Youth movement vs. win now. Heat’s Spoelstra trying to find right balance: ‘He’s trying to adjust’
.JPG "Miami Heat guard Kasparas Jakucionis (25) drives the ball as Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs (4) defends in the first half of their NBA game at the Kaseya Center on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in downtown Miami, Fla.")
The Miami Heat’s main objective over the final six weeks of the regular season is to make the playoffs for the seventh straight year, ideally without needing to take part in the play-in tournament. But the Heat is trying to accomplish that while also continuing to develop its young core that includes seven players on standard contracts who are 25 years old or younger.
It’s a juggling act that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra admits he’s still working on, even as he’s just weeks away from completing his 18th seasons as the team’s head coach.
“I have to do a better job with this group,” Spoelstra said. “We have the potential that we can see. We have the explosiveness, we have the defense. It’s a matter of consistency. And that’s what I’m here for, to be able to help bridge that along with the veterans, to be able to help our consistency. But also to hold the young guys accountable. And we have more of them than we’ve had in recent history, but also develop them and infuse confidence in them. And that’s a fine balance.
“But again, that’s what I’m here for. I want to take that challenge, and I want to be better with that.”
Those seven Heat players on standard contract who are 25 years old or younger are Kasparas Jakucionis (19), Kel’el Ware (21), Nikola Jovic (22), Keshad Johnson (24), Myron Gardner (24), Pelle Larsson (24) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (25).
Jakucionis, Ware, Jovic and Jaquez were Heat first-round draft picks, and Larsson was a Heat second-round draft selection. Johnson and Gardner went undrafted before landing with the Heat.
All seven, except for Johnson, have been in the Heat’s rotation for at least one extended stretch this season, but most of their minutes have fluctuated based on their performance. Spoelstra has made it clear that he won’t gift minutes to them.
“We’re not going to prioritize something over winning,” Spoelstra emphasized. “Winning is going to be the bottom line. Take it or leave it, like it or not, that’s what the Miami Heat is about. We’re competing to win. You have to earn your minutes. We’re not gifting minutes to anyone. We have more young players playing in the rotation than we’ve had in a long time, and that’s this balance that I’m embracing.
“Develop these players, infuse them with confidence, but also hold them accountable to our standard. The standard is not going to change, and we feel that players improve the quickest when there’s an accountability to winning, when they’re not just empty minutes that are being gifted to someone.”
Thursday night’s damaging 124-117 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers at Xfinity Mobile Arena that put the Heat deeper into play-in tournament territory was an example of Spoelstra trying to strike that balance.
Larsson, Jaquez, Ware and Jakucionis all played and were part of the rotation on Thursday, while Gardner and Johnson didn’t play despite being available and Jovic missed his third straight game with low back tightness. But while Jaquez and Larsson each played 30-plus minutes against the 76ers, Jakucuonis logged just 17 minutes and Ware played only 12 minutes (34 seconds alongside Bam Adebayo).
The Heat is now 1-9 this season when Ware plays fewer than 15 minutes.
“We’ve got a really talented young team,” Jaquez said, with the Heat now returning to Miami to begin an eight-game stretch that includes seven games at home on Saturday against the Houston Rockets at Kaseya Center (3:30 p.m., Prime Video). “A lot of guys deserving of time to play. And as a coach, you’ve got to manage it all. It’s a difficult thing, so you try to give him grace. And as far as us, everyone has just got to keep a good attitude and understand that whatever he’s doing, he believes is best for the team. And for us, we just got to come together, especially the players ourselves. We got to pick each other up, hold each other to high standards as well, and encourage and infuse confidence.”
But fluctuating minutes and roles can be a challenge for young players to handle early in their NBA careers.
“You feel like you get to the point where you’re like, ‘OK, I earned it. I think I’m going to play,’” said Jovic, who played as a starter in the Heat’s season opener but has since found himself on the fringes of the rotation amid his rough season and is now sidelined with a back issue. “Then after two games, you’re out of rotation. It’s just so wild, really, really wild where you never know. ... It’s so wild where you’ve got to stay ready and just accept that it is going to be that way.”
What’s that sweet spot for holding young players to a high standard while also allowing them to play through some mistakes and growing pains?
“It’s art, not necessarily science,” Spoelstra said. “But our young guys are getting a lot better. They’re playing and contributing, and that’s exciting. We want our fan base excited about this young group, and we want our team excited about the youthful exuberance that they’re bringing our locker room. And there’s a big upside.
“So we have a ceiling that’s not where our record is right now. I see great potential and great possibilities with our team. We have an explosiveness to us. But we also have some consistency challenges that we’re trying to conquer.”
The Heat is trying to prioritize the development of some of its young players while also trying to avoid the play-in tournament for the first time in four years. The Heat has needed to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons.
The NBA’s play-in tournament features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference, and the Heat enters Friday in eight place in the Eastern Conference. The Heat needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to clinch a playoff spot without needing to take part in the play-in tournament.
“I don’t want to be in that [expletive] no more,” Adebayo said of the play-in tournament after Thursday’s setback in Philadelphia. “We’re better than being in the play-in for the last four years.”
But with more young players logging meaningful minutes for the Heat this season, patience is required from Adebayo, Spoelstra and everybody involved.
“He’s trying to,” Adebayo said when asked if Spoelstra has adjusted his handling of young players this season. “I wouldn’t say he’s completely adjusted, but he’s trying to. He’s trying to adjust. He’s trying to make it work. He’s trying to figure it out. The biggest part of that is him trying it. Because we all know our coach. If something doesn’t work, he’ll scratch it real quick. So it’s good that he’s trying to work at it.”
While the Heat isn’t where it wants to be in the standings, it still has something to play for in the final weeks of the regular season. So as Miami tries to claim one of the East’s top six spots to automatically qualify for the playoffs without needing to be in the play-in tourney, the Heat’s young players will have an opportunity to play in games with some stakes.
“We’re encouraged by all of the young guys that we have in our program,” Spoelstra continued. “They’re getting tangible experience. There’s pressure to their minutes, which I think is a good thing. Not negative pressure. It’s their accountability, their expectations of what we’re trying to do. Not just being given those minutes that some of the other teams do.
“They’re learning how to really make impactful minutes that lead to winning. I love it. I love the challenge of it. The fact that we have so many of the young guys, there’s not many other playoff teams. I don’t think there’s any that can say that they’re playing that many young guys. Maybe OKC. But they’re getting a lot better. And we need that development.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 10:17 AM.
