Former Los Angeles Lakers wing Caron Butler just showed why his voice still carries weight in the NBA.
How Caron Butler helped Bam Adebayo bounce back
Now an assistant coach for the Miami Heat, Butler helped Bam Adebayo work through a frustrating offensive slump by doing something simple: being someone Bam trusted when things were not working.
Adebayo hit a rough patch earlier this season that went beyond missed shots. Over an 11-game stretch, he averaged just 11.4 points per game, shot 37.1 percent from the field, and struggled badly from three-point range. It looked like he lost all confidence in himself. For a player who has been known to help anchor Miami on both ends of the floor, it was obvious he was pressing. That is where Butler stepped in.
“Caron Butler is like my big brother,” Adebayo said. “He’s always in my ear. He’s the one person I can talk to about what I’m going through… Being able to have somebody like that in your corner, they care. You need that when you’re going through the worst of the worst.”
Drafted by the Miami Heat in 2002, he later played for the Lakers after being traded in the deal that brought Shaquille O’Neal to South Beach. He knows what it is like when expectations pile up, and every miss feels louder than the last.
Not long after those conversations, Adebayo’s game flipped. In the three games leading up to Miami’s matchup with the Golden State Warriors, he averaged a whopping 27.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 4.3 assists.
Even more telling, he shot 56.5 percent from three during that stretch. That production earned him Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors for Jan. 12–18, his third career win and first since January 2024.
Adebayo’s matchup with the Warriors was not the best performance for obvious reasons. Miami got crushed 135-106. Adebayo finished with just four points on 1-of-13 shooting. The difference is that fans now expect Bam to bounce back because he has done it before.
This time, it only felt like one bad game, not a return to square one. And Butler will almost certainly be there again, helping him reset instead of letting it snowball. From a Lakers perspective, Butler’s impact is hard to ignore.
If a former Laker can help stabilize Bam Adebayo through communication and credibility, it is fair to wonder what that same presence could do in Los Angeles. Deandre Ayton has struggled to stay consistent all season, and sometimes the answer is just having the right voice in the room. That is something Caron Butler has always understood.