Heat’s Bam Adebayo looks ahead at what he hopes turns into another offseason of growth

The Miami Heat’s early playoff exit has left starting center Bam Adebayo with a longer offseason than he anticipated.

“Man, I got so much time. I don’t even know what to do with it,” Adebayo said after the Heat’s season came to an end on May 1 at the hands of the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. “It sounds ridiculous.”

But Adebayo’s offseason will be busier than most, as he’s on Team USA’s 12-man roster for the Olympics this summer in Paris. He will also work on his individual game throughout the summer to return to the Heat next season as an improved version of himself.

“This is the time when you really just reflect on the season, reflect on what happened, reflect on yourself and how you can be better and what could have been different,” Adebayo said, with the Heat now in the second week of its offseason.

Adebayo is coming off his seventh NBA season. He added new layers to his offensive game while continuing to establish himself as one of the NBA’s best defenders this season.

Adebayo, who turns 27 in July, averaged 19.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.9 blocks per game while shooting 52.1 percent from the field this regular season. The 10.4 rebounds per game are a new career high for Adebayo, but it’s his three-point shooting that became the story late in the season.

With Adebayo’s shot chart including a lot of midrange shots, he traded in some of those long twos for three-pointers in the final months of the season, and the results were positive. After shooting just 1 of 14 (7.1 percent) on threes through his first 54 appearances of the regular season, he shot 14 of 28 (50 percent) from three-point range during his final 17 regular-season games.

“Bam is now going into his eighth year next year already — time flies,” Heat president Pat Riley said seven years after the team drafted Adebayo with the 14th overall pick in 2017. “His growth spurt from his rookie year to what he is right now has been off the charts. Everybody knows in the league what his game is. They all know what he does for us, how important he is for us in a lot of areas.”

But Riley also added that Adebayo “has to expand his game.”

“Bam has to look at his game and sit with coach. How can he get better and expand his game?” Riley said.

Among the potential areas for growth for Adebayo on the offensive end include continuing to refine his post-up package, finding ways to generate more shots around the rim and making the three-point shot an even bigger part of his game.

Adebayo noted that he wants to get better this offseason at “being able to coach my teammates through the offense while the game is happening.” The Heat has finished the last two regular seasons with a bottom-10 offense.

“Being able to tell my teammates where to go, what to do throughout the course of the game and really pick that up,” Adebayo said. “I feel like that can only help us.”

On the defensive end, there’s not as much room for improvement for Adebayo. He’s already an elite defender who finished third in the voting for this season’s NBA Defensive Player of the Year award that went to Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert.

Known for his ability to effectively guard every position on the court and unique versatility between different defensive schemes, Adebayo anchored a top-five Heat defense this season. Despite the team’s season-long injury issues, the Heat closed the regular season with the NBA’s fifth-ranked defensive rating.

“Work smarter instead of harder, I feel like that was my mind shift,” Adebayo said when asked about the strides he took on the defensive end this season. “Being able to help people before certain situations happen. Being able to actually talk everybody through a scheme, being able to teach that scheme. I feel like I did a great job with that.”

This season was also Adebayo’s first as the Heat’s captain following the retirement of longtime team captain Udonis Haslem. What did Adebayo learn from the experience?

“It sucks,” Adebayo said with a laugh. “Because you learn that it’s not about you, you can’t walk in any day and say today is about me. You can’t do that because you’re the captain. You got to think of so many other people before yourself. So I feel like that’s the one thing I truly learned that it can’t be about you no more.”

Adebayo’s focus will soon shift to the Olympics, as he’ll report to Team USA training camp in Las Vegas in July. So even with a longer offseason than he planned for, Adebayo isn’t letting his mind wander too far away from basketball.

“I don’t think you disconnect. I feel like you still watch basketball,” Adebayo said of the immediate downtime following the end of the Heat’s season. “You get the time off physically, but mentally you still think about it because you have to be mentally ready going into the Olympics.”

While this will mark Adebayo’s second appearance in the Olympics after helping Team USA win a gold medal at the pandemic-altered Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021, it’s his first opportunity to play in full arenas at the Olympics. Adebayo will also have a chance to become the first player to win multiple Olympic gold medals while with the Heat.

“Yes,” Adebayo said when asked if he’s excited for the Paris Games. “Because I feel like this is the original form. You got the people in the stands, you’re actually able to see people at the ceremony, you get to see what it’s like to be in a different environment. I’m excited. And then also, we win and I get another banner.”

Along with possibly getting another gold, Adebayo may get a contract extension from the Heat this offseason. Adebayo, who is currently under contract through the 2025-26 season, becomes eligible on July 7 to sign a contract extension with the Heat that would keep him in Miami for years to come.

Adebayo will be eligible to sign a four-year, $245 million extension with the Heat this offseason if he meets the supermax criteria. The only way Adebayo can still become eligible for the supermax this offseason is by being named to an All-NBA team (first, second or third) for this season, which will be announced later in the playoffs.

If Adebayo doesn’t qualify for the supermax, he will instead be eligible for a three-year contract worth $165 million this summer. Any extension that Adebayo signs this offseason would begin in the 2026-27 season when he’ll be 29 years old.

One thing is for sure, the Heat values Adebayo’s contributions on and off the court. The Heat also views Adebayo as a franchise pillar.

“He’s at a point right now where he’s an All-NBA player,” Riley said. “We’re happy to have him.”