5 Main Comments from Media Availability with Spoelstra, Adebayo, Nunn

Heat’s starters Kendrick Nunn and Bam Adebayo finally arrived to Orlando on Tuesday. And after 48 hours of quarantining, they’re back on the practice floor. After a light practice night for Kendrick and Bam, they got to talk with some media about both their readiness and this Heat team’s odds. Here’s what they had to say…

Post-Practice Comment #1:

Spoelstra on Bam and Nunn playing tomorrow: "I'm open to it. If they do, it's just to get their feet wet."

— Five Reasons Sports Network (@5ReasonsSports) July 24, 2020

Spoelstra began talking about the availability of Nunn and Adebayo in Saturday’s scrimmage game. He said “I’m open to it.” This definitely means that both Nunn and Adebayo showed good signs in practice in the bubble if they’re already ready for the games. Spo did also say that “They worked intelligently today in practice,” and mentioned that they put a ton of time in May and June which put them in this position. Both Bam and Nunn add a huge spark to their respective sides of the ball. With the addition of Nunn’s scoring and Bam’s defense, it’ll be interesting to see how they come back.

Post-Practice Comment #2:

“I believe in our shooters. Our shooters are elite.”

-Spo when I asked about the notion that shooters will love shooting in theis environment due to improved depth perception@5ReasonsSports

— alex (@tropicalblanket) July 24, 2020

Coach Spoelstra got asked about the fact that this environment may impact shooters in a much more positive way. He responded, “I believe in our shooters. Our shooters are elite.” This seemed to be evidently true in Wednesday’s scrimmage game against the Kings. Especially for Duncan Robinson. But Spo also added to this question saying that he’s actually heard the exact opposite about the shooting in this environment, but says, “I’ll take it.” Well, if it’s harder for some shooters, it definitely doesn’t apply to this Heat roster after what we saw in their first game back.

Post-Practice Comment #3:

Nunn says he will defer to Spoelstra.

But yes, he wants to play a few minutes tomorrow.

— Five Reasons Sports Network (@5ReasonsSports) July 24, 2020

Nunn began his discussion with media talking about the process of having Covid-19. He said he had mild symptoms and he feels pretty strong. Nunn also mentioned one of the biggest helps during this stretch was keeping in contact with Bam Adebayo since it was “the same routine trying to get over Covid.” But on the basketball side of things, Kendrick seemed pretty positive about his return to the court. He said he will definitely try to “persuade” Spo to let him play tomorrow. This will be a very big improvement to the offense, especially since it brings a guy who can attack the rim and control the mid-range, which is something we didn’t see on Wednesday.

Post-Practice Comment #4:

“Our goal’s still the same.”

“Our ultimate goal is to win the championship, that’s the mindset.”

-Bam on his goal for the Heat@5ReasonsSports

— alex (@tropicalblanket) July 24, 2020

After Adebayo talked about his experience with Covid-19 as well, which he described as “boring,” he began to talk about this Heat teams odds. He says their goal doesn’t change just because they took some time off. He says, “Our ultimate goal is to win a championship, that’s the mindset.” That is the “mindset” of this team in general since that is pretty similar to what Jimmy Butler said about this team a few days prior. It’s great to hear Bam continue to have this mindset even with the many distractions he’s had to deal with. He said he felt scared today during practice since he hasn’t played.

Post-Practice Comment #5:

“Got my opportunity now I gotta produce. That was the motivation for me.”

-Bam on coming into this season

Caps off media session with:
“Alright everybody don’t forget, Black Lives Matter.”@5ReasonsSports

— alex (@tropicalblanket) July 24, 2020

Adebayo got to talk about the expectation coming into the season for him and how that’s impacted him. He says, “Got my opportunity now I gotta produce.” That’s another great example of the “mindset” of this young star. He knows how good he can be, especially since the work ethic with him is no problem. Adebayo also says that the biggest motivation for him was the doubters that didn’t think he could be what he wanted to be.  He says, “I wanted to prove them wrong.” This is definitely what he did, since he wasn’t even looked at as a top 15 center coming into the season, and is now a top 5 center at only 23 years old. He ends his media session saying, “Alright everybody don’t forget, Black Lives Matter.” Though Bam says the ultimate goal is a championship, the real ultimate goal is to get this message across since it truly is “Bigger than Basketball.”