Lakers Are Favorites To Land Bam Adebayo In Potential Trade Deal With Heat

Ever since the arrival of Luka Doncic in February, the Lakers have been looking to add size to the team so that they can have a lob threat on the court alongside him. Therefore, they are expected to be interested in trading for former All-Star Bam Adebayo if the Heat decide to trade him this offseason. 

According to the Bovada sportsbook, the Lakers are +190 with the highest odds to land Bam Adebayo if the Heat trades him. Other likely candidates to be in the race are the Grizzlies (+260), Spurs (+300), Kings (+375), Mavericks (+475), Bulls (+1000), and Celtics (+1600).

Bam Adebayo has played in eight seasons for the Heat, in which he averaged 15.7 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 3.6 assists in 567 regular-season games. He was selected to play in three All-Star games (2020, 2023, and 2024). His size and athleticism could be just the right fit alongside Luka Doncic and LeBron James to make the Lakers a potential championship contender next season. 

Why Heat Could Consider Trading Bam Adebayo

Now, the question here is, why would the Heat want to trade their second-best player? Ever since Bam Adebayo became an All-Star in 2020, the Heat have had two trips to the NBA Finals, three first-round exits, and one trip to the conference Finals. And while you may say that he has ensured they reach the Playoffs every season, the Heat may not be content with doing just that every season. 

Tyler Herro took a significant leap in his performance last season, especially since the Jimmy Butler trade. The team was initially built around Butler, and he was the key reason the Heat went to the Finals twice. With Herro now taking the reins in Miami, it may be time for the Heat to evaluate whether Adebayo is worth the max contract extension he recently signed with them. He is expected to earn $37 million in the 2025-26 season, following which his three-year $166 million extension will kick in, and he could demand as high as $60.2 million in the 2028/29 season. 

Is A Lakers Trade Even Possible?

The second fact to consider is the viability of a potential Lakers trade: what could the Lakers offer in return to convince the Heat to let their franchise cornerstone go? 

Jovan Buha, the Athletic's former writer for the Lakers, recently went on his podcast and discussed the viability of the Lakers potentially trading for Adebayo. Given their limited assets and financial constraints, Buha believes it is very unlikely that the Lakers go ahead with this move. 

"I think he'd be good next to Luka because they're both All-Star, All-NBA guys, and they're both smart and they can make it work," Buha said.

"I think Bam is not enough of a lob threat for what the Lakers would want. Defensively, he'd be great because he's a great defender, but I don't know if they could get him. ... From a trade [perspective], I don't really see LA having enough to offer [to Miami]."

He even went on to say that the Lakers could offer Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht, a 2030 first-round pick swap, and their 2031 first-round pick. But he was not confident that it would be enough to convince Heat.

"Lakers don't have cap space. They're not projected to have that cap space, and projected to have potentially the non-taxpayer MLE," Buha said. "But then they are hard capped with the 1st apron, or they can have the taxpayer MLE, and then they can go up to the 2nd apron."

"There are some ways to work out the cap stuff to get a little bit of space, but not much, and even then it could potentially come down to LeBron James taking a massive pay cut, which I have been on the record saying I'm skeptical of," Buha concluded.

LeBron James will have to take a massive pay cut even to make it feasible for the Lakers to make this trade happen. Therefore, in my opinion, while it may be exciting for sports bettors to bet on the Lakers trading for Bam Adebayo, objectively, it does not seem likely that the Lakers will be able to pull off this move.