South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
He’s Bam the middleman
He’s still learning from Haslem while serving as a mentor for rookie Achiuwa
Bam Adebayo’s spot in the middle goes beyond his position on the court for the Miami Heat. In many ways, when it comes to the team’s power rotation, he is the middle brother.
Mentored by 18-year-veteran Udonis Haslem and mentoring rookie Precious Achiuwa, Adebayo said Saturday he appreciates being a middleman.
“It’s one of those things where I’m going to help him because I’m mainly going to be on the floor with him,” Adebayo said of Achiuwa after the Heat competed their opening week of training camp at American-Airlines Arena.
“UD mainly gets him when he comes to the sideline. When we’re practicing, we’re doing drills and scrimmaging, that’s when I’ll be in his ear. So that’s kind of how we play the role.”
A day after Achiuwa praised Adebayo for offering the guidance, Adebayo offered an encouraging report card on last month’s No. 20 pick out of Memphis.
“Well, playing against Precious, he definitely puts pressure on the rim,” Adebayo said. “He’s one of those guys that wants to learn. He wants to soak in all the knowledge and he wants to further his game.
“I can respect a guy like that, and he can respect me. Playing against him, he definitely puts pressure on the rim, super athletic, and he’s not scared to jump. He’s trying to go block everything and he wants to help this team.”
While coach Erik Spoelstra has been typically tightlipped about rotations and lineups, Adebayo revealed there has been plenty of scrimmage work alongside the 6-foot-9 21-year-old.
“When we’re on the same team, it’s kind of like you get two guys that put pressure on the rim, offensive rebound,” Adebayo said.
With a brief camp and only two exhibitions before the Dec. 23 season opener against the Orlando Magic at Amway Center, Adebayo said the impetus has been on the newcomers such as Achiuwa, Avery Bradley and Moe Harkless to get up to speed.
“We’re throwing them in the fire,” Adebayo said. “That’s putting them in uncomfortable situations they don’t want to be in and just walking them through, throwing ’em through it, and then we’re going on the fly. Because we have the majority of everybody in, so we can go on the fly and they can figure it out as we go.
“So I feel like throwing them in the fire, it makes you process faster, it makes you want to learn. And for the most part, everybody’s been picking it up. And the biggest part of that, when we speed each other up, is you’ve got to communicate. And I feel like the last couple of days have been great on communication for the team. We’re building that bond.”
As for his own game, Adebayo said he continues to work on mastering what he has shown over his first three seasons.
“It’s more [of ] the same,” he said. “Just little tweaks in my game that I got to get: looking at certain stuff, trying to get fouled more, keep being aggressive, and we’re going to figure it out.”
Because his $163 million, five-year extension does not kick in until next season, Adebayo said there has been little prodding from teammates to share the wealth, noting that, at least for the moment, Jimmy Butler remains the team’s highest-paid player.
“I ain’t really got that yet,” he said. “I feel like they know money’s not going to change me. And also we still have Jimmy Butler. I don’t have my money yet, so we can always depend on Jimmy at the end of the day. So that’s how I think about it.”
But Adebayo said he still is cashing in against Butler when it comes to Butler’s 3-point challenges.
“I’m taking his money,” he said with a laugh from below his face mask.