The Miami Heat head into the 2025–26 season with a fresh look and new expectations.
After parting ways with Kevin Love and Duncan Robinson, the franchise added Norman Powell, a player who flirted with All-Star status last year. For Bam Adebayo, that addition changes everything.
“It’s a very good shake up for our team and now there’s a different dynamic to it,” Adebayo told Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “I feel like Norman is one of those guys that floats under the radar. But as you saw this year, he’s really shown that he can be an All-Star caliber player. You’ve seen what he’s done and you’ve seen him grow in this league. And, obviously, he wants to take the next challenge. Obviously, the next challenge is being with the Miami Heat. So I’m happy to have him.”
Powell should help a team that struggled to generate consistent offense during a 37-win campaign.
Bam also spoke highly of another player – Davion Mitchell. He must prove his late-season surge was no fluke.
“Davion being back, obviously, we’ve been missing somebody that can really play on-ball defense,” Adebayo said. “And having him come in and be that guy and understand his role, I’m looking forward to him being here for a full year and all of us being together and getting to know one another and turning this into more of a brotherhood. We were kind of disconnected a little bit trying to figure out everybody’s role and trying to figure out everybody’s style of play. But now we’re going to have a good training camp and then we go from there.”
Miami was swept out of the first round by Cleveland last season, but with a stronger core in place, Adebayo believes the Heat are ready to push back into playoff contention.
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