MIAMI — For the past few seasons, outside expectations have been met by the Miami Heat. That was the problem, with little expected.
Now, center Bam Adebayo said, it’s time to step up to the reality of a new moment.
“We have expectations,” he said, as the Heat continue to work through preparations ahead of Wednesday night’s season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Kaseya Center. “I feel like we lost that the last couple years.
“Now a lot of people are expecting us to win. That just doesn’t do anything but bring good energy, and I’ll lock in on that. We feel like we can.”
The concern is that there was limited locking in for Adebayo during the preseason, appearing in only two games for a total of 29 minutes, with that the sum total of his time spent alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. He sat out Friday night’s preseason-ending loss to the Orlando Magic with a groin issue, before returning to full practice Sunday.
No matter the limited preseason minutes with Antetokounmpo, Adebayo said you truly learn how it is going to work when the games have meaning.
“This Wednesday is when it gets real, so we’ll be able to digest and figure it out,” he said. “We’re two guys that’s trying to figure it out. You have guys that are trying to evolve and be better for their team.”
Already, Adebayo said, with a keen awareness about one another, even with the limited preseason collaboration. Over their careers, Adebayo and Antetokounmpo have gone against each other 34 times, including 11 times in the playoffs.
“We’ve been battling for the past 10 years at this point,” Adebayo said. “I mean, on the court you know what to expect. We just see it every day.”
It has been years since a dual big-man approach has risen to NBA championship levels, arguably dating back to the San Antonio Spurs’ days with David Robinson and Tim Duncan, with it largely in recent decades more either/or when it has come to championship big men in a perimeter-oriented league.
Although younger, Adebayo, as Heat captain said he has taken Antetokounmpo under his wing when it comes to the Heat’s way.
“Off the court man, he’s just a down-to-earth person,” Adebayo said, as he stood against a team backdrop on the practice court, “not quiet, but tells his dad jokes and stuff like that behind the scenes.”
And then there is a healthy competition on the court, with Adebayo, Antetokounmpo and guard Davion Mitchell all with an eye on Defensive Player of the Year, no matter that Spurs center Victor Wembanyama again enters as the prohibitive favorite.
“There are three or four of us that want to go get that award,” Adebayo said. “I mean you got to be number one on defense (as a team). So obviously that’s a collaboration that we got to buy into, not just me, not just Giannis or Davion, the whole group, if you want to be successful and get stops in this league.”
With that just part of the expectations.
“I go in every season with an open mind, obviously, with positivity, looking to do something special for this organization and the city,” Adebayo said, a Heat mainstay since being drafted in the 2017 first round out of Kentucky. “So, for us it’s taking one game at a time. It’s not to get too far ahead of ourselves, take care of Wednesday, and start stacking the days.”
For the Heat, Adebayo is the known.
With such limited time with the rotation players during the preseason, Antetokounmpo could be considered the unknown.
But to coach Erik Spoelstra, as with Adebayo, a body of work that includes 10 All-Star designations for Antetokounmpo means simply allowing Giannis to be Giannis.
“He’s going to be able to do what he does,” Spoelstra said. “And that’s what we want him to do, is be aggressive, dominate the paint, collapse the defense, make the appropriate play — he’s a brilliant passer.
“We know what he can do in terms of finishing. He’s willing to play-make for the guys. The game is not that much different from what he’s played before. At certain points in this game, obviously the pace is a little bit different. But we want him to play in those terms.”
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