“As much as everybody may think, I don’t got a problem with these guys. These guys are cool. They’re my friends… My beef is not with them and never will be.” Jimmy Butler made it clear that his problems were solely with the Heat management and not his teammates. After all, he went to battle with these guys for six years and spent many memorable moments together, both on and off the court. But how are Jimmy’s now ex-teammates feeling after his departure to the Warriors? Well, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro finally broke silence on the blockbuster trade.

Keeping a rather professional approach, Bam said, “I mean at the end of the day, you gotta understand that it’s a business. Obviously, you’ve seen with the Luka trade, anybody can go. So, you always gotta take that into thought. And then sometimes you can only control what you can control.” Yes, one lesson the Luka Doncic trade has taught everyone is that no player is safe in the NBA. Moreover, Adebayo and the crew already knew this day would come once the situation escalated after Butler’s trade demand.

So even though Jimmy’s departure stings, Adebayo seems to have made peace with it. Moreover, his focus is on the Heat’s ongoing struggles as they lost another game last night. This time against the Nets. When his teammate Tyler Herro was asked if it was a mental challenge playing amid Jimmy’s trade, he shut down that notion immediately, “No. Not really. We should have won tonight. I don’t think the trade had anything to do with anything.”

Following Butler’s departure, everyone hoped that the problem would now be solved. However, yesterday’s blowout loss says otherwise. And losing to a twelfth seeded team does not scream Championship material at all. Turns out, Adebayo knows exactly where his team went wrong.

Bam Adebayo reminds the Heat of their True Identity after Embarrassing Nets loss

Addressing the Heat’s biggest weakness that got exposed last night, Bam said postgame, “We don’t get stops, we’re not gonna be able to win. I mean we can’t try to rely on outscoring people. That’s not the way our team is built.” Yes, as successful as they have been in recent years, their identity was never of a high scoring team. Even Adebayo is averaging only 16.4 points and he is arguably their best player now that Jimmy is gone.

Moreover, Butler was their second highest scorer this season behind Tyler Herro, which means they are even weaker on offense following the trade. And the Heat need to make up for that void by stepping up on the defensive end. Bam continued, “Our team is built, we get stops, run in transition and that’s how we get our buckets. That’s how you get easy baskets. That’s how we collectively start feeling great cause you get stops, everybody feels like they do their job.”

Of course, the Heat were not at complete strength last night as Andrew Wiggins and the rest of the acquired players from the Jimmy trade are yet to make their debut. Well, Wiggins is a consistent double-digit scorer, who is also elite on defense. So, his addition will surely help the Miami franchise. As per reports, Wiggs is likely to suit up in a Heat uniform for the first time on Monday against the Celtics. Following the Nets loss, the team is struggling to hold on to the seventh seed in the East standings. Hopefully, they will turn things around once Wiggins joins in and they play by their true identity as Adebayo urged them to. Do you think the Heat can do it?