Bam Adebayo flashed a lot of ball-handling/play-making abilities in Summer League this year. He’s one of those players who’s probably way too good to be playing in those exhibition games, so he took the time to try and add some skills to his game. It made for an impressive SL display, and what do you know, some of those new skills have transferred to real NBA games against real NBA defenders!
The ball-handling, not so much. He was acting almost as a PG in Summer League, bringing the ball up the court at times, but I haven’t seen much of that at all this year from him. The play-making, though, he can definitely do that. It took him a few months to get in the groove, and is now setting up teammates regularly. He’s only averaging 2.1 assists per game, but for an offensively raw young center playing limited minutes, that’s pretty dang good. You know what? Let’s up that intensifier. Pretty DAMN good. That’s how serious I am.
And now he can hit jumpers? With Chris Andersen in attendance (looking like Pat Riley and wondering why no one ever let him shoot threes), Adebayo hit a few this game, which is just the next step into become an all-around center of the future for the Heat. Screw off Hassan Whiteside, you suck (and sulk) now. And screw off Kelly Olynyk, you can’t even jump.