This 1 play highlights importance of Bam Adebayo's shooting growth

Spacing. Shooting. Gravitational pull. Three is greater than two!

All of those are buzzwords in today’s NBA, and rightfully so. Teams want to maximize each offensive output, as well as the number of possessions accrued in a single game. There’s more than one way to create space, but the most popular is via the 3-point shot.

For Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo, he revolutionized his game two seasons ago after being strictly a non-shooter over his first seven seasons, hoisting 103 total threes, making just 23 of them. Well, in 2024-25, he attempted 221 and netted 79 — good enough for a 35.7 percent clip. He nearly doubled that volume last year, albeit with a dip in efficiency, going 127-400 (31.8 percent) from beyond the arc.

Heading into 2026-27, arguably the biggest question clouding the Heat is how they will make Adebayo and Antetokounmpo work offensively — specifically from a spacing perspective. I think the answer is simpler than many make it out to be: Adebayo has to become a more efficient 3-point shooter.

And this play from the Heat’s first preseason game is the exact reason why even the slightest improvement could unlock a lot offensively, thus improving the team’s floor and ceiling on that end.

Bam Adebayo easily blows by Jakob Poeltl and dunks it (with a replay) pic.twitter.com/TbYkgAW6Jh
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) October 4, 2026

Is it just preseason? Yes.

But it was the first look at how the potential Antetokounmpo-Adebayo pairing could work offensively.

Predictably, there was a lot of pace off makes and misses. There were a lot of fouls, players lunging in the passing lanes and stunting at the elbows/blocks. Antetokounmpo collapsed the Raptors’ defense, and Tim Hardaway Jr. and Andrew Wiggins took advantage.

But so did Bam Adebayo — in a different capacity, however.

The clip above isn’t directly a benefit of Antetokounmpo’s presence, although it provides a glimpse of what could happen during the regular season. Adebayo attacked a hard closeout from big Jakob Poeltl, and a Klay Thompson relocation to the weak-side corner opened the paint for a wide open two-handed slam.

When he shares the court with Antetokounmpo, Adebayo will either be guarded by a smaller 4, creating a mismatch down low because of his bruising nature, or a slower 5. Adebayo’s not quite a legitimate floor spacer, but if defenses continue to sag off him, I have a hard time believing he won’t improve his efficiency. Once they begin to respect that area of his game, he’ll either 1.) draw long closeouts, much like the one above or 2.) open up the floor for Antetokounmpo and others, especially if he’s positioned above the break.

Poeltl isn’t exactly fleet of foot, but the 10-year Heat veteran is much quicker than most prototypical bigs. A few teams could scale down, but that favors Miami when he shares the floor with Giannis.

Adebayo doesn’t need to shoot 39-40 percent from three; he also doesn’t need to shoot 7-8 per game to command respect. A bump in efficiency on similar volume, however, makes him far more threatening, buoying his — and the rest of the team’s — offensive output.