Miami Heat: 5 goals for Bam Adebayo’s rookie season

5. Suit up in at least 70 games

An underrated skill for any athlete is availability. A player can be as talented as he wants, but if he constantly misses games due to injury or lack of readiness — what good is he? (No offense to… never mind.)

Miami Heat

So, our first goal for the Heat rookie will be to appear in at least 70 games next season.

Simple enough, I know, but that would mean two things: For one, that Adebayo was able to stay relatively healthy all year and furthermore, that he carved out a spot in the rotation despite his lack of experience.

A notable comparison can be made to 2015-16, when two of Erik Spoelstra’s first-year players, Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson, took part in 78 games and 52 games, respectively.

The former was able to forge playing time pretty much right off the bat, while the latter needed a stint with the Sioux Falls Sky Force (the Heat’s G-League affiliate) before being ready for a larger role.

If Adebayo can mimic rookie-year Winslow and participate in over 85 percent of the team’s games, it’ll go a long way toward making his first campaign a successful one.

(To be fair, though, even if he plays just 52 games like Richardson did, that would be okay as long as he can make a similar impact.)