For better or worse, it’s Bam Adebayo or bust for the Miami Heat.

There is no savior, rescue, or help coming for the Heat after the trade deadline passed without the front office making any significant move. That has to mean that the summer will be busy, and the hunt for another star to don a Heat jersey will commence. 

For now, however, the Heat have to re-shift their attention back to the regular season — the games that remain — a regular season that should at least end with a play-in spot, but let’s be honest, Miami doesn’t want to be that team.

There are paths the Heat can take to reach their destination before an offseason of change. Paths that involve health, and paths that involve consistency. However, when it comes to specific players, the Heat have no choice but to rely on Adebayo, who may be Miami’s only chance to salvage this season and get some good from it. 

Bam Adebayo has to keep playing as he has lately for the Heat to have any chance at a playoff spot

Adebayo is an All-Pro, an All-Star, and an All-Defensive Team member. He didn’t achieve these levels of accomplishment by playing a role player’s role. No, Adebayo is a star in the NBA, and this season has simply not shone for him as he and the Heat had expected. 

That said, Adebayo has turned it on as of late, following a month of December and parts of January, where he couldn’t score more than 20 points a night. That hasn’t been the case over the past few weeks, though, and Adebayo has appeared more like his All-Pro self, and that’s a great sign for the Heat. 

Still, even with Adebayo coming back to life, the Heat remain a mediocre team, and the best they have right now is a play-in spot to show for it. This doesn’t mean things can’t change, though. If things are to change for the Heat, Adebayo has to be at the center of it; otherwise, well, this season never had a real chance to begin with at that point. 

Despite a blank trade deadline, the Heat are still expecting to be a playoff team, as they should. In order to do that — in order to even make it into a first-round playoff matchup, Adeybao has to keep playing as he has. He’s averaging 18.1 points this season, up from December. 

The Heat can’t afford to have Adebayo play in games where he doesn’t surpass the 20-point mark, especially with Tyler Herro still sidelined with a rib injury. Adebayo has to be the catalyst, and he can be; that’s what is expected of him.