Last week, the Miami Heat added another piece to the puzzle by acquiring one of the greatest shooters of all-time in Klay Thompson. After weeks of speculation, the Dallas Mavericks eventually bought out Thompson, who had his sights set on competing for a title. Now, he joins an already formidable Heat squad that acquired Giannis Antetokounmpo and Tim Hardaway Jr. earlier this summer.
The Heat aren’t completely done, still needing to add at least one more player ahead of the start of the regular season, which is less than two months away. But they now have one of the NBA’s best starting lineups with Thompson, a four-time champion who’s third among all active players in made threes.
Here’s a look at Miami’s updated depth chart:
2026-27 Miami Heat Depth Chart (So Far):
| Position: | Starter: | 2nd String: | 3rd string: |
| PG | Davion Mitchell | Dru Smith | Tre Donaldson** |
| SG | Klay Thompson | Tim Hardaway Jr. | Ryan Conwell |
| SF | Andrew Wiggins | Pelle Larsson | Myron Gardner |
| PF | Giannis Antetokounmpo | Simone Fonteccchio | Nikola Jovic |
| C | Bam Adebayo | Bobby Portis | Vladimir Goldin** |
As I mentioned, the Heat are still at 13 players on standard contracts, needing to get to 14 by opening night on Oct. 21. They also only have two players on two-way contracts: Donaldson, who they snagged immediately after the 2026 NBA Draft, and Goldin, entering his second season in the organization.
This depth chart also won’t include future training camp signees, which will happen over the next several weeks. Each NBA team can carry up to 21 players during camp, so it still has six spots it can allocate.
The Heat’s roster does have some sneaky, intriguing depth. Many of these players are interchangeable, so they’re not quite binded to these positions. But Each of the aforementioned third-stringers could make a legitimate impact in the rotation this season, and there’s a world where each of them start at a certain point. That’s a good problem to have.
Nevertheless, the Heat’s starting lineup is quite good. It’s not perfect, but it will be hard to ignore Thompson, which is all Antetokounmpo and Adebayo need. They are mutually beneficial to each other. And their bench unit of Larsson-Hardaway-Portis along with Smith and Fontecchio is multi-dimensional. You can mix and match each of those five with at least one of their two stars at all times.
The biggest priority for the rest of the offseason (outside of staying healthy … duh!) is acquiring more 1.) size or 2.) shot creation. It’s unlikely the latter will be available, so the Heat’s best bet may be to sign, say, Nick Richards and call it a day. Perhaps they will be able find another ballhandler/shot creator at the deadline or in the buyout market, or they can elect to bring back 6-foot-1 guard Jahmir Young, who remains unsigned.
What are your thoughts on the Heat’s depth chart? Let us know in the comments below!
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The starters plus Larsson, Hardaway and Portis make a pretty good 8 man rotation.
Adding a physical front court player PF/C who can run, rebound and defend the paint would be great.
I think promoting one of the young unsigned players wouldn’t be a bad idea if a quality reserve isn’t available.
The Heat’s defense is going to surprise, frustrate and possibly overwhelm a few teams.
We should have a good indication of how the season will go by the end of November (if key players can stay healthy).
dav wigg bam greek all very good defenders.dont forget about the gardner and port of miami for roughness.i like my team with some maurice lucas enforcers
There is always a time in the season, where all that depth disappears and there are only 8-9 players available.
We have to be realistic about additions. All of them, (including Klay) serves as biggest holes fixing and for insurance, nothing more. There is still no more then 6 players good enough to be a part of the champion level team. We need three more, so I expect that next year team will be quite different than this one.
Never less, this is a good team, which should be competitive. If anything, I would like to have one or two good young players instead of vets.
Heat need to close this Richards deal like now
Yes, that’s the one glaring omission on the depth chart… Sorry, Vlad Goldin. If all these guys stay healthy, that’s a good team… with the addition of Nick Richards.
Looking at the depth chart, no question we still need that backup big man. If we get that guy and maybe another nice addition, I feel like we are a solid sixth seed, maybe even five.
I do think a little bit of excessive optimism surrounds the Thompson addition. He did upgrade us, no doubting that. But, I think the author is going a bit too far in saying we now have one of the best starting line-ups with the Thompson addition. It is a competitive starting line-up, but more like eighth best in the league, in my opinion.
Finish this team out by adding at least a fourteenth helpful player (not a G-Leaguer) and we will probably still be one player away from going deep into the playoffs. And, to me, that is a vast improvement over 2025-26, especially with the salary constraints and lack of draft capital we had to deal with.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we can upgrade at the deadline or in the offseason, once it becomes apparent what our needs are. The regular season games will tell us what we need to do.