Heat has big goals on defense after adding Giannis: ‘The goal is to be No. 1 in defense’

Miami Heat admin October 20, 2026 0 Comments

Heat has big goals on defense after adding Giannis: ‘The goal is to be No. 1 in defense’

The Miami Heat usually has high expectations on the defensive end. But the Heat’s expectations for its defense this season are even higher than usual after adding 2019-20 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Giannis Antetokounmpo this past summer.

After finishing with a top-10 defensive rating in nine of the last 11 regular seasons, the Heat believes it can crack the top three in that category for the first time since the 1996-97 season. The Heat, led by the shot-blocking ability of Alonzo Mourning, recorded the NBA’s best defensive rating for the 1996-97 season.

“The goal is to be No. 1 in defense,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “Top three, at least. “

The Heat’s projected starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Klay Thompson (one All-Defensive team selection), Andrew Wiggins, Antetokounmpo (five All-Defensive team selections) and Adebayo (six All-Defensive team selections) includes 12 combined NBA All-Defensive selections. And the two players in the Heat’s starting unit who haven’t yet earned that honor — Mitchell and Wiggins — are both considered quality perimeter defenders.

But the Heat’s preseason defensive numbers were underwhelming, finishing its five-game exhibition schedule with the NBA’s 26th-ranked defensive rating.

“We have really good defenders,” Mitchell said. “But we’ve got to learn how to play as a team defensively. I mean, it’s a new group, so you don’t expect us to click like that. I think the preseason [practices] were really good and training camp was really good. We just got to put it together in the game.

“I feel like in practice we’re doing a really good job, but we got to put it together in the game. We’re all really good individual defenders. And I think that sometimes we get lost in how good the defender is. So we kind of don’t help as much. We think he got it. But it’s a team game for a reason.”

The Heat knows its defense must be sharp for Wednesday’s regular-season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Kaseya Center. The Timberwolves, led by the dynamic backcourt pairing of Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball, are expected to feature one of the highest-scoring offenses in the NBA this season.

“We’ve been working at it, and we know that we’ll need our defense being at its best version on Wednesday,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We have a team coming in that can put points on the board in a similar way to how we can. They’re a running team. They’re a very good pick-and-roll team, very good isolation team, so they can do it in a lot of different ways. We’ll get our defense right and ready for Wednesday night.”

Getting healthy

Every player on the Heat’s roster was able to go through practice Monday. That’s a good sign for Heat guards Pelle Larsson (illness) and Dru Smith (right calf strain) in terms of their availability for Wednesday’s regular-season opener after both missed time this preseason.

“They both practiced today. So they’re trending that way,” Spoelstra said Monday when asked whether Larsson and/or Smith will be available for Wednesday’s opener. “We’ll see. But yeah, they went through a very demanding practice. … That’s a good sign.”

This and that

▪ Adebayo welcomes the higher expectations surrounding this new-look Heat roster following the offseason addition of Antetokounmpo: “It’s good we have expectations. I feel like we lost that the last couple years of people thinking we’re going to be below .500, not a lot of people expecting us to win. That just brings good energy in our locker room that we feel like we can win.”

Meanwhile, Mitchell said he doesn’t pay attention to the outside noise.

“Other people’s opinion don’t matter,” Mitchell said. “They have their own opinion. They have their own perception on who we are. They’re not in the gym with us. They haven’t been in practice. So it is what it is. I don’t care.”

▪ Spoelstra has an idea of what the Heat’s rotation will look like for the opener, but he has made it clear that the rotation will “be fluid” throughout the season because of the Heat’s depth.

“Our depth, like I’ve said, is a big strength of ours,” Spoelstra emphasized. “We’ll be utilizing it throughout the course of the season, which means guys will have their opportunities, and they understand.”