Four games into the Giannis era, the Heat are 0-4, and the criticism has already been placed onto the man himself. The criticism going around this week comes from one of Giannis’s former teammates in Jeff Teague, as well as from Baron Davis and Gilbert Arenas. Teague says,

“Giannis got to change the way he play. It was not fun playing with Giannis. Doesn’t mean he’s not a great player, but he’s a very tough player to play with. Jrue Holiday is the only guy I’ve seen have success with him.”

Jeff Teague

Baron Davis and Gilbert Arenas also had this to say about Giannis:

“He got to make adjustments on how to include people…. Giannis gotta figure out how to unlock Bam, Klay, make Wiggins life easier. There’s never been a case playing with Giannis makes any superstars life that much easier. It’s always been harder”

— Baron Davis on Giannis 😳 https://t.co/a1HBEdbqou pic.twitter.com/gmPRu8Ek95

— Heat Central (@TheHeatCentral) October 26, 2026

Arenas has been saying a version of this for a while. Last October, when Giannis's name was attached to New York, he said flatly, "He can't play with a Brunson," and that you have to "treat him more like an Amar'e Stoudemire."

Giannis has spent his entire career next to very good players, but not superstars. Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe, Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, Myles Turner. Those are useful players, several of them very good ones, but none of them were 25-point scorers who needed the ball the way he does. The only real superstar he has ever shared a floor with is Damian Lillard, for two seasons. If you're going to say he can't play with stars, you're saying it off of one partnership.

So let's look at that Dame and Giannis partnership. Lillard got worse in his time with Milwaukee. There's no way around it. In his last season in Portland he averaged a career-high 32.2 points. In his first season with the Bucks he dropped to 24.3 on 42.4 percent shooting and 35.4 percent from three. By the All-Star break his true shooting was 59.6 percent, his usage had dropped from above 30 percent to about 28, his assist rate had gone from roughly 34 percent to 27.4, and his isolations had fallen from 4.9 a game to 2.7.

The man who coached them at the time, Doc Rivers, said it plainly when asked about the idea that Giannis and Lillard would eventually figure it out, "They never did."

Through the first month of their partnership, Giannis set 52 ball screens for Lillard. That ranked 44th among all pairings in the league. Only two of those 52 screens were set below the three-point line, which meant Giannis was catching the ball far from the rim, where he's least dangerous. Lillard, meanwhile, set three screens for Giannis. The Bucks spent much of that stretch running pick-and-rolls between Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis instead.

In my view, this was less about a superstar failing to elevate a teammate and more about an offense that barely asked its two best players to play with each other. I say that because, when they did, it worked! Entering the 2024 All-Star break, the Bucks were scoring 1.23 points per Giannis-Lillard pick-and-roll, which at the time was the third-best mark in the NBA. They were also 25th in how often they ran pick-and-roll at all. The best two-man action on the team was one of the least-used plays in the league.

Then there's everything else that was going on around them. Adrian Griffin was fired in January 2024 with the Bucks at 30-13, which at the time was tied for the second-best record in the league. Terry Stotts, Lillard's longtime coach in Portland, had already left Griffin's staff before the season even started. Rivers came in, went 17-19 the rest of the way, and Milwaukee finished as the 3 seed. Then Giannis strained his calf at the end of the regular season and missed the entire first-round series against Indiana. The next season, Lillard missed the final month with a blood clot in his right calf, came back for Game 2 against the Pacers, and tore his left Achilles in Game 4.

In two years together, Giannis and Lillard played three playoff games side by side, with no full series, and Lillard's season ended in the third one. That's not enough of a sample size in my opinion to come up with a verdict on whether Giannis can play with a star or not.

Khris Middleton was the 39th pick in the 2012 draft. Next to Giannis he became a three-time All-Star, and in 2019-20 he shot 49.7 percent from the field, 41.5 from three and 91.6 from the line, three-tenths of a percentage point from a 50-40-90 season. Jrue Holiday made his first All-Star team in 2013 and didn't make another one for ten years, until he did it in Milwaukee in 2023. Two of his three All-Defensive First Team selections came as a Buck. Eric Bledsoe made All-Defensive First Team in 2019 playing next to Giannis.

2021 NBA CHAMPIONS!! pic.twitter.com/3CEmafjIrG

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) July 21, 2021

That, to me, is not a player who drags teammates down. But that’s a separate conversation because what he hasn't proven is whether he can share the ball with another player who needs it just as much as he does.

But here's the thing: when superstars team up, there’s usually a slight dip in production.

Chris Bosh averaged 24.0 points in his last season in Toronto. In his first season in Miami, next to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, he averaged 18.7. Kevin Love averaged 26.1 in his last year in Minnesota and 16.4 in his first year in Cleveland. Nobody looks at those numbers and says LeBron James doesn't make stars better. We understand that when two players who need the ball end up on the same team, one of them gives some of it up, and his numbers go down. That's just how it goes.

Lillard's numbers fell. So did Bosh's and Love's. The difference is that Miami and Cleveland had the time and stability to build an identity around the sacrifice, and both teams went on to multiple Finals appearances. Milwaukee changed coaches midseason and lost its stars to injury in both playoff runs.

So where does that leave the Heat?

Bam Adebayo isn't Lillard, and that's the most important thing to look at about this whole conversation. Although I believe him to be a star in this league, there are many that don’t even consider Bam to be on that SUPERSTAR level. Bam has never needed the ball the way a lead guard does. He's at his best as an offensive connector, someone who makes the read out of the short roll, hands off, screens, defends everybody and lets the game come to him.

Sure, he can drop 30 or 40 on any given night as we saw he scored 83 just a season ago. But, he is best suited as a secondary scorer.

Four games doesn't tell us whether it does. Miami is 0-4, and there are much bigger problems than “Does Giannis make stars worse”?

Talked a lot about Miami’s problems on the podcast on Sunday night. Particularly on offense. pic.twitter.com/9iauC6NZtU

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) October 27, 2026

The defense has been a mess, and Bam has been up and down while working through a groin issue from the preseason. Giannis, for his part, has put up 35, 36, 14 and, on Monday against Dallas, 29 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists in a loss. Whatever is wrong in Miami right now, he hasn't been the one shrinking.

Is it possible Davis and Arenas are right? Maybe. But at this point, it’s too soon to say. We will see soon enough. If Bam's numbers dip all year and Miami can't find a rhythm, the argument will certainly get stronger.