Adebayo, Heat agree on five-year, $163 million deal
Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat agreed on a five-year extension that will be worth at least $163 million, the team and Adebayo’s agent Alex Saratsis said Tuesday.
The contract has not been signed and won’t be until Adebayo completes a physical, something that is likely to occur in the next few days.
Adebayo will make $5.1 million this season, the final year of his rookie contract. From there, the extension will kick in with a starting salary of somewhere around $28.1 million for the 2021-22 season. And if he makes an all-NBA team this season, something he narrowly missed doing this past season, his annual salary would only rise more.
The 6-foot-10 Adebayo is coming off the best season of his career. He was an all-star for the first time, won the skills competition at all-star weekend, had the game-saving block of a Jayson Tatum dunk attempt in the final seconds of Miami’s Game 1 win over Boston in the Eastern Conference finals and made the NBA’s all-defensive team.
When this deal is done, he’ll become the fourth member of the 2017 NBA draft class to secure a max extension, the others being Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox, Utah’s Donovan Mitchell and Tatum.
Adebayo averaged 15.2 points, 10.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists this past season.
Only one other player in the league had those numbers – two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. And no player in Heat history ever finished a season with those averages in all three categories, until Adebayo.
Ingram cashes in: Restricted free agent Brandon Ingram agreed to a fiveyear, $158 million contract with the New Orleans Pelicans, said a person familiar with the situation.
Ingram is the NBA’s reigning most improved player after averaging a teamhigh 23.8 points in his first season with the Pelicans.
The 23-year-old Ingram, the second pick in the 2016 draft by the Los Angeles
Lakers, was dealt to New Orleans during the 2019 offseason as part of a blockbuster trade that sent perennial all-star Anthony Davis to the Lakers. New Orleans also received guards Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart, as well as multiple draft picks in that deal.
The 6-foot-7 Ingram developed this season into an effective scorer from the perimeter as well as on dribble drives. He shot a career best 39.1% from threepoint range but also routinely finished above the rim in the free-flowing, uptempo offense the Pelicans ran last season under Alvin Gentry.
His decision allows him to develop his game alongside 2019 first overall draft choice Zion Williamson and Ball.