It has been a tumultuous season for the Miami Heat. The campaign featured the weeks-long Jimmy Butler trade saga that caused on- and off-court distractions. The Heat dealt Butler two months ago and went on to finish 10th in the Eastern Conference with a 37-35 record. But their season isn’t over yet. Miami heads into Wednesday night’s Play-In Tournament matchup against the Bulls needing two consecutive wins to make the playoffs and keep their season alive.
Veteran star Bam Adebayo has embraced a bigger leadership role during this bumpy season, trying to spread an optimistic mentality in the locker room. This will be particularly important as the Heat play in a win-or-go-home environment.
“I have to be more of a vocal leader for this year in particular,” Adebayo told CBS Sports last month. “There’s been a lot of stuff going around in our locker room, obviously with the trades and everything everybody has seen, the chaos in the media. For me it’s getting guys ready to understand that we still have to play these games through thick or thin, no matter what’s going on in the media, no matter how chaotic it’s going to get around us. We still have to, not only play the game, but perform and try to win.”
Miami hasn’t been able to hop off the roller-coaster ride even weeks after Butler’s departure. The Heat set a franchise record for points scored against the New Orleans Pelicans in a 153-104 win on April 11. They locked in the No. 10 seed, but then wrapped up the regular season with a one-point loss to the Wizards. Their 37-45 record is the franchise’s worst regular-season mark in a decade.
For Adebayo in particular, he settled in and played some great basketball after a slow start to the season. Not only did he break the franchise’s record for double-doubles in 2024-25, but his 3-point shooting also took a leap forward. Adebayo shot 35.7% from 3-point range this season and averaged 21.2 points per game over his final 35 games (after averaging 15.6 PPG in his first 43 games).
Did anything change? Adebayo said it wasn’t his workout routine or his nutrition — although he joked he has tried to become more consistent with taking supplements now that he got a product line with BodyHealth. On the court, coach Erik Spoelstra has had Kel’el Ware play more time next to Adebayo since January and that has allowed Adebayo to play more on the perimeter.
However, Adebayo said the biggest change he made was his mentality.
“This is Year 8 for me, which is crazy because time is flying by,” he said. “Everybody understands your role. That’s the biggest role of them all which is being the person in the front… You are in a role where you have to think about coaches, players, your own performance, the energy of the team.
“When you are thinking about those things that can really contribute to winning, it’s a lot on your plate. For me, I just kind of go with the flow and figure out how I can pull the strings to where they are aligned.”
One of his most productive games was in a close loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 5. The Heat almost pulled an upset thanks to 34 points and 12 rebounds from Adebayo. Miami fell 112-107, but Adebayo took that performance as a positive for his team.
“My mentality was let’s see the game close and we can mess around and sneak it,” he said. “We went all the way down to the wire for that game. It shows that we can compete at the highest level when everybody is really locked in.”
The Heat will now have to win two consecutive play-in games to clinch a first-round matchup against those top-seeded Cavs.
“We gotta do it game by game, we got to have a breakthrough every game,” Adebayo said. “And how can we do it consistently — instead of we’ll do it for two games and then we’ll drop off… How do we keep more consistent so we can do this every single night and win or lose we still put ourselves in a position to win?”
