What’s the key to Heat’s internal improvement plan? Adebayo: ‘It starts with me and Tyler’

With the Miami Heat returning 13 players from last season’s season-ending roster, it will need to rely on internal improvement to take another step forward.

That internal improvement plan begins with the Heat’s two brightest young stars in center Bam Adebayo and guard Tyler Herro. They both know it, too.

“I think it starts with me and Tyler as being the young guys in the group, technically,” Adebayo said, with the Heat continuing training camp on Wednesday at Baha Mar resort. “The young veterans. I feel like then it goes to Gabe [Vincent], Max [Strus], Duncan [Robinson] and Omer [Yurtseven], and then you have Jimmy [Butler] and Kyle [Lowry] as the guys who hold the weight. But I think it starts with me and Tyler, getting off to a good start to the season and setting the tone.”

Herro agrees.

“I think we have a bunch of young talented guys. But me and Bam lead the way there,” Herro said. “I think we made a jump last summer. And going into the season, I think every year we have to continue to make jumps so that we put ourselves in position to be where we were at last year with hopefully a different outcome. Me and Bam, everybody knows how hard we work and the time we put in. So I’m excited to see how much better and the jump we take.”

Adebayo, 25, is entering his sixth NBA season and Herro, 22, is entering his fourth NBA season.

Adebayo has established himself as the Heat’s starting center and has already earned one appearance in the NBA All-Star Game in 2020. Herro is hoping to prove he deserves a promotion to the starting lineup after becoming the first player in Heat history to be named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year last season.

Herro closed last regular season as the Heat’s second-leading scorer with a career-high 20.7 points per game. He did it while shooting a career-best 44.7 percent from the field and 39.9 percent from three-point range.

“For sure,” Herro said when asked if he wants to be an All-Star this season. “I thought I should have been one last year. Obviously, coming off the bench, it was tough. But I think with another leap, another jump in my game, I think I can definitely be an All-Star.”

As for Adebayo, he’s looking to take on a bigger scoring role after averaging a career high in points (19.1 per game) and shot attempts (13 per game) last season. On Monday’s media day, he said he wants to average around 18 shot attempts per game this season.

“I’m going to try to get it up this year,” Adebayo made clear. “I feel like we’re a lot better team when I’m scoring the basketball.”

Together, Adebayo and Herro believe they can help take the Heat to the next level.

“Me and Bam are really close,” Herro said. “We’re close in age. We both went to Kentucky. There’s a lot of similarities in our paths to the NBA. At first when I came in, I was able to bounce things off of Bam and he was able to help me get through things. Now we’re both coming into our own a little bit and we’re kind of a one-two punch on the pick-and-rolls and stuff like that. We have a great relationship off the court and an even better relationship on the court with our chemistry. Bam is my brother.”

THINKING ABOUT FLORIDA

The Heat is going through training camp in the Bahamas this week, but players and coaches continued to closely monitor Hurricane Ian and its impact on South Florida and the rest of the state on Wednesday.

“It’s devastating what’s going on,” Herro said. “We all have family back there. It’s not easy for anybody. My family is back at home and I know they’re scared. It’s just part of life and hopefully everybody stays safe and we can get through it.”

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra added: “We’re able to be here, in a safe environment, doing what we love to do. But really, our hearts and our thoughts are going out to everybody in South Florida, Central Florida, the Tampa area, who are bracing right now. We’ve very familiar with the hurricane season. For the last week, we’ve been keeping an eye on it.”

▪ The Heat’s entire roster went through Wednesday morning’s practice . That includes Gabe Vincent (knee), Dewayne Dedmon (foot) and Nikola Jovic (Achilles), who were limited participants during Tuesday’s session to open training camp.