Jimmy Butler’s impressive pull-up three on a fast break to end a great season for the Miami Heat last year helped his team win two against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. The shot misses and the Celtics advance to the Finals.
Miami is heading into another season as a top contender to make it out of the Eastern Conference and will be looking to push one of their stars, Bam Adebayo, to increase his scoring role. Doing so can take the team over the hump.
Last year, Adebayo averaged 13.7 shot attempts per game. The extra volume expected for a 55.7 percent shooter eliminates even more superior production. Even Butler spoke about that pressure at media day.
We know he knows we want him to score more goals. We want him to be aggressive. He can do it, and he’s going to — he’s always and always going to be the engine, a key component on both ends of the floor. So we go where Bam takes us.”
Adebayo is setting new goals for himself in the 2022-23 campaign as he realizes his team needs more goals. At media day, the Heat star revealed that he wants to average around 18 shots per game.
“I’m going to try to pick it up this year,” Adebayo said. “When I got into basketball, I felt like we were a much better team.”
If the Heat’s star continues to be efficient with that many shot attempts this season, we’re looking at early MIP candidates.
