an offseason worthy of respect<\/a> on the level of Executive of the Year.<\/p>\nFor Spoelstra, new toys.<\/p>\n
For fans of a team that has been relegated to the play-in bracket the last four seasons, new hope.<\/p>\n
For the members of the opening-night 2026-27 Miami Heat, anticipation . . . and uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook,\u201d said Spoelstra, who put his team through one final preseason practice Tuesday. \u201cI\u2019m going to communicate what we\u2019re going to do for game one. I\u2019m not stressed out about the rotation for game one. Our depth is going to be a factor all year long. We have positional depth. We have depth in our roster and we\u2019re going to use our depth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s the point I\u2019ll make to our guys. It won\u2019t all just be about game one. And I know we have big-time competitors in the locker room. Everybody wants to play and play their minutes and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, the starters seem set, as do Hardaway, Portis and Pelle Larsson playing lead reserve roles, provided Larsson is over the illness that kept him out for most of the preseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll figure it out as the season goes on,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll have to select a rotation for game one, knowing that everybody will be needed as this 82-game season starts.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Spoelstra said all is on schedule, after a grueling players-only camp in September and then a relentless run of practices that included three consecutive days prior to the opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a very good training camp,\u201d Spoelstra said, including the time at Kaseya Center that followed the actual camp at Florida Atlantic University. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed getting to know the new players. We\u2019re already starting to build this collaborative culture for this team. It won\u2019t be all perfect.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a genuine excitement for Wednesday night. But I think the guys have approached training camp appropriately \u2014 in shape, working their butts off, doing what we need to do to prepare. And now it\u2019s going to be about competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
While not all teams show their cards during the preseason, the offensive approach is not something Spoelstra has held back.<\/p>\n
The Heat ran last season. They ran during the preseason. The hope to be off to the races again starting Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still think at times we have too many people in the backcourt, not enough guys running the court and sacrificing,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cAnd we have the balance of attacking and shooting. That kind of creates space on its own \u2014 until it doesn\u2019t. So that\u2019s what I have on my mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut yeah, the pace, the habit of doing that, we\u2019ll continue to build it as teams try to scheme against it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, so, off to Heat season No. 39.<\/p>\n
Here are the opening-night lineups over the past decade:<\/p>\n
2016-17: Luke Babbitt, Justise Winslow, Hassan Whiteside, Dion Waiters, Goran Dragi\u0107.<\/p>\n
2017-18: Josh Richardson, Kelly Olynyk, Hassan Whiteside, Dion Waiters, Goran Dragi\u0107.<\/p>\n
2018-19: Rodney McGruder, Derrick Jones Jr., Hassan Whiteside, Josh Richardson, Goran Dragi\u0107.<\/p>\n
2019-20: Justise Winslow, Bam Adebayo, Meyers Leonard, Tyler Herro, Kendrick Nunn.<\/p>\n
2020-21: Jimmy Butler, Maurice Harkless, Bam Adebayo, Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro.<\/p>\n
2021-22: Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker, Bam Adebayo, Duncan Robinson, Kyle Lowry.<\/p>\n
2022-23: Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Kyle Lowry.<\/p>\n
2023-24: Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Kyle Lowry.<\/p>\n
2024-25: Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jovi\u0107, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier III.<\/p>\n
2025-26: Andrew Wiggins, Nikola Jovi\u0107, Bam Adebayo, Norman Powell, Davion Mitchell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 The starting lineup says only a 40% adjustment year-to-year. But for the Miami Heat, it feels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,16151,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-433026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-heat-blog","tag-miami-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}