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

3. Average 1.5 assists per 36 minutes

After finishing his freshman campaign as a Wildcat with only 32 assists in 38 games, many thought Adebayo simply didn’t have the requisite court vision to make plays from his frontcourt position.

However, since late June, the talented big man has proven the opposite to be true. Adebayo totaled nine assists over his seven-game Summer League run, good for a healthy average of 1.3 per contest.

What’s more, if we stretch that out to per 36 minutes, the Heat rookie was dishing out 1.6 helpers a night. Though a few of his dimes were of the garden variety, “swing the ball to the guy right next to you who nails an open shot” assist, a few of them were a bit more complicated than that.

So even if it may feel unlikely that Adebayo can accomplish this goal over the course of an actual NBA season, it may not be totally out of the question.

Plus, getting to learn from creative frontcourt distributors like Kelly Olynyk and James Johnson will only help Adebayo figure out how to make similar reads against the top level of competition.

If he somehow adds some semblance of a jump shot too, then maybe talk of the 20-year-old playing some power forward during his rookie year won’t be all that farfetched.