Bryant latest Heat center hoping to play some with Bam. What to know. And Hampton, Love

If you’re a center who wants to play more than fleeting minutes alongside 6-9 Bam Adebayo, Erik Spoelstra has one seemingly unbending requirement: Beyond being at least functional defensively, you must be able to stretch the floor and have an extensive body of work hitting three-pointers at a high level.

Kelly Olnyk and Meyers Leonard filled that requirement.

Hassan Whiteside did not.

Dwayne Dedmon could shoot threes, but not well enough to convince Spoelstra to give them more than emergency minutes as a pairing, particularly when little else was working during the April 2021 first-round sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks.

And now arrives 6-10 Thomas Bryant, who is somewhere in between Leonard and Dedmon on the three-point meter. Leonard has shot threes at a 39 percent clip in his career, Dedmon 33.6 percent.

Bryant shoots three-pointers much more consistently than Dedmon and many NBA centers — 36.6 percent in his career and 39.4 percent the past three seasons.

But Bryant’s volume of three-point makes (118 in 322 attempts) isn’t particularly big, at least not compared with Olynyk, who hit 254 threes in four seasons with Boston before making 391 in four seasons with Miami.

Bryant was an efficient 25 for 59 (44.1 percent) on threes in his time with the Lakers and Denver last season.

The question remains whether Spoelstra believes that lineup spaces the floor well enough, and defends well enough, to give an Adebayo/Bryant pairing any minutes together. Bryant’s defense has worked against him at times in his career.

Like a handful of Heat centers before him, Bryant hopes that Spoelstra can be convinced.

“I feel like there are minutes out there [as a tandem],” he said. “I feel like I complement Bam’s game and he complements me as well. Being a three-point threat out there is a big threat for us to hopefully try and see how it works.”

Bryant said last week that “coaches have talked to me” about playing some minutes with Adebayo, but “we haven’t had a real sit down eye to eye talk about it.”

One obstacle to that lineup: Spoelstra could opt to go with Adebayo’s two proven power rotation partners, Kevin Love and Caleb Martin, exclusively alongside Adebayo and essentially slot Bryant into the backup center role filled by Cody Zeller during the playoffs.

There’s also the question about whether Bryant plays much at all, if Spoelstra decides to go with a nine-man rotation of Jimmy Butler, Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Love, Martin, Kyle Lowry, Josh Richardson, Duncan Robinson and Haywood Highsmith.

If Spoelstra uses a natural backup center, Bryant understands he needs to compete with Orlando Robinson for that role.

“We are going to push each other; that’s what we’ve been doing,” Bryant said of Robinson.

Bryant’s energy and effort have never been questioned; one scout praised his motor.

But his defensive effectiveness has been an issue during his career.

Last season, he allowed the player he was guarding to shoot 55 percent; those same players shot 50 percent against everybody else. Among centers who defended at least 400 shots, only Detroit’s James Wiseman permitted a higher shooting percentage against (56.4).

In 2021-22, players guarded by Bryant shot 48.8 percent, compared to the 49 percent they shot overall.

Bryant said the Heat always has had him on their radar.

“I’ve been knowing they’ve been having an eye on me for a few years,” he said. “Luckily it worked out this way. They needed someone with my game.. They kept in contact with me in free agency [in the past]. It’s funny how it all aligned here. My first NBA workout was with the Heat. I feel the Heat culture.”

THIS AND THAT

▪ Love, on why he’s well-equipped to partly fill the mentoring role that Udonis Haslem handled so effectively:

“Obviously there is no filling the void that UD and the vast shadow he leaves over that veteran leadership role. But I certainly think guys in our lineup will lead in their own way.”

Speaking of himself, Love said: “There is that humor, wit, levity to the locker room but also the guy that has won, won big, been through a lot, seen a lot of highs, seen a lot of lows, find empathy in a lot of guys’ situations because I’ve been a part of it. There’s a lot there I think can add to it as well as in my day, being a great player.

“I still have a lot to give on the floor, but away from the floor as well being able to get through to guys in a very unique way [is something] I know I’m more than capable of.”

▪ Love said he doesn’t care if he starts or comes off the bench.

“I’m just happy to be wearing a jersey,” he said. “In terms of being out there with Jimmy and Bam, I know how to best complement their games for sure. Whether it’s coming off the bench or starting, that stuff doesn’t matter to me.”

▪ Erik Spoelstra said guard R.J. Hampton, on a two-way contract, is “an out-of-this-world athlete. But he has to find a template to find immediate success in a role.”

In training camp, he “led the camp in deflections and steals,” Spoelstra said. “Offensively [he’s] really just trying to be rock solid and use his athleticism in transition or off the ball. That is an adjustment. And then he’ll continue to develop, as we’re seen him work on his pick-and-roll reads and his shooting.”