MIAMI — Somewhere between being named to NBA All-Star teams and U.S. Olympic teams, between helping the Miami Heat to NBA Finals and being selected to NBA All-Defensive Teams, Bam Adebayo had a gnawing thought.

“I need to work more,’’ he said.

That was based on a simple idea.

“I’m not the most talented guy out there,’’ he said.

So, a few years back, he doubled his workouts to four times a day. He began starting in the Heat’s gym, alone, at 6 a.m. The idea wasn’t just to wake up his body and work on ballhandling and light shooting drills. It was to expand his day. Put more into it. Get more from it.

And do something most players won’t do.

“I know a lot of people, when I say 6 a.m., they say, ‘Hell, no, I’m not doing that,’ ” Adebayo said. “That’s my competitive advantage.”

The Heat’s season begins Wednesday with modest expectations, and this season will go as far as Adebayo’s experience, Erik Spoelstra’s coaching and a cast of developing players take them. It’s starts with an entirely different outlook than recent years, when Jimmy Butler’s talent and temperament, for better and worse, shaped this team.

Now, it’s back to basics for the Heat, as shaped directly by its captain, Adebayo. He’s a throwback in some ways, a defensive superstar in a sport that celebrates offense, one who fits into this franchise’s closed-fist lineage passed on from Keith Askins to Alonzo Mourning to Udonis Haslem.

Adebayo can’t carry a team to a title like Butler nearly did. He can help it get it there, though. And he helps in untold ways that should be told. The sports conversation is often filled with intangible terms like “culture” and “leadership.” But the common denominator to everything good is a fundamental, four-letter work. Work.

“I’m all about work,’’ Adebayo says.

He’ll always be the kid who grew up in a single-wide trailer in rural North Carolina whose mom went to work in a grocery store each day and taught him the values of being on time, working hard and going to school each day.

So, something took root years back, as the late Kobe Bryant discussed his approach to basketball. It came down to simple math: Four is greater than two.

“He talked of how to get an extra advantage over somebody,’’ Adebayo said. “He’s like, ‘If dudes work out twice a day, and I work out four, at some point you’re not gonna catch me. I’m gonna be too far ahead in my workouts. You can’t catch me.

“So I got this idea from him. But, for me, again, I’m not the most talented guy out there by no means. Like I’m just not the most athletic. So for me it’s trying to make sure my movements, my shots, are very consistent and efficient. I feel like I’ve got to work two times harder than somebody who might work out twice a day.

Here’s his daily regimen:

6 a.m: Light shooting, ball handling. “Get the morning juice flowing,’’ he said. “By the time all the coaches walk in, I’m icing and walking out.”

10 a.m. Team work with other players. “We’re doing stuff oriented toward our schemes, our play style and, as it works in, some conditioning,’’ Adebayo said.

1 p.m. Weight workout. “Got to maintain the body,’’ he said.

6 p.m. Shooting. “Get your shots up, just develop that repetition of shooting a basketball,’’ he said.

He’s in bed by 10 p.m.

“And you start all over,’’ he said.

Spoelstra likes to say the Heat’s ways, “aren’t for everyone.” Adebayo knows this work regimen isn’t — nor should it be, though second-year player Keshad Johnson has joined him.

“Everybody’s race doesn’t look the same,’’ he said. “It’s like we’re on a track, when you all line up, everybody’s in a different lane. So that’s how I kind of look at my career. It doesn’t do any good to look at the other lanes.

“Some things I can’t do like anybody else. Like my thing is I work out four times a day. Some people can’t mentally wrap their mind around doing that every single day. I can. I can wrap my around that because I want to get better. I want to improve. I want to be better for my team. So, for people to go from good to great, I would say you got to figure out what helps your race.”

The Heat’s race begins again Wednesday in Orlando. You can ask about their talent, their depth, their experience. Just don’t wonder about how much their to player cares. He’s answered that again this offseason, four times a day.