The Miami Heat are currently 12-6 with the league’s 12th-best offense and 4th-best defense. How would you grade their start? (Mandatory Credit: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
We are one month into the 2025-26 Miami Heat season, with the Heat sitting at 12-6 as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The only teams above Miami to date are the Detroit Pistons — on a 13-game win streak — and the Toronto Raptors. It’s still too early to make any sort of predictions about how the East shakes out, especially since there’s only a 2.5-game gap between Miami and Boston, who’s currently the No. 10 seed.
Thus, a lot of teams are crunched together.
Miami currently leads the NBA in pace — by a wide margin — and scoring, despite sporting the 12th-best efficiency while being No. 14 and 15 in effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage, respectively.
That said, the Heat do have a top-5 defense despite being a below-average defensive rebounding team, which typically isn’t the case with Erik Spoelstra-led teams. They are also forcing turnovers at a middle-of-the-pack clip (15.0 oTOV%), though teams are shooting a league-worst 31.6 percent from 3-point range.
How would you grade the Miami Heat’s season after one month? Vote in our poll below!
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Hanifan’s take: A
I’m not sure how it’s anything other than an A.
The Heat have played the league’s seventh-hardest schedule to date, according to Dunks & Threes. They’ve played all but one game without Tyler Herro, their best offensive player from a year ago. Bam Adebayo and Norman Powell have also missed chunks of time due to injury.
Yet, they are shattering franchise records in scoring, having scored 140-plus points four times already this season. Powell has played at an All-Star caliber level, while Adebayo has been one of the league’s best defenders in the sport.
They have also gotten notable breakouts from Jaime Jaquez Jr. — one of the favorites for Sixth Man of the Year — Kel’el Ware and Pelle Larsson. Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Simone Fontecchio (despite a recent drop-off in shooting) have all played well, as has Keshad Johnson, who’s entered the rotation amid Nikola Jovic’s absence.
This has been a very successful start, all things considered. I’m not sure anyone could’ve asked for much better, either, even with three close losses to the Orlando Magic (on opening night), San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks.
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