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He even grew to the degree that teams through the entire playoffs threw different defensive coverages at him since they were so worried about him. Aside from winning the sixth man of the year award, he was right up there at the top of the scoring list with Butler in the regular season.īut it isn’t about the numbers, he grew as a creator in terms of finding healthy step-backs and fade-aways to get his shot off against good defenses. And for Tyler Herro, he wasn’t even lucky enough to actually “finish” his season correctly after dealing with that groin injury in the Eastern Conference Finals.īut to zoom out a bit, he grew a ton this past season as an offensive player. So I’m thinking they’re going to find a way to maximize his skill down there.Īs I stated earlier, the way you finish a season is usually remembered much more than the main chunk of your production in a certain time frame. No matter if he’s in position for a post-up or a face-up, the end result is most likely going to be a baseline dash or a post spin down that line for position under the rim. Something to watch for though: Bam Adebayo loves that baseline. Is it a post-up move? Face-ups? Jumper? It’s tough to say, but it comes down to his comfort level in certain spots. The next step for him: a go-to offensive move that we’ve discussed for quite some time. When players talk about that specific focus, it’s usually prefaced by “perfecting my all-around game.” But when it comes to Adebayo, I don’t believe that to be the case. His defensive traits are here to stay, meaning the offense will always be the primary focus in an off-season. There’s no doubt the aggression will have to pick up in a more consistent manner, but Adebayo did his job this season, and that game 7 proved the focal points of this Heat group.Ĭlearly Adebayo is locked into contract and isn’t going anywhere, so what’s next for him is much more game-based.

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When they lose, it’s easy to look over at his stat-line and make that the reason it occurred, but it truly isn’t the full story. In the mix of things throughout the season, Adebayo receives a lot of blame from the public. Games 3 and 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals showed flashes again on the other end, mostly about the hope of what he would look like as a full-time third option on the offensive end. One of the league’s best defenders, even if the voters couldn’t recognize that. Offensively he may have his ups and downs on picking when to go and be aggressive, but his impact was felt from game 1 to game 100. Basically the playoff motto for the Heat in this recent run: get Jimmy Butler some help. Watching him put it all out there in this post-season showed one thing that we probably already knew: build fully around Butler to get this group over the hump. It’s just building a roster to get him that ring that he so very deserves, which was one of the primary reasons he landed in Miami in the first place. Yet for Jimmy Butler, it’s about just the opposite. When talking about the next steps for individual players, I’m going to do a lot of talking about simple on-court improvements or the next stage of a contract/trade possibility. Y’all can have fun with NBA player rankings, but Butler cemented himself as a clear top 10 player in today’s league. We all know about his defensive excellence when surrounded by strong defenders, but carrying the offensive load yet again to this degree was eye opening. And in Butler’s case, he capitalized in both of those fields.įrom MVP ladder rankings to begin the year to a 47 point masterpiece in game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals facing elimination, it’s no doubt that it was a terrific season. Sometimes a season is remembered by how you start, and other times by how you finish. When talking about the Miami Heat, you must start out with the headliner, which is clearly Jimmy Butler. But you can’t fully look ahead until you evaluate the past, so let’s take a brief look throughout the roster to establish both what happened and what’s next… So, now that it’s officially off-season time, it’s time to project forward.

Looking back over this season for the Miami Heat, they finished as the first seed in the Eastern Conference, yet capped out in the Eastern Conference Finals in game 7, one win, or one shot, away from another NBA Finals appearance.

Heat roster