After several relatively quiet offseason, the Miami Heat had as busy a summer as any NBA team, headlined by acquiring 10-time All-Star and multi-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks. While the East has improved, it’s not far-fetched to say the Heat are on (near) equal footing with the top East teams heading into 2026-27.
But before we get two ahead of ourselves two months out from opening day, how did each move they made this summer stack up against one another? Earlier this offseason, we graded each move. Now, let’s rank them!
6. Extending Andrew Wiggins
Skinny: The Heat made many quality moves this summer. This specific move wasn’t a bad one for the team’s long-term flexibility, per se — although it was the worst for me. Earlier this offseason, they extended Wiggins for $34 million over the next two seasons. But it won’t kick in until next year with his $30.2 million still on the books, which ate away at their short-term flexibility. Ultimately, it didn’t bite them too much, but it was still confusing at the time — and now.
5. Signing Tim Hardaway Jr.
Skinny: Like father, like son. Tim Hardaway Sr. spent five seasons with Miami in the late 90s and early 2000s. Now, his son is a part of the Heat — on a one-year, $6 million deal. Hardaway Jr., 34, was a Sixth Man of the Year finalist with the Nuggets a year ago and immediately becomes one of the Heat’s best volume shooters.
4. Re-signing Simone Fontecchio
Skinny: Fontecchio took a pay cut, signing for the minimum at the start of free agency. His 2025-26 season was up-and-down, but he was one of the best shooters available in free agency. In addition to his shooting, Fontecchio held his own as a defender, and even impacted the game on the offensive glass.
3. Drafting Ryan Conwell
Skinny: I was a fan of Ryan Conwell, and apparently, so were the Heat, who traded up four spots to draft the sharpshooting guard No. 37 overall in June’s draft. Conwell had a solid summer despite poor shooting efficiency. Though Conwell projects to be a much more impactful, efficient 3-and-D guard in a scaled-down role.
2. Signing Klay Thompson
Skinny: Even after adding Hardaway, Conwell and Fontecchio, Miami needed volume 3-point shooting. They needed a player who could occupy space. And it’s not very often you’re able to find that player in the third week of August. Well, Miami did, nabbing Thompson, a four-time champion who is one of the greatest shooters ever, at a team-friendly cost.
1. Acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo (and Bobby Portis)
Skinny: To quote team president Pat Riley, Miami landed a “747” in Antetokounmpo, a top-3 player in the NBA when healthy. The two-time MVP is still his physical prime and immediately buoys the Heat into a fringe title contender.
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I’m going to do this in reverse, and start with the players Miami kept.
Bam, Wiggins, Mitchell, and Pelé. That’s 4 rotation guys Add Giannis, Klay, & Timmy Jr. That’s a pretty good 7-man playoff rotation, if everyone is healthy.
But not a lot of depth after that. Role players are either too old (Portis) too young (Jovic & Dru) or too crappy (Fonteccio & Richards). And unless I’m forgetting someone, that’s as far as we go before we get to rookies and g-leaguers.
So yeah, I see the vision. A really rad playoff team. Just not sure if they have the depth for the regular season. But adding depth is the easy part. This year, the hard part will be patience
Isn’t Portis same age as Giannis with fewer miles on his odometer,?
The Richards deal is similar to last season’s Precious deal in that it is only guaranteed if he is on the roster on opening day. That gives the Heat flexibility in case a better player shakes loose between now and opening day.
Keshad back on a 2 way contract
We got our backup center!
Yay!
Josh Green to Miami? MIN needs to cut salary to add Kuminga. Green is a physical wing who plays hard, can shoot corner 3s. Perfect deep rotation player IMO who can play real minutes
that will help them theyre in the west so really doesnt effect us that much.wonder what theyre gonna do with donte d
If they have to waive and stretch Greens contract to add Kuminga (not clear what they’ll do yet) Heat could sign Green after he clears waivers
Bench
G – Pelle, THJ, Dru, Conwell
F – Fontecchio, Jovic, Green, Gardner
C – Portis
That’s one of the deepest teams in the east IMO. Last roster spot could be another G or a backup C, plus have the three two way contracts to find depth at those positions.
portis versus kat joel u think he can handle them i think we need a 7footer
Portis is replacing Ware in the rotation as the third big, last year the starting frontcourt was Wiggins and Bam, this year Giannis and Bam with the 11 combined all-defensive teams. Last year the Heat would jump out to leads vs other teams starters but then be outscored in Ware’s minutes. If Portis can hold the lead in his minutes with his shooting and defensive rebounding that would be a significant improvement from last year by itself. Plus the more Portis can play during the season the less minutes load on Giannis and Bam.
