After The Timeout · NBA 2026-27 guide

Eastern Conference · tip-off October 20

Miami Heat

Our win estimate next to the market's, the last three seasons, who came and went, and the rotation we expect.

Our estimate

42 wins

Median of 20,000 simulated seasons. Middle 80%: 36 to 47 wins.

The market

47.8 wins

Where the Kalshi yes price for "wins or more" crosses 50%.

Last season

43-39

2025-26 · net rating +2.2 (13th in the NBA)

Our estimate is 5.4 wins below the market.

Treat the gap as a flag, not a verdict. In backtests on 2024-25 and 2025-26 (60 team-seasons) this kind of estimate missed a team's win total by 8.3 wins on average. Last season's wins pulled toward 41 missed by 9.0. Ratings built from games alone said 43 wins for this team.

Two ways to count wins

Our range against the market

The blue bar is the middle 80% of our simulated seasons. The orange line is the market's win total.

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 47.8 market wins in an 82-game season
Our median 42, middle 80%: 36 to 47 Market 47.8

Where we think they finish in the East

Top 6: 28% Play-in, 7th to 10th: 65% Outside the top 10: 6.6%
Market prices by strikeKalshi, captured Oct 19, 4:38 pm UTC
Wins or moreBidAskMidOur odds
2094¢ 100¢ 97¢ 100%
2594¢ 100¢ 97¢ 100%
3093¢ 100¢ 97¢ 100%
3590¢ 96¢ 93¢ 95%
4080¢ 86¢ 83¢ 71%
4562¢ 65¢ 64¢ 27%
5038¢ 41¢ 40¢ 4%
5521¢ 27¢ 24¢ 0%
603¢ 18¢ 11¢ 0%
650¢ 13¢ n/a 0%

A strike with no bid is treated as unpriced. The market win total is a straight line between the two strikes that straddle 50%.

What the scoreboard said

The last three regular seasons

Ratings are points per 100 possessions. Possessions are estimated from box scores, so treat them as close, not exact. Ranks are out of 30.

2025-26 · 43-39 (17th in wins)

Points per game
120.92nd
Allowed per game
118.522nd
Offensive rating
114.513th
Defensive rating
112.314th
Net rating
+2.213th

2024-25 · 37-45 (20th in wins)

Points per game
110.624th
Allowed per game
110.07th
Offensive rating
112.121st
Defensive rating
111.511th
Net rating
+0.615th

2023-24 · 46-36 (16th in wins)

Points per game
110.126th
Allowed per game
108.43rd
Offensive rating
112.320th
Defensive rating
110.55th
Net rating
+1.816th

Our preseason ratings

Offense
+2.632nd
Defense
+1.8823rd
Net, games only
+0.7515th
Roster value
+0.71

Offense, defense and net are points per game against an average team, fitted on every completed game before tip-off (defense: lower is better). Roster value is the on-court net per 48 minutes of the players on the roster list, weighted by minutes.

Who came and who left

Offseason moves

Built from the DraftKings roster list and 2025-26 box scores. Players who left had at least 500 regular-season minutes here last season.

In (7)

  • Tim Hardaway Jr.from DEN
    26.6 min, 13.5 pts a game
  • Bobby Portisfrom MIL
    24.1 min, 13.7 pts a game
  • Klay Thompsonfrom DAL
    21.7 min, 11.7 pts a game
  • Giannis Antetokounmpofrom MIL
    28.9 min, 27.6 pts a game
  • Nick Richardsfrom CHI
    15.0 min, 5.9 pts a game
2 moredepth and rookies
  • Ryan ConwellRookie / newNo NBA box score on file
  • Tre DonaldsonRookie / newNo NBA box score on file

Out (5)

  • Jaime Jaquez Jr.now with MIL
    28.3 min, 15.4 pts a game
  • Norman Powellnow with CHI
    29.6 min, 21.7 pts a game
  • Kel'el Warenow with MIL
    22.2 min, 11.1 pts a game
  • Tyler Herronow with MIL
    31.2 min, 20.5 pts a game
  • Kasparas Jakucionisnow with MIL
    17.9 min, 6.2 pts a game

The rotation we expect

Top eight by projected minutes

Minutes come from our DFS minutes projection and are not scaled to a 240-minute game. Open a player for three seasons of per-game lines and shooting.

