The Miami Heat's encouraging 2-1 start to the 2025-26 NBA season has been overloaded with pleasant surprises. Jaime Jaquez Jr. looks like a true building block again, the new offense is humming (albeit in unique—and maybe unsustainable—fashion), and they've even managed to slay one of the East's on-paper dragons.
What has really fueled this ascension, though, is Miami's bench becoming a legitimate game-breaker. While head coach Erik Spoelstra has always been a mastermind in terms of maximizing his roster, his work with the second unit so far has been simply spectacular.
Last season, the Heat were a wholly mediocre 15th in bench scoring at 35.9 points per game. Now, though, they've rocketed all the way to second at 51.7 points, production buoyed by a pristine 55.9/38.5/73.3 collective shooting slash.
If they can somehow carry this strength-in-numbers style forward, that could go a long way toward masking their lack of a go-to superstar and giving them a potentially realistic goal of cracking the Eastern Conference's elite tier.
If Miami's bench keeps this up, then it's time to recalibrate expectations for this team.
Before digging too deep into this, let's start one with obvious (but necessary) caveat: This sample size is tiny. And maybe entirely meaningless in the big picture.
The Heat are three steps into an 82-game marathon. Their 32-point thrashing of the Memphis Grizzlies—who might be more future-focused after this summer's Desmond Bane blockbuster—is doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to their most positive stats.
All of that said, everyone in the Association is basically at the same starting point. Every bench unit has had roughly the same opportunity to impress. And few have done it at even a comparable level to Miami's.
Sustainability is always a question, but breakthroughs have to start somewhere, right? Look, maybe this is all a flash in the pan, but maybe it's more. It's too early to tell.
All we can do as analysts, though, is react to what we're seeing. And what we're seeing so far from this second unit is awesome.
Jaquez certainly wouldn't be the first player to figure things out after impressing as a rookie and then struggling through a sophomore slump. Simone Fontecchio isn't actually a 61.5 percent shooter overall (50 percent from three), but he's been a plus perimeter shooter and strong support scorer in the past, and he was clearly in a good groove at EuroBasket.
Nikola Jovic is overloaded with offensive abilities, and since he's all of 22 years old, it feels safe to assume his best basketball is still in front of him. The Heat invested in Dru Smith for a reason, and if they sense someone is a system fit, they're usually right. Pelle Larsson has struggled to lock down a meaningful rotation role, but hopes remain high for the skilled second-year swingman.
Why can't this be one of basketball's better bench units? And if it is, why can't the Heat be a real factor in this wide-open, injury-impacted race in the East? Even while acknowledging that it's too early to say how much of this is real, we can't claim to have a comfortable answer for either of those questions.