Miami Heat’s best move in the 2026 NBA draft is painfully obvious

The Miami Heat has another mediocre season. Barring the incredible night when Bam Adebayo exploded for 83 points, the Miami Heat have really had nothing worth shouting about this year. As usual, they didn’t commit to the tank, and didn’t have much luck in the draft, staying at pick #13 in what is a stacked draft class.

There’s plenty of issues that the Miami Heat need to confront if they want to get back in the running for an NBA championship. With a wide open Eastern Conference, there’s no time like the present for the Heat to build towards the future.

The Heat need a handful of profiles to become a challenging team again: they need frontcourt depth, a tall, high-quality wing (who doesn’t), but most importantly, they need a consistent offensive engine in their backcourt. Luckily for them, this draft class is stacked with those.

Why the Miami Heat need to draft a quality guard

The Miami Heat have struggled without a leading offensive engine in the league this season. Players like Bam Adebayo and Jaime Jaquez Jr. contributed solid points, Normal Powell had a great start to the season as a scorer but injuries hampered his progress, and Tyler Herro’s injuries cut his season brutally short.

Miami Heat’s two pieces of the future showed flickers: Davion Mitchell was the starting PG most of the season, and played the facilitator role well, but needed a reliable scorer next to him. Rookie Kasparas Jakucionis showed flashes of quality, but remains a piece for the future who, like Mitchell, needs to be paired with a scorer for an effective backcourt.

The Miami Heat have been languishing in mediocrity for the past two years, and need to make their picks count if they want to win games in a changing Eastern Conference. If you want to trade contracts on the NBA next year, including the Miami Heat and the Eastern Conference, check out GOAL to use this Kalshi promo code.

To match their ambitions, the Miami Heat need a scorer who is ready to hit the ground running from day 1, but also continues to produce on the defensive end, and still be able to carry an offense. Fortunately, this draft class has a handful of prospects with very high ceilings, capable of anchoring offenses with the right team around them.

Who should the Miami Heat draft?

Unless the Heat manage to trade up in the draft, which is unlikely, then the very top tier of guards in this draft will be inaccessible to them. That means Darryn Peterson, Darius Acuff Jr., Kingston Flemings and Keaton Wagler are all likely beyond their reach. If any of them fall, then the Heat should consider it an act of God.

There are a handful more in the Heat’s range. Point guard Mikel Brown Jr. has made his mark in Louisville as a high-volume shooter and creator, and could fall down to the late lottery. Ebuka Okorie is a seriously slept-on pick, and one of the best score-first guards in the draft. Brayden Burries and Cameron Carr are both quality shooting guards who can contribute at both ends of the floor.

The best option for the Heat at pick #13 is arguably Labaron Philon Jr. The Sophomore from Alabama is absolutely lethal as a scorer, arguably the best scorer in the class beyond the mocked top 3. He’s also thought to be more of a fit with Heat Culture, and ready to hit the ground running immediately. If he falls to #13, he’ll be hard to pass on.