Bam Adebayo C · age 29 · 34.4 projected min 2025-26: 73 g, 20.1 pts, 10.0 reb, 3.2 ast

2025-26 · MIA

73games
32.4min
20.1pts
10.0reb
FG44.2%506/1145
3P31.8%127/400
FT77.8%329/423

3.2 assists a game

2024-25 · MIA

78games
34.3min
18.1pts
9.6reb
FG48.5%540/1113
3P35.7%79/221
FT76.5%251/328

4.3 assists a game

2023-24 · MIA

71games
34.0min
19.3pts
10.4reb
FG52.1%530/1017
3P35.7%15/42
FT75.5%292/387

3.9 assists a game

Pelle Larsson G · age 25 · 30.1 projected min 2025-26: 70 g, 11.4 pts, 3.5 reb, 3.4 ast

2025-26 · MIA

70games
26.5min
11.4pts
3.5reb
FG49.6%277/559
3P32.3%62/192
FT79.7%184/231

3.4 assists a game

2024-25 · MIA

54games
14.5min
4.6pts
1.7reb
FG43.8%89/203
3P33.7%32/95
FT67.2%41/61

1.2 assists a game

2023-24

No regular-season games on file.

Davion Mitchell G · age 28 · 29.5 projected min 2025-26: 70 g, 9.3 pts, 2.7 reb, 6.5 ast

2025-26 · MIA

70games
28.6min
9.3pts
2.7reb
FG49.0%261/533
3P39.5%90/228
FT64.6%42/65

6.5 assists a game

2024-25 · MIA/TOR

73games
27.8min
8.1pts
2.3reb
FG46.8%223/476
3P39.8%84/211
FT69.0%58/84

5.0 assists a game

2023-24 · SAC

72games
15.3min
5.3pts
1.3reb
FG45.2%146/323
3P36.1%57/158
FT71.4%30/42

1.9 assists a game

Giannis Antetokounmpo New here F · age 31 · 27.8 projected min 2025-26: 36 g, 27.6 pts, 9.8 reb, 5.4 ast

2025-26 · MIL

36games
28.9min
27.6pts
9.8reb
FG62.4%373/598
3P33.3%15/45
FT65.0%232/357

5.4 assists a game

2024-25 · MIL

67games
34.2min
30.4pts
11.9reb
FG60.1%793/1319
3P22.2%14/63
FT61.7%436/707

6.5 assists a game

2023-24 · MIL

73games
35.2min
30.4pts
11.5reb
FG61.1%837/1369
3P27.4%34/124
FT65.7%514/782

6.5 assists a game

Andrew Wiggins F · age 31 · 27.3 projected min 2025-26: 68 g, 15.4 pts, 4.8 reb, 2.7 ast

2025-26 · MIA

68games
30.4min
15.4pts
4.8reb
FG47.5%390/821
3P41.4%138/333
FT78.4%127/162

2.7 assists a game

2024-25 · GS/MIA

60games
30.7min
18.0pts
4.5reb
FG44.8%376/839
3P37.4%130/348
FT76.3%196/257

2.6 assists a game

2023-24 · GS

71games
27.1min
13.2pts
4.5reb
FG45.3%353/780
3P35.8%91/254
FT75.1%142/189

1.7 assists a game

Bobby Portis New here F · age 31 · 24.8 projected min 2025-26: 67 g, 13.7 pts, 6.4 reb, 1.6 ast

2025-26 · MIL

67games
24.1min
13.7pts
6.4reb
FG48.8%366/750
3P45.6%135/296
FT70.6%48/68

1.6 assists a game

2024-25 · MIL

49games
25.4min
13.9pts
8.4reb
FG46.6%277/595
3P36.5%65/178
FT83.6%61/73

2.1 assists a game

2023-24 · MIL

82games
24.5min
13.8pts
7.4reb
FG50.8%466/918
3P40.7%100/246
FT79.0%98/124

1.3 assists a game

Tim Hardaway Jr. New here G · age 34 · 23.7 projected min 2025-26: 80 g, 13.5 pts, 2.6 reb, 1.4 ast

