Even so, he slid down some draft …

Even so, he slid down some draft boards. “The doubt was whether he could really do much on offense,” says Chet Kammerer, Miami’s senior advisor of basketball operations. That criticism got back to Kentucky’s coaches. “Take your pretty jump-shooting bigs, and give me Bam,” Payne would tell NBA executives. “Give me the guy who will do anything to win — the guy who will block a shot at a critical moment, or switch onto a guard and shut him down.” The Heat tested Adebayo when they hosted him for a pre-draft workout. They put him through a “hands” drill in which a half-dozen staffers circled Adebayo, and chucked basketballs at him in random patterns. He caught every one. One Heat official asked Adebayo what percentage of corner 3s he could hit in practice. Adebayo answered with bravado: 60%. Prove it, they said. Adebayo hit 31-of-50 — 62%.