Who's outside the rotation for the Miami Heat?

No more preseason style of basketball. No more G-League guys closing down the stretch. No more Norman Powell, Bam Adebayo, and company sitting on the bench for the majority of games.

It's officially time for regular season basketball. This time of year, in the leadup days to game one of the season, it's all about making hard decisions. That includes cutting players to shave down your roster following preseason, as the Heat did with Precious Achiuwa and a few others who will be sent to Sioux Falls.

But more importantly, that includes deciding who makes sense for the condensed rotation beginning Wednesday night in Orlando against the Magic.

Kicking things off with the starting lineup, even though Erik Spoelstra refuses to give up that information until 30 minutes before tip-off prior to Wednesday night's match-up, that decision is one of the few that have already been made. Davion Mitchell, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, Nikola Jovic, and Bam Adebayo will get things started for the 2025-2026 Miami Heat.

They have a defensive trio to potentially limit things at all three levels, while relying heavily on Powell and Jovic to hold down the offense through speed and shooting.

But when the bench starts getting unloaded halfway through the first quarter, that's when the decisions start becoming more interesting. The sophomore buddy system of Pelle Larsson and Kel'el Ware will get plenty of time next to each other off the bench, as they most likely enter for Wiggins and Adebayo.

Dru Smith seems to have solidified himself into rotation play just based off his health and Spo's trust in him to run the offense. Jaime Jaquez Jr was listed as one of the camp question marks coming in, but a strong preseason no longer leaves him in that space. They need his on-ball and attacking skill-set without Tyler Herro.