2025-26 · DEN

80games
26.6min
13.5pts
2.6reb
FG44.7%348/779
3P40.7%224/550
FT81.1%159/196

1.4 assists a game

2024-25 · DET

77games
28.0min
11.0pts
2.4reb
FG40.6%276/680
3P36.8%168/457
FT85.5%124/145

1.6 assists a game

2023-24 · DAL

79games
26.9min
14.4pts
3.2reb
FG40.2%392/976
3P35.3%211/597
FT85.2%144/169

1.8 assists a game

Nick Richards New here C · age 28 · 21.0 projected min 2025-26: 47 g, 5.9 pts, 5.2 reb, 0.3 ast

2025-26 · CHI/PHX

47games
15.0min
5.9pts
5.2reb
FG51.2%103/201
3P27.8%5/18
FT64.4%65/101

0.3 assists a game

2024-25 · CHA/PHX

57games
22.0min
9.3pts
8.2reb
FG59.1%205/347
3P0.0%0/2
FT74.4%119/160

0.9 assists a game

2023-24 · CHA

67games
26.3min
9.7pts
8.0reb
FG69.1%260/376
3P0.0%0/1
FT73.7%132/179

0.8 assists a game

How to read this

Method and limits

How our estimate is built
  • Our estimate starts from the roster. Each player's on-court net points per 48 minutes (from his most recent full season, pulled toward zero when the sample is small) is averaged by minutes across the roster list, then turned into wins at about 2.9 wins per point of net.
  • That win total is then pushed through the real 2026-27 schedule 20,000 times, using a home win probability for every game, to get the range and the playoff and play-in odds.
  • Ratings built from games alone (6,153 games before October 20) are kept as a comparison. They fade old games over the offseason, which pulls every team toward average.
  • The market number is the wins where Kalshi's "wins or more" price crosses 50%, read off a straight line between strikes five wins apart.
What the estimate does not know
  • Possessions are an estimate from box totals, not tracked possessions.
  • The season simulation uses each game's win probability from the ratings and nothing else: no rating uncertainty, injuries, trades after the cutoff or in-season rating updates, so the 10th-90th percentile band is narrower than a real season's spread.
  • The 2026-27 schedule file lists 1200 games (80 per team on average) rather than 1230. Each team's missing games ([2] per team) are played against an average opponent at a neutral site with no rest terms.
  • Projection method: (d) roster values. In the walk-forward study its hold-out MAE was 8.3 wins (n = 60 team-seasons) against 9.0 for last season's wins regressed toward 41. Typical error is still about 8 wins per team, so treat every number as a wide estimate.
  • Roster values use each player's box-score plus-minus, which is not adjusted for teammates. Players with no box-score history count as average at 10 minutes a game.
  • Ties in the seeding are broken at random; head-to-head and division rules are not applied.
  • Every team has a usable market median.
  • Market median uses the midpoint of the yes bid and ask for each strike and a straight line between the two strikes (5 wins apart) that straddle 0.5; a strike with no bid is treated as unpriced.
  • Rosters are the DraftKings Best Ball player list for draft group 150564, kept only where the player is on his team's current ESPN roster (ESPN team rosters, 2026-10-19): released and departed players are out. Players DraftKings lists as Out are not in the engine's pool, so they have no projected minutes and are not in the top 8; each team's moves block names them.
  • Projected minutes are the engine's per-player estimates from box scores through 2026-04-12; they are not scaled to the team's 240 minutes and do not model new teammates.
  • Box scores start in 2021-22; a player with no box score on file is marked as a rookie or new, which can include veterans returning from abroad. Ages come from the ESPN player directory (2025-26 file) and are missing for players it does not list.
  • This team has 2 games the schedule file does not list yet; they are treated as games against an average opponent.

Data built Oct 19, 2026. Estimates are ours and can be wrong.