The Miami Heat’s uneven start has plenty of moving parts, but Andrew Wiggins has become one of the clearest pressure points.
Through nine games, the veteran forward is putting up 8.6 points on 40.8 percent shooting, along with 3.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 25.9 minutes as a starter. For a player who has long made his living as one of the league’s better two-way wings, that kind of production stands out for all the wrong reasons.
Wiggins has been lumped into the broader adjustment period around Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose presence has changed the way Miami’s offense operates. The Heat are still working through the growing pains of fitting pieces around Antetokounmpo’s style, and Wiggins’ numbers have dipped right along with that process.
On the Heat Collective podcast, Ethan Skolnick of Five Reasons Sports raised a sharper concern about what might be going on with Wiggins.
"There are some around the NBA who don't think he really loves basketball," he said. "This has happened before when he's gotten a contract. Maybe he's lost a little bit of passion for [basketball]."
That’s a notable line of thought considering Wiggins’ offseason decision. He opted into a player option worth $30.17 million for this season and then signed a two-year, $33.83 million extension that includes a $17.32 million player option for the 2028-29 season. He could have tested free agency for more money.
Last season, Wiggins gave Miami much more to work with. He averaged 15.4 points while shooting 41.4 percent from three, plus 4.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.1 steals and a block in 30.3 minutes per game. He played in 68 games and started all of them.
That kind of production in a contract year would have drawn plenty of interest elsewhere. Instead, Wiggins chose to remain with the Heat in hopes of chasing a championship.
For Miami, the challenge now is getting him back to that level. The offense will naturally ebb and flow with Antetokounmpo dominating the ball, but the defensive end is supposed to be the steady part - the area Wiggins can control no matter what the offense looks like.
The bigger picture is still simple: the Heat need to get to .500, and they haven’t done it yet. After Thursday’s 120-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center in San Francisco, the road trip became a missed opportunity. Miami heads back out Sunday in Northern California to face the Sacramento Kings, who have only one win through nine games.
In Other News...
Heat Suddenly Have A Lineup Debate Fans Never Expected
The Heats uneven opening has already pushed Erik Spoelstra into a familiar kind of early-season search, and this one is centered on how to get more reliable production around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo. Miami is off to a 3-6 start, and the lack of consistent help has made every rotation decision feel a little heavier than usual. Amid that frustration, Pelle Larsson has emerged as one of the more interesting names in the mix after showing better shooting and assist numbers than he did a year ago.
Larssons rise has been enough to spark real talk about whether Spoelstra might be tempted to move him into the starting lineup, even if the evidence is still coming from a small sample. For a team trying to stop the slide and rediscover some balance, the idea is less about making a splash than finding a five-man group that can actually stabilize possessions and support the stars more cleanly. The Heat do not need a headline-grabbing fix so much as a workable one, and this is one lineup question they probably did not expect to be asking so soon. [Read more 🡒]
Heat Roster Debate Is Heating Up After Miamis Rough Start
Miamis rough start has put a spotlight on more than just the box score, with the conversation around the Heat now spilling into how the roster is being viewed from the outside. The latest NBA 2K ratings have become a talking point because they mirror the uneven feel of the season so far, with established names like Bam Adebayo and Klay Thompson landing in different places as the team tries to find its footing.
Davion Mitchell has been one of the more notable risers, a sign that his impact is being noticed even as the bigger picture remains unsettled. For a Heat group still searching for consistency, the ratings debate is less about a video game number than what it says about who is driving the team forward and who still has room to climb. [Read more 🡒]
Heat Slow Start Keeps Pointing To Three Problems Spoelstra Must Fix
The Heats uneven start has left Erik Spoelstra staring at a familiar kind of early-season puzzle: a team that can look organized in stretches, then drift into the same trouble spots that keep showing up on both ends of the floor. At 3-6, Miami has not been able to string together enough consistent offense or defense to settle in, and the numbers point to a few specific areas where the margin for error has been too thin.
Miami has been efficient when it does use pick-and-roll action, but it has not leaned on it often enough, and the spacing around those possessions has not always helped. The other issues are just as obvious, with spot-up jumpers producing too little and opponents finding too much success from three-point range. For a team that expects to tighten up as the season goes on, those are the kinds of problems that can keep a slow start from turning into something more manageable. [Read more 🡒]