Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is a master at his craft. If he isn't the best coach in the NBA, he's on a very short list of the game's greats.
In fact, if you're buying the Heat as sleepers for the 2025-26 season, you're surely basing at least some of that belief on Spo's track record in terms of maximizing his roster. What happens, though, if Miami's opportunistic offseason has created a scenario in which the Heat have given him more pieces than their on-court puzzle can fit?
Because, on the surface at least, the Heat appear not merely fully loaded but bursting at the seams with viable candidates to fill their rotation. And while that's objectively a great thing—particularly when they aren't working with a star-studded roster—it'll still lead to some tricky decisions for Spoelstra to make.
Miami's depth is an advantage, but sorting it all out will still be a challenge.
Save perhaps for the center spot, the Heat appear overloaded everywhere you look. At point guard alone, there's Kasparas Jakučionis, perhaps the biggest steal of this year's draft, Davion Mitchell, who dazzled down last season's final stretch, Tyler Herro, who booked his first All-Star trip this past season, and, since they can't get rid of him, Terry Rozier, who had previously been a serviceable starter and impact reserve.
That's a ton of names, especially when considering point guard is supposed to be this club's weakness. Move out to the wings, though, and the conversation is the same.
Between trade-heist Norman Powell and coveted swingman Andrew Wiggins, Miami's starting spots are probably taken, but there is no shortage of breakout (or bounce-back) candidates behind them. Pelle Larsson looks ready to make a leap. Jaime Jaquez Jr. quietly capped a disappointing sophomore season by showing his most promising performance to date as a perimeter shooter. Simone Fontecchio won't be easily benched if he shoots anything like he has overseas.
And Nikola Jovic might be the single biggest reason to hope the Heat can overachieve.
Everywhere you turn, there's a juicy training camp battle on the horizon and a challenging call for Spoelstra to make. Again, this is a very good problem to have. As the Indiana Pacers just showed, this conference can be conquered by a deep, superstar-less roster, provided the head coach pushes all the right buttons.
No one knows, of course, which buttons should be pressed, but the entirety of Heat Nation should trust Spoelstra to figure this out. It won't be easy, but this is why he makes the big bucks—and why he might consider keeping a spot cleared in his trophy case.