The Miami Heat are a top-10 team, according to the majority of recent power rankings. (Mandatory Credit: Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images)
We are officially one quarter of the way through the 2025-26 Miami Heat season!
The Heat, currently sitting at 13-7, have completed arguably the most difficult part of their schedule without Tyler Herro for 17 games, Bam Adebayo for six games and Norman Powell for four games, among others.
Yet, they still stand tall as the sole leader for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. Miami is just three games back of first-place Detroit — who snapped its three-game win streak on Saturday — while being 0.5 game ahead of the Atlanta Hawks and one game back of the Orlando Magic.
The Heat has risen throughout various power rankings this season. But where do a few of the experts stack them heading into December?! Let’s examine!
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NBC Sports (Kurt Helin): No. 8
“It took a little bit for Kel’el Ware to get comfortable in his second season, he seemed a bit lost in his first 10 games or so, when he averaged 9.7 points a game on 48.7% shooting, plus grabbed 7.7 rebounds a game. It’s on the glass that you first noticed the change in Ware’s game this season, and in his last 10 games he is dominating inside and grabbing 13.7 rebounds a game, plus scoring 15 a night on 57.1% shooting next to Bam Adebayo. I’m not convinced Ware and Bam can be played together in clutch minutes or the playoffs — does it mess up the spacing too much? — but Erik Spoelstra has time to experiment and find out. Miami advanced to the NBA Cup quarterfinals as the wild card and will face off against Orlando on Dec. 9.”
The Athletic (Law Murray): No. 8
“Anyone who thought Powell was a product of the talent he played with in LA can put some respect on his name. Powell has given Miami a shot in the arm offensively, bursting through with a career-best 24.7 points while getting to the free-throw line 6.4 times per game. His 3-point efficiency has continued to be devastating, as he is making 44.4 percent of his 6.8 3-point attempts per game. Tyler Herro is back, so now Powell has to show that he can maintain his prolific output while sharing the floor with him. Herro is starting at shooting guard with Davion Mitchell remaining at point guard, which has shifted Powell to small forward and Andrew Wiggins to power forward.”
NBA.com (John Schuhmann): No. 12
“Tyler Herro made his season debut last Monday and capped his 24-point performance against Dallas with the go-ahead bucket with 41 seconds left. The Heat ran their winning streak to six games before losing to the Pistons on Saturday. … The Heat (3-0) are one of three unbeaten teams – the Spurs (2-0) and Rockets (0-0) are the others – in the second games of back-to-backs. Their next back-to-back is a road-home back-to-back this coming weekend, and they’ll be at a rest disadvantage against the Kings on Saturday.”
USA Today (Lorenzo Reyes): No. 8
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For the most part, these rankings are well measured. Miami has the NBA’s seventh-best NET Rating (13th offense, 3rd defense) while owning the ninth-best record.
For full disclosure, we did not include a few because of the recency of their respective rankings.
Where do you think the Heat should be ranked among their peers around the NBA?! Let us know in the comments!
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