SoFla Guide Editors
The NBA’s general managers think Giannis Antetokounmpo is the offseason move that will matter most. They just don’t seem to think it will matter much for the Eastern Conference standings. In the 2026-27 NBA GM Survey, released October 15, 53% of GMs picked Giannis as the acquisition expected to make the biggest impact, according to NBA.com, yet the Miami Heat pulled only 2% of the weighted voting points in the East and tied Indiana for seventh.
Yes, seventh. With Giannis. Grab a cafecito, because this one takes some explaining.
The survey math that has Miami scratching its head
Here is how the East question worked, per NBA.com: GMs were asked to pick their top four teams in the conference, and the results were weighted. The New York Knicks led the way with 32% of the weighted points and 60% of the first-place votes.
Miami did not get a single first- or second-place vote. That put them in a tie with Indiana for seventh.
So the same room of executives that said Giannis will have the biggest impact of any player who changed teams this summer also looked at his new team and mostly left it off their top-four ballots. Make it make sense, GMs.
NBA.com noted this was the 25th annual edition of the survey, with all 30 teams represented anonymously. Nobody has to put their name on a Heat snub, which is probably how 29 other front offices prefer it.
Giannis gets his respect, just not in a Heat uniform
The individual numbers for Giannis were plenty kind. NBA.com reported he received 70% of the votes for best power forward in the league, a landslide at his position. In the overall MVP voting, he tied for second at 15%, just behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at 16%.
But look at the first-place MVP ballots and the picture shifts. According to NBA.com and Hot Hot Hoops, Giannis received zero first-place MVP votes, while Victor Wembanyama led that category with 77%. The Spurs, meanwhile, were the most popular pick to win the NBA championship, per NBA.com.
Read all of that together and you get the GM consensus in one sentence: Giannis is a dominant player who will change Miami’s season, but the league’s power center has moved west, and the East’s top tier still runs through New York, Philly and Cleveland.
Why the doubt? Context helps
Some of the hesitation is easy to understand. The Knicks won the 2025-26 championship, ending a 53-year drought. GMs voting in mid-October are working off what they saw last spring, and last spring the Heat were watching the playoffs from home.
The trade itself landed on the eve of the 2026 NBA Draft, the night of June 22, after a prolonged saga in which the Boston Celtics were the other finalist. That is a late addition to build an entire identity around, and the survey came out just over two weeks into the preseason.
Still, the people inside the building are not short on confidence. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, speaking to the South Florida Sun Sentinel as relayed by Yahoo Sports and Heat Nation, described the vision for pairing Giannis with Bam Adebayo this way: “It’s about playmaking, it’s about cutting, it’s about Giannis sometimes playing off the ball and Bam making the play.”
Adebayo was even more direct in an ESPN interview carried by Yahoo Sports. “To put us on the same team, well now you got to deal with him in transition and then on the other end, you’ve got to try and score,” he said. “That’s where the nightmare comes in.”
What’s next for the new-look Heat
The early returns have been encouraging, if small. Giannis made his preseason debut for Miami on October 3 against Toronto in Quebec City, a 129-105 Heat win. Training camp opened September 29 at Florida Atlantic University.
The GM Survey is a snapshot of opinion, not a standings projection, and Miami has an entire regular season to argue the point on the court. Two percent is a tiny number. It is also the kind of number that gets printed out and taped to a locker room wall.
If the Heat are the nightmare Adebayo describes, the league’s GMs may be sleeping on it for now. Check back around April.
