All U Can Heat has launched Heat Hierarchy, a weekly ranking of Miami Heat players that starts with a preseason-style look at the 2026-27 roster. The exercise puts Tre Donaldson in focus as one of three two-way players and suggests he has the clearest route to climb the board.
That matters now because the rankings are built around the upcoming season, not the one already in the books. They include injured players unless the injury is season-ending, and they fold in G League and prior team work for newcomers, which gives the list a broader view of who might matter when the year starts.
Donaldson is the name to watch because the Heat are incredibly thin at point guard. If Dru Smith’s injury problems keep him off the floor, Donaldson could get chances that were not available on opening night. He was already a featured player for the Heat’s Summer League team, and he is expected to get plenty of reps in the G League, which makes his path less about hype than about available minutes.
The rest of the ranking shows how crowded and uncertain the bottom of the roster still is. Vlad Goldin has been with the Heat for three seasons, but he has only nine NBA appearances, and all of them came in garbage time. Keshad Johnson has appeared in 48 regular-season games and Erik Spoelstra clearly believes in him to some extent, yet there appears to be no space for him in the rotation right now, even with Nikola Jovic mentioned as a possible opening later.
Nick Richards sits in a different kind of limbo. He will probably make the opening night roster, but his spot is hanging on by a thread, which makes the final cut look less like a formality than a live decision. That is the value of the Heat Hierarchy idea: it turns a preseason list into a running test of who can actually earn minutes, and for Miami Heat players on the fringe, the next few weeks may matter more than the ranking itself.
