An unorthodox Miami Heat playmaking option now that LeBron James is not coming back

All the sweet talking and desire for a reunion led to nothing because LeBron James passed on the Miami Heat. He chose the Philadelphia 76ers, of all places, and on paper, they look mighty.

Still, ol’ ‘Bron could have had it better in Miami because Bam Adebayo is pound-for-pound a top five defender and Giannis Antetokounmpo is not far behind. Combining them with the point-of-attack defense, they had the tools to cover his weaknesses more than Philly.

Consider how Joel Embiid looked defensively last year, wanting to stay in drop coverage. James needs people flying around next to him, not being vulnerable to outside shooting.

This is not the worst thing in the world for the Heat since they just got Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr., significantly upgrading the front line, yet the playmaking is rather thin — or so it seems. Outside of Antetokounmpo, Davion Mitchell and Dru Smith, there’s not many natural playmakers — but there is another unorthodox option.

Bam Adebayo averaged over five assists twice, yet many of these came in a slower offense designed around his dribble-handoffs. Still, the Heat’s offense was seventh and 18th in offensive rating those years, and he logged better than a 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio in one of them. The reason for the drop off in quality had to do with the 72-day offseason after the bubble, injuries stacked up and COVID.

Next year’s offense will take some creativity to keep it from getting one-dimensional, and slowing down the pace may be ideal. The team needed to play fast last year to make up for its shot creation from a 1A player. They have that now and while going fast is a good thing and shouldn’t be completely abandoned, using more screens and making Adebayo the decision-maker are some remedies.

Going back to when the Heat were seventh in offensive rating with Adebayo running a lot of sets, the team's best option was Jimmy Butler. With respect to him, a top-four player in Heat history, Antetokounmpo is much more of a threat within 10-feet and goes harder in the regular season, too.

Using Adebayo out of the elbow is going to attract lots of attention. This with Antetokounmpo doing the old LeBron and Dwyane Wade special of cutting out of the slot and corners will do just fine. Additionally, one of the things the Denver Nuggets do is let Nikola Jokić, their best playmaker by far, come up court often after a defensive rebound and feed the shooters and cutters.

The skills to do it

This, specifically, from Adebayo would put him in position to showcase his top-grade athleticism by creating and attacking mismatches in the open court. Doing this could esnure the most lobs the team has seen since the Big-Three era between him and Antetokounmpo.

Another option to consider if the pace slows down is testing out Andrew Wiggins' ball handling now that the team is different. It was not close to being effective for the Heat as it was for the Golden State Warriors in 2021-22, when he helped lead them to a title.

The Heat's run-and-stun offense was the fastest in the league last season, and the Warriors was 15th in 2022 with Wiggins taking attention away from Stephen Curry. It's possible Wiggins was not as successful because the style of play burnt out a lot of the team and his energy to defend.

A reunion with James would have been sweet because there was unfinished business when he left, and there could’ve been another blaze of glory. Still, it doesn’t affect their status as a contender. After the New York Knicks, the next three teams are the 76ers, Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers.

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