Miami Heat (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The Miami Heat intend to sign Bam Adebayo to a max extension. Here’s what it means not only for the Heat and Bam, but the rest of the league as well.
The Miami Heat are coming off one of the most impressively improbably runs to the NBA Finals we’ve seen in recent years. They swept the Indiana Pacers without breaking a sweat, vanquished two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks with scarcely more effort, and handled the Boston Celtics in six games before coming up short in a hard-fought six-game NBA Finals series against the overpowering Los Angeles Lakers.
There are plenty of causes for this surprising run, like Jimmy Butler’s historic performances, but there was no more consistent reason for the success the Heat enjoyed than Bam Adebayo. He set himself apart as a defensive game-changer and has developed as a legitimate playmaker, all while functioning on a string with Butler, Goran Dragic, Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro.
There’s something to be said about continuity in the NBA, especially when the team in question went to the NBA Finals, and on Tuesday afternoon the Miami Heat made it known that continuity was the goal. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald was first to break the news that the Heat would be signing Adebayo to an extension, and later Shams Charania of The Athletic confirmed that it would be a max rookie extension as expected, worth $163 million with a trigger for $195.6 million over five years.
This news changes the landscape of the NBA, and we’ll explore just what has been altered by Adebayo’s extension.