Yahoo Sports NBA contributing writer Tom Haberstroh and senior NBA writer Dan Devine discuss the Heat big man’s increased outside shooting and how it could help or hurt Miami on the court. Hear the full conversation on “The Big Number” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

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Video Transcript

I am actually buying Bam outta Bao's increased three point attempt rate because it did.

It isn't just a preseason concoction.

It started last year.

He had only through the 1st 542 games of his career.

And Tom, I got numbers too through the 1st 542 games of his career.

He had to throw, attempted 82 threes starting March 13th last season against the Nuggets who've got a stretch five that Bam has seen an awful lot of over the years.

Um He attempted 38 threes over his final 21 games.

So it's about 1.8 a game up from 00.2 before that.

So we already started the increase at the end of last season and then it continues with the Olympics and it continues into the scrimmages and it continues into preseason.

So I don't think that it's necessary.

I wouldn't be surprised if it dipped from the 5.8 per 36 or whatever.

Like he's not gonna, he's probably not gonna start replicating like Carl Anthony Towns uh in terms of his three point attempt rate.

But I think that Miami knows with Jimmy butler with their slashers, Jaime Hawkes with, you know, some of the lineups they put on the floor they need and how, and how rough their half court offense has been.

They need another answer for creating space.

And I think that that kind of like sicko mind meld of Bam and Erik Spoelstra.

I think if SPO is kind of like we need, this is what we need.

I think Bam's gonna go do it.

I think that's kind of the way they operate and you know, courtesy of our guy Cooper Morehead at heat.com.

You know, you always used to see down there in Miami for us to try and grow this game, grow our success.

It's better for us to space.

The floor said Adebayo.

So I think he's looking at it like in that Stewart component, this is a means to an end for our offense and not just like Bam wants to get X percent better, but this is how our offense works.

I would, I would buy that.

Bam is gonna keep that up in terms of this, like the general geography of how the heat have to map the floor.

Yeah, totally.

And I'm glad that we can kind of, I think Bam Aba is the biggest story here, right?

Is like what happens if Bam Aba turns into Brook Lopez turns into uh Chris Taps, Poor Zinga or here's the, here's the baseline.

What we're talking about here is Chris Taps Brook Lopez, Carl Anthony Towns, Miles Turner, Al Horford, Chet Hren, they all take between five and 63 pointers every 36 minutes.

And that's roughly what we're seeing in the preseason with Bam out of Bayo.

And it was this like point of contention years ago.

I think when bam started like flirting with the idea of a three point shot, it kind of, it annoyed some of the people with the Miami heat of how much the media and the public were talking about it, right?

They were like they even called it an obsession that people were like obsessed with Bam Outta Bao shooting threes.

And now the tone has completely changed.

Erik Spoelstra is now advocating for Bam outta Bayo to not just take one or two threes a game.

He acknowledged a couple weeks ago that Bam outta Bayo some games he's gonna take 5 to 73 pointers and sometimes it'll be two, but sometimes it'll be 5 to 7.

And now you're seeing Bam out of a of Bao, reiterate that in press conferences being like, hey Spo wants me to take 5 to 7, you know.

So let's go.

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