Ira Winderman: Bam Adebayo, Giannis Antetokounmpo present staggering (and staggered) possibilities for Heat
Published in Basketball
MIAMI — Based on career resumes, the 2026-27 Miami Heat will be viewed as Giannis-Bam collaboration, with the top billing going to the newcomer.
But it can’t be just that, because there will be times when it will be Giannis Antetokounmpo without Bam Adebayo, and others when the Heat’s captain will be without the team’s prime offseason addition.
All of which creates the question about how coach Erik Spoelstra plans to stagger the tandem, let alone the games when one or the other might not be available (or in games when there is foul trouble).
“We’ll see where it eventually goes, but it makes sense to have one of those guys on the floor as often as you can,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat in a three-day break between exhibitions before returning to Kaseya Center for Wednesday night’s home preseason finale against the Brooklyn Nets. “We also want to maximize their time together.
“That’s usually what teams are trying to do, but we have a lot of versatility, so we want to be able to maximize all of it.”
The options are considerable. The most likely approach is Bobby Portis Jr. as the other power player when Antetokounmpo or Adebayo sits, but there is also the possibility of Nikola Jovic, Nick Richards or even going smaller and shifting Andrew Wiggins into a power role into order to accommodate the team’s surfeit of wing options.
“I mean, we’re still trying to figure this thing out,” Adebayo said. “So I know it’s not absolute.
“What we did in training camp when we switched the teams, everybody’s kind of got a sense of what everybody’s tendencies are. So it’s just, to me, making the group better, because you’re seeing different lineups.”
None of this, even with the rare preseason night when one or the other gets the night off, such as Saturday night’s exhibition loss to the Timberwolves, means that the overarching emphasis isn’t anything other than making it work with the Giannis-Bam (or Bam-Giannis, if you prefer) combination.
“That dynamic between Giannis and Bam, that will just continue to get better as the year goes on,” Spoelstra said. “I am not expecting it to be perfect Day 1, but they both are very detailed, they are both highly intelligent basketball players and they will be able to learn the nuances of how to play off each other, whether that is spacing, cutting, moving, whatever it may be when one guy has the ball.”
For Spoelstra, what was old is new again, having gone through a similar calculus when LeBron James joined Dwyane Wade in the Heat’s wing rotation in 2010 at the start of the team’s Big Three championship era.
The first year of that pairing was either/or, making staggering of minutes practically necessary. This collaborative pairing, Spoelstra said, has to be allowed to take on a life of its own, as the Oct. 21 regular-season opener against the visiting Timberwolves approaches.
“There are slightly different positions in terms of that,” Spoelstra said of Wade-LeBron, “but there are a lot of great things that we all learned from that era. Hopefully, I’ve gained some wisdom.
“I made a lot of mistakes back then, and I still continue to make mistakes. But I think those are great, valuable learning lessons on a stage where everybody is watching.”
Which leaves this as a preseason of hope — and hopefully coalescing.
“Hopefully, we can make both of those guys feel comfortable quickly to a point where they’re our leaders,” Spoelstra said. “They’re our co-pilots. The better they are at imposing their will at what they do, the more it influences the rest of their locker room.”
So still a degree of preaching patience.
“I’ve played with the Bucks, what, 900 games, 900-plus games?” Antetokounmpo said of what actually were 895 regular-season games with Milwaukee, plus 84 more in the playoffs. “I’ve played with the Heat two games. If you do the math, I think it takes a little bit of time for me to be fully comfortable.
“It’s basketball. I want to be aggressive. I always try to get to my spot, be aggressive, make sure that I play hard. That won’t change, no matter where I am and who’s next to me. I’ve just got to keep on being myself.”
While also being part of a two-man power-rotation play.
“It’s great,” Antetokounmpo said of playing alongside Adebayo. “He’s a great communicator. He plays hard. He’s being physical.
“It’s great to be out there with him. And, obviously, it’s fun playing with him.”
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