u/garret126

From every report, it seems our 3 most recent draft picks (Jaquez, Ware, Kasparas) was what made this trade happen, as the Bucks desired all 3.

Without our standout drafting, it is likely we wouldn’t have had enough, and Giannis would be a Celtic.

Edit: I meant 'what would you say' lol

Most artists have a trademark attribute that many say made them fall in love with the artist's music. Taylor Swift doesn't have a legendary vocal range, so she compensates for her lyricism. Michael Jackson can't play many instruments, so he compensates with his dancing and vocals. Adele isn't a performer, so she compensates for her opera esque voice. John Lennon has a raspy voice, so he compensates by focusing on heavier (for the time) rock music and 'deeper' political lyrics about the times he is in.

What would you say Paul McCartney's strongest attribute is? His singing? Songwriting? Instrument play?

Every year, a new trendy center takes the scene and is proclaimed to be better than Bam. They put up all these fancy regular season stats, and help their team to a high seed. They are given DPOY and all sorts of awards.

Then, when it’s time for the games that sctually matter in the playoffs, suddenly none of them are championship caliber. JJJ, Mobley, Sabonis, Duren, Sengun, etc.

Bam Adebayo in both our finals runs averaged 19/10/4, being easily the best defender against opposing big men this decade in the playoffs (Locked down Giannis 2x, Embiid, was able to solo guard Jokic to below average TS%).

All of these other ‘trendy centers’ meanwhile get exposed in the playoffs. I am glad we had Bam Adebayo as our defensive guy the last 7 years, even though we never ended up winning it all.

When scrolling through basketball reference, I noticed that Michael Jordan only won a single playoff game without Scottie Pippen. In the 3 years before Pippen joined MJ, he went 1-9. MJ's single playoff win came against the Bucks his first season, before losing 1-3 in the same round.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01/gamelog-playoffs/

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jordami01.html

LeBron James, despite not joining the Lakers until age 34, has about as much playoff success as a potential future all-time great Nikola Jokic's entire NBA career. Will we ever see a level of sustained longevity in both player and playoff success as LeBron James ever again?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01/gamelog-playoffs/

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jokicni01/gamelog-playoffs/

Bam Adebayo was a real 2nd star in the 2 finals runs. He averaged 18/10/4, had the best +/- on the team in both runs, and locked down Giannis (2x), Embiid, and held Jokic to his lowest efficiency series in the 2023 playoffs. Hes about the best possible defensive co-star you could ask for, and arguably the MVP in total impact for the Heat in that era outside 2021-2022.

The REAL issue in the Butler-led Heat teams was that after 2020, we never had a real 3rd option. Herro was just never healthy, so after Bam and Butler, you had a bunch of guys like Martin, Vincent, Robinson, and Lowry who had to pretend to be a 3rd option scorer. That simply doesn’t work that deep in the playoffs.

Essentially, people ignore that Bam Adebayo was essentially the best defensive player in the playoffs during that 5-year run and is basically why we even had a shot outside of Butler. We just never got that real 3rd option scorer as Herro didn’t mature into an all-star until the 2024-2025 season.