More than ever, the Miami Heat are using Bam Adebayo in the post, but the results have been uneven. Nevertheless, this is a positive trend.
Based on tracking data from NBA.com, Adebayo was averaging 5.2 post-ups per game before leaving Thursday night’s game due to a hip ailment. His previous career high of three post-ups per game would be surpassed by that.
The rise in post-ups can be attributed to several factors.
Jimmy Butler had a slow beginning.
Adebayo had a rapid start.
More so than previous season, Butler and Adebayo are being stunned by coach Erik Spoelstra.
The first two justifications are obvious. Butler averaged 16.5 points on 35.7% shooting in his first four games after missing all of the preseason action. Adebayo, on the other hand, is having a career year offensively, averaging a career-high 22.3 points and 7.0 free throw attempts per game while shooting 52.2% overall. The Heat would have inevitably played more with Adebayo in the lineup.
Let us delve more into the third rationale.
Over 55% of Adebayo’s minutes during the previous campaign were spent with Butler. Because it was the only lineup in which Spoelstra could regularly outscore opponents (plus 5.2 points per 100 possessions), he chose to stick with his two stars together.
Due to their lack of depth from the previous season, even lineups led by a single star saw a significant reduction in playing time. According to Cleaning the Glass, lineups with Adebayo and without Butler were outscored by 1.5 points per 100 possessions. According to CtG, the Heat were outscored by 5.4 points per 100 possessions while Butler was on the court without Adebayo. The issue with this strategy is that if Butler and Adebayo sat, the Heat frequently handed up leads.
It’s a different season this year. Spoelstra can create rotations with one of his stars on the court for the majority of the game because the Heat’s supporting group has gotten better.
lineups for this season without Adebayo and with Butler: 10.7 +/- points for every 100 possessions.
Adebayo: Plus-4.7 per 100 possessions sans Butler, but plus-4.7 with Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Duncan Robinson.
The lineups with one star have performed just as well as the lineups with two stars from the previous season.
Adebayo has been playing with Butler for 43.8% of his minutes since November 9, when Spoelstra had to change his starting lineup due to Tyler Herro’s right ankle sprain.
The Heat play post-up basketball. The majority of their movements, such as split cuts, shooters circling screens, and passes to the other corner, are initiated by the block. The hubs are Adebayo and Butler.
Butler and Adebayo do not just play together; they are not floor spacers. When one of them sets up shop in the post, it can get congested in the shared paint.
Miami’s stars will have more room to work if you take one off the court and replace him with a shooter like Josh Richardson or Caleb Martin.
Adebayo now spends the majority of his minutes with Robinson. Since 2019, the two-man game chemistry between the big man and the shooter has only improved as Robinson has improved his own off-the-bounce and passing abilities.
Most of Butler’s minutes are associated with Lowry. Miami’s attack has relied heavily on its small-small pick-and-roll this season as a result of their development.
For the Heat, this is a promising development. Adebayo and Butler already gel nicely together, so Spoelstra will have even more possibilities if he can discover other viable lineup combinations.
The next phase is for Adebayo to have more possibilities and become more efficient. Despite Adebayo having the third-highest average number of post-ups in the NBA, the Heat are only scoring 0.93 points for per 100 such possessions.
(The league leaders, Nikola Jokic of Denver and Joel Embiid of Philadelphia, are generating 1.12 and 1.06 points, respectively, for their clubs per 100 possessions. Butler hasn’t performed much better, scoring 0.85 points for every 100 possessions after the break.)
Adebayo posting isn’t new, but it is novel with these colleagues and to this extent. Returning Herro should improve Miami’s effectiveness. He is an effective second-side option in these sets and a knock-down shooter.
Adebayo will need to improve his decision-making skills and willingness to pass in crowded areas, though. More time and practice—which is the purpose of the regular season—will bring it about.
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Ordoon Adaaku