Dave Litman
As the Miami Heat try to figure out their next moves, team president Pat Riley is not having any of this speculation about the possibility of trading three-time All-Star Bam Adebayo.
He met with the media on Monday, and was asked if he’d consider moving off Adebayo after watching other teams trade away their franchise players in the last couple of years in order to get better. His answer was pretty definitive. And he even offered up a ridiculous asking price that he’d accept:
“I want to build this around Bam. I think Micky wants the same thing… I’m just going to give you a flat-out ‘No’, I wouldn’t do that. Unless somebody gave me eight picks and (Victor) Wembanyama.”
One could argue that the most humorous part about all that was hearing Riley not able to pronounce Wemby’s name, leaving out a few syllables.
He was given three other examples of teams that traded their star players to get better. Atlanta moved off Trae Young, Indiana traded Domantas Sabonis and Toronto dealt away Pascal Siakam. But Riley simply responded with, “They’re not Bam… Not in my opinion anyhow.
“(He’s) your franchise pillar, anchor-maker, culture-carrier and a talented guy.”
Adebayo averaged 20.1 points and 10.0 rebounds this year, pretty good numbers, but hardly of the ‘franchise player’ variety. He was also the talk of the NBA last month for passing Kobe Bryant for the second-highest scoring game of all-time when he posted an insane 83 points in a game back in March.
Adebayo is a perennial contender for Defensive Player of the Year, and has averaged a double-double in four of the last seven years.
But in the end, Bam or no Bam, the Heat were woefully short of reaching their goals this season. They finished 43-39, and in the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference. They lost to the Charlotte Hornets in the Play-In tournament, missing out on the playoffs.
