The Miami Heat stand with a concerning 0-4 start. With Giannis Antetokounmpo bringing his usual best, the blame naturally shifted to Bam Adebayo. And his poor shooting streak adds salt to the wounds. Now, amid the mounting criticism, former Heat player Joe Johnson raised the ante further, challenging Adebayo to show more aggression when Miami needs him most.
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“I’m looking at body language. I’m looking at your confidence when you out there on the court, bro. Bam has to assert himself,” Joe said, speaking on Nightcap alongside Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson.
“We can’t blame Giannis for this, man.”
The former All-Star believed Bam Adebayo had become hesitant after missing a few attempts.
“That man (Bam) played 30 minutes. He got up 10 shots. He was 0-for-5 (FG) from three. I’m gonna tell you what I take from it. I take from it that he got gun-shy after he missed a few. I don’t give a damn. He went 3-for-10 (FG); he should have gone 3-for-20. He can’t leave Giannis out there,” Joe added.
His message was blunt: Keep shooting instead of allowing early misses to dictate the rest of the night.
The numbers explain why the criticism surfaced.
Bam Adebayo finished with 8 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists against the Dallas Mavericks last night. Meanwhile, Giannis recorded 29 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, producing his first triple-double since joining Miami.
Yet the Heat still lost 113-109, falling to 0-4.
Joe Johnson argued that Bam was the ultimate cheat code for the Heat’s success. To be precise, he has the assets to activate Giannis.
“He (Giannis) needs another guy who’s gonna be aggressive, put pressure on the defense. And he (Bam) got all the tools, bro. He’s 6’9, 6’10, who can handle. Man, the man scored 83. He gotta get something respectable. He has to develop some type of consistency for this Miami Heat team to be competitive.”
That reference carried weight because Adebayo scored 83 points against the Washington Wizards in March 2026, the second-highest single-game total in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 100.
He shot 20-for-43 from the field and made 36 free throws in Miami’s 150-129 victory.
The performance showed what he could produce when he stayed longer and took more shots.
And Joe finally nailed his take with a simple comment: “Y’all 0 and 4.”
Bam Adebayo Pushes Back Against the Scapegoat Narrative
All that said, this Heat team is still new, with two new starters. And one of them is a mega superstar.
Giannis operates best attacking the basket, while Adebayo also does much of his work inside. Their partnership requires both players to find space and establish clear offensive roles, with Miami’s other shooters making defenses pay for collapsing into the paint.
This is what’s written on paper, and it still needs time to translate to the court.
However, Bam Adebayo pushed back against the criticism after the Mavs loss. “Can’t overthink basketball, man. For me, my shot’s not going in. I’m not going to overthink that,” he said.
Bam then aimed the growing media scrutiny:
“Funny how the outside noise wants to make me the scapegoat. But when the tables turn, the energy shifts; be prepared for that.”
Adebayo is being judged not only on his own production. But also on whether he can make the Giannis experiment work. Still, Johnson’s argument was not that Adebayo needed to recreate his 83-point performance. He wanted the center to keep attacking rather than retreat when his jumper failed.
Giannis offered a different response to Miami’s winless start, urging the team to remain composed after Monday’s 113-109 loss:
“We all have to take a deep breath, and eventually we’re going to figure it out,” Antetokounmpo said in the locker room. “You cannot press the panic button and panic. Because it’s only going to get worse if you start panicking.” He added: “I feel like sometimes you want something so bad that you kind of freeze in the moment. As bad as it might sound, you’ve got to take a breath, relax and just play basketball.”
Asked whether Adebayo was struggling to adapt to a new partnership, Giannis pushed back:
“It’s not just Bam, it’s everybody. Everybody try to figure out where we fit in and what we got to do.”
That is what makes the stretch ahead so revealing. Miami visits Atlanta on Wednesday, hosts Indiana on Friday in an Emirates NBA Cup game, then travels to Los Angeles to face the Lakers on Nov. 2 before starting a back-to-back at the Clippers on Nov. 4. Four games in nine days against three playoff-caliber opponents will test the patience Giannis is asking for.
The Heat do not need Adebayo to score 83 again.
Adebayo is averaging 11.8 points on 40% shooting, including 16.7% from three-point range, with two single-digit scoring games in the first four.
Until that fit is solved, the pressure on Bam Adebayo and the narratives surrounding it remain.
And with Miami’s 0-4 start its worst opening through four games since 2007-08, the window in which calm is treated as leadership rather than denial is shorter than the 78 games Giannis keeps citing.