The Miami Heat’s 0-4 start to the 2026-27 season has put Bam Adebayo squarely in the spotlight, and not in a good way. With the offense sputtering and the early chemistry looking clunky, former NBA guard Jeff Teague says the answer is simple: Adebayo should be headed to Boston, not trying to make it work next to Giannis Antetokounmpo.
On his Club 520 Podcast, Teague made the case plainly.
“That don’t fit,” Teague said. “It’s time to move on… Bam and [Jayson Tatum] was supposed to [be close].
That’ll have been cool. You need to go ahead and get to the Celtics, man.”
Adebayo and Tatum have known each other since they were about 12, and the two are close friends. Teague clearly thinks that connection should turn into a partnership. Still, the Heat are not expected to send Adebayo to a division rival, and they are not looking to move him at this stage anyway.
Even so, the first four games have only fueled questions about how this pairing with Antetokounmpo is going to function. Plenty of people saw the fit as awkward on offense before the season, and the early results have done little to calm those concerns.
Adebayo, the No. 14 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, is averaging 11.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.8 blocks through the Heat’s first four games. He’s also shooting 40.0% from the field and just 16.7% from three. For a three-time All-Star, those numbers are a rough opening stretch.
The problem, at least from a basketball standpoint, is easy to see. Antetokounmpo and Adebayo keep ending up in the same areas, and with Antetokounmpo playing his usual aggressive brand of basketball since arriving in Miami, Adebayo hasn’t been getting the same chances he’s used to.
Adebayo reportedly feels like he’s become the scapegoat for the Heat’s struggles, though he also believes he’ll snap out of it. If that doesn’t happen, the Heat front office may eventually have to consider whether this is sustainable.
The bigger issue is that Miami brought in Antetokounmpo with championship contention in mind, and this version of Adebayo is nowhere near enough to get them there. He was supposed to be the co-star. Right now, he looks more like a bad role player.
If Miami ever did make him available, Boston would at least make some sense as a landing spot. Joe Mazzulla’s team could raise questions because Adebayo isn’t a proven three-point shooter, but the Celtics’ current center group is Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Queta, and neither one spaces the floor from deep either. Adebayo would also give Boston a better defender than either of those two.
That said, this is not anywhere close to an actual trade discussion yet.
For the moment, Adebayo and the Heat are just trying to stop the bleeding. They’ll look for their first win Wednesday at State Farm Arena against the Atlanta Hawks at 7 p.m.
ET. If they fall again, Miami would be staring at an 0-5 start, something it last did in 2007-08 before finishing that season 15-67.
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