Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo has taken a step forward on offense this season, and he’s seemingly put people around the league on notice.
Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma praised the University of Kentucky product on Tuesday.
Adebayo is currently recording 22.3 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game while knocking down 52.2 percent of his shots from the field.
He’s starting to shoot more shots further away from the basket, something Heat fans have been wanting for a while now. Over the first six seasons of his career, only 19.3 of his field-goal attempts came between 10 and 16 feet from the basket. Just 6.5 percent of his shots came from 16 feet to the 3-point line. This season, those percentages have gone up to 34.4 and 12.6, respectively.
From 10 to 16 feet from the basket this season, he’s shooting 49.4 percent (up from 44.4 percent the past six seasons). He’s also making 40.6 percent of his shots from 16 feet to the 3-point line (up from 32.0 percent over the past six campaigns).
Though that improvement is notable and welcome, Adebayo is currently out with a hip injury. He has “no idea” when he will be able to return to action for Miami.
That’s pretty concerning, as the Heat are already without guard Tyler Herro, who has been out for nearly a month with an ankle injury suffered against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Miami takes on the Toronto Raptors in Canada on Wednesday night before returning home to host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night.
Those two games were added to the Heat’s schedule as a result of them not making it to the quarterfinals of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament.
Hopefully for the Heat, Adebayo will be back sooner rather than later. Miami is 5-5 in its last 10 games and sits in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with an 11-9 record.
As for Kuzma and the Wizards, they’re towards the bottom of the East with a 3-16 record. The team has lost nine of its last 10 games and doesn’t appear to have a real shot at any type of postseason berth for the 2023-24 campaign.
Miami and Washington have three more games scheduled against one another this season. The next contest will take place on Feb. 2.