Unsurprisingly, Heat forward/center Bam Adebayo learned on Thursday that he isn’t a finalist for either the MVP or Defensive Player of the Year award in 2021, as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes.
That’s notable not because Adebayo had a realistic shot at either award, but because the value of his five-year, maximum-salary extension would have risen to $195.6MM if he had won the MVP award or $179.3MM if he had been named Defensive Player of the Year (based on a 3% salary cap increase)
The value of that five-year extension could still technically increase to $185.8MM if Adebayo is named to the All-NBA First Team. However, that’s not going to happen, so the Heat can safely pencil in $163MM as the projected five-year amount of the big man’s new contract, which begins in 2021/22.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Given how important Jae Crowder‘s contributions were in last year’s playoff run to the NBA Finals, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald wonders if Trevor Ariza, acquired during the season, can play a similar role this time around. “We might be similar players but we have different roles and different attributes about ourselves,” Ariza said. “To say I can come in and do what he did would probably be disrespectful to what he brings to teams. I’m my own individual player. I would like to think what I do is good.”
- The book is now closed on the Heat’s 2015 acquisition of Goran Dragic, as Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel observes. While surrendering two future first-round picks for Dragic was a bit of a risk, the 2018 first-rounder (Zhaire Smith) had little impact and this year’s pick will fall outside of the lottery, at No. 18. It’ll go to Houston or Oklahoma City depending on the lottery results.
- Of the Heat’s two key RFAs-to-be, Kendrick Nunn would probably benefit more than Duncan Robinson from a strong performance in the postseason, Winderman says in a separate story for The Sun Sentinel. As Winderman explains, Robinson has already established his value over the last two seasons, while Nunn’s contributions have been less consistent, and the aftereffects of COVID-19 limited his role in last year’s postseason.
Dragic bulletpoint is interesting: we tend to value future firsts like they’re golden tickets but more often than not they end up Zhaire Smiths and Romeo Langfords.
Needless to say Miami won that trade by a mile.
Since one pick hasn’t even been made yet, that’s a little early to call.
Dragic has been a good 6th (or 7th) man for the heat but let’s not act like it’s the fleecing the pacers did to the rockets with Chris LeVert.
It’s still too early to call with Caris LeVert too. Not a fleecing at all.
We’re talking about a player with a very long history of injuries who has missed 94 games over the last 3 seasons and 130 games during his first five years in the NBA (26 games/year on average). Houston ended up with both Kelly Olynyk and Kevin Porter Jr. after trading LeVert to Indiana, plus they can swap the first round pick they get from Brooklyn next year with Miami’s first round selection in 2022.
Romeo has a few years to become a failure. He looked good against the Knicks. If you trade for picks you better have scouting dept.
Only $163 million for Adebayo? My God, how will he ever feed his kids? I would set up a GoFundMe, but I can’t see through the tears right now.