Useful player, similar characteristics as Pelle, but worse player. Not exactly what Heat needs the most, which is playmaking and a backup big.
Green plays off ball and brings energy in limited minutes, he doesn’t create his own shot like Larsson but a team can never have enough defense, physicality and shooting in today’s NBA with players who know their fit in a system and play hard. Saw predictions his contract is swapped with Caleb Martin’s, but if he’s not traded and instead waived in the next few days would definitely have him as the top addition available. 8’7.5″ standing reach, he would be another positionless player who can switch on defense.
Larsson can provide more playmaking this year in a potential 6th man role because of his driving and passing ability. He showed some of that last year but was in a role that required defense first next to Powell and Herro. And Portis is interesting as a big who creates his own shot, but he also needs the ball to do that on the second unit. Green fits in perfectly with that. Backup 4th big could be a vet min contract now or a two-way contract to start the season then a veteran minimum after the trade deadline, there are multiple ways to fill that spot IMO.
Green was +12.2 in 15.7 mpg for a +5.0 Charlotte team last year, he was a contributor to their success. They had a much better defense in his minutes off the bench. He almost never shoots and when he does its from corner 3. He played more minutes than THJ in Dallas’ finals run two years ago. To me seems like a classic Heat/Spo player.
I watched him in Dallas. All you said is somehow true, especially that he almost never shoots. This is his biggest flaw, he is not a shooter.
As for THJ, he can be as good as anybody one day , and the worst player in the league in another. He was worthless at that time.
He is the type of Pelle/Keshad/ Martin/DJJ wing, better then Keshad, worse then Martin, Pelle and DJJ at their best. Still useful player at the right price.
As I said, he is expensive right now, and its not what we need the most right now, but could be different in a year or two.
Green has very similar career scoring stats to PJ Tucker, not saying he is that level of defender but it’s possible to be a very impactful player without shooting the ball much. Corner 3 was a weapon for Tucker also. Last year around half of Green’s shots were corner threes and he hit them at a solid rate, 45%. That could make a difference to this team. And he gets minutes because he does all the little things on the court. Similar to Pelle in that way but they are different players, Green lacks scoring/shot creation. Some good team will pick Green up if he’s waived, you can never have enough players like him, IMO should be the Heat. Anyway a few days to see what move Minnesota makes, a trade or waiver.
Lets wait and see.
Wiggins had the $30m player option he could opt into regardless, he had control over his contract for this year, but the reporting from Windhorst is the front office wanted him to opt in as part of an extension agreement and get more money frontloaded this year rather than opt out. Then the extension was only 16.5 next year and another player option year 17.3m in two years. That’s roughly MLE money next year for a key player on this team and imo was structured that way to create more space for Larsson’s extension next year.
Wiggins $30m, Klay 5.6, THJ 6, Simone 2.6 = 44m total this year
Herro and Powell 54.5m
Shows what a major offseason this was after the Giannis trade. This team is deep, can go big or small, can run positionless lineups like Larsson, Klay, Wiggins, or Jovic, Klay, Fontecchio, etc around Giannis and Bam.
wigg 30 klay 5 wow klay cant be to happy about that/
Why not? He knew exactly what Wiggins and the rest of the roster were making, chose to take less, and expressed how happy he was to be here.
we all have egos.human nature.alls good that ends with a ring
when youve made as much $ as klay u can let it slide.klays bank account has at least six zero$ in it
He obviously is not upset. Not sure how much more clear he could be. Watch his introductory interview if you haven’t done so already. He is happy to be here. He walked away from $17m to come here.
Hardaway Jr. should be ahead of Simone.
Wiggins should be ahead of both.
lad coming to town ohtanis contract by himself more than marlins pr
Murica! Ain’t capitalism grand?
no salary cap needed lebron
wiggs a little above avg for sf maybe top 12 sf simone is a below avg player easily