being a vital piece of the Heat team that reached the NBA Finals in the Orlando bubble. 

Adebayo and the Heat, barring any significant injuries, are poised to make another deep playoff run this season. 

Payne prepared him for the NBA, but it was the Heat’s player developmental team that polished Adebayo’s unique skillset. 

The opening sequence of their big win over the Knicks is the encapsulation of how the Heat have developed overlooked talents in recent years. 

Adebayo came into the NBA unheralded at the tail end of the lottery. Robison went undrafted in 2018. 

Per NBA’s tracking data, six of Adebayo’s 11 assists went to Robinson — five were 3-pointers — that prompted Knicks’ swingman Evan Fournier to say: “They just smacked us in the head.”

“You can’t quantify [Adebayo’s impact]. You see the comfort level of Duncan skyrocket because you know, Bam knows how to get him open,” Miami’s Filipino-American coach Erik Spoelstra noted. “The synergy between the two of them, they’re just so connected. Sometimes, there’s just an energy to that.”

The chemistry between the two Heat’s young players is one of the major reasons the organization did not let Robinson walk last summer (Robinson re-signed with the Heat for five years, $90 million). The two aren’t only teammates but great friends off the court. 

“This goes back three years ago. They’re just constantly working on these things in practice and training sessions, summer sessions, and all that stuff,” Spoelstra added. 

But it wasn’t only the Adebayo-Robinson connection that smacked the Knicks in the head. 

The Knicks knew what hit them, but in real-time, they didn’t know where it was coming from whether from Robinson, Jimmy Butler (22 points), PJ Tucker (20 points), or Tyler Herro (21 points off the bench). 

Adebayo was at the center of it all as the release valve of Miami’s scorching-hot offense. The Heat center was precise and had a purpose in each movement. He handed out only 41 passes throughout his 31 minutes on the floor. Sixteen of them were potential assists. He ended up with 11. 

“A lot of guys stepped up. I’d say Bam just really created a lot of triggers forcing a lot of guys open as into movement and creating actions which forced some overreactions [from the Knicks defense],” Spoelstra said. 

It’s not only the Adebayo-Robinson synergy, but the team is in rhythm this season despite their players going in and out of the rotation due to COVID-19 and injuries. Spoelstra credited the continuity of their core and their work with his coaching staff. 

“They’ve worked on several years. They are just so unscripted now,” said the two-time NBA champion. 

That makes the Heat much more dangerous. 

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Alder Almo is a former senior sportswriter for Philstar.com and NBA.com Philippines. He is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes for the New York-based sports website empiresportsmedia.com.