The Miami Heat have a big offseason ahead, but let’s still review what happened this season! To continue with our Miami Heat player review series, we delve into 6-foot-10 wing Nikola Jovic!
Past Player Reviews:
- Bam Adebayo
- Simone Fontecchio
- Myron Gardner
- Tyler Herro
- Kasparas Jakucionis
- Jaime Jaquez Jr.
- Keshad Johnson
Brief Overview:
2025-26 stats (47 games):
- 7.3 PPG
- 3.3 RPG
- 2.2 APG
- 36.6 FG%
- 43.8 eFG%
- 48.0 TS%
It was a bad season for Jovic — very bad. Marred by more injury and inconsistency, he had career lows across the board. His defense took another jump, but his poor offense negated any growth elsewhere. Jovic only played in 47 games after signing a brand-new four-year extension, where he did nothing to justify his worth, even though it originally looked like a bargain.
Let’s examine his poor season a little further, shall we?!
Numbers to note:
26.9 – 3-point shooting percentage
Perhaps the most damning statistic from Jovic’s disappointing season was his 3-point shooting. He shot just 26.9 percent from 3-point range on 3.6 attempts; over his first three seasons, he was a 37.0 percent shooter on 3.8 attempts. He took north of 53 percent of his attempts from deep with career lows in effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage.
Mechanically, he needs to work on his shot release. His low release, paired with abnormal upper body mechanics, hinders his ability to create arc, cratering his efficiency. I’m guessing his shooting will be a critical part of his offseason, which he must improve to not only justify his new contract, but also be a consistent rotation player.
47 – Games Played
At the time of his extension, the only real concern to me was his availability — or lack thereof. He’s never played more than 47 games in a single season in four years. That’s a red flag if I’ve ever seen one. That trend cannot continue moving forward.
0.82 – points allowed in isolation defensively
If there’s one area of growth that Jovic has experienced, it’s defensively, specifically in space. And the numbers back that up. In isolation (one-on-one), Jovic surrendered only 0.82 points per possession — the second-best mark on the team, behind only Andrew Wiggins (0.81). He finished in the 73rd percentile in isolation defense, allowing players to shoot just 34.8 percent from the floor with a 38.0 effective field goal percentage, according to NBA.com’s Synergy tracking data.
Best Game?
Jovic’s best was, unequivocally, his 29-point performance against the Portland Trail Blazers. Unfortunately, it was one of only a few encouraging performances offensively from him this season. But he shot 10-of-16 from the floor and 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, adding nine rebounds, six assists, two steals and one block across 31 minutes.
What’s next?
For Jovic, it’s back to the drawing board.
His brand new four-year, $62.4 million extension kicks in next season. He’s currently under the poison pill, so it makes hard to trade him before the new year. His value is at an all-time low, so he’s not a very attractive asset to begin with. The 21-year-old will account for 9.8 percent of the cap next year at $16.2 million, followed by 8.6, 8.3 and 8.5 percent over the next four years, respectively.
He’s still young, but he had the worst season that anyone would have been able to script. For him, he’ll have to develop a fresh new mindset and continue to find ways to adapt to the Heat’s new offense while being impactful defensively.
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Same author telling everyone that Jovic’s extension was a bargain…there is a clear reason Jovic doesn’t get minutes and it’s not just his injury history. He is downright unplayable in close games. Errant passes, horrible shot selection, gets easily lost in transition defense. By your own admission, his only redeemable stat is his defense and that doesn’t even tell the whole story. Soon puts Jovic in the safest defensive position within his 2-3 zone so the other guys can help mask his deficiencies. If MIA played a true man defense, his individual defensive stats would look much worse.
Its like Tyler Johnson all over again except Jovic isn’t nearly as fun to watch
Looking at the Knicks and 76ers minn and spurs and just getting jealous. All
Those star players and athletes yet around here we prop up Tyler jjj pelle etc etc yet a guy like Shannon who maybe a jag but has really played well last couple of games vs Denver and last night vs SA. Drafted 27th in 24 draft wow
I wouldn’t want any player from NY and Philly but Brunson, Maxey and Hart. Funny enough, those are 33, 21 and 30 draft picks.
ny or phily btw.u find great players everywhere in all sports greatest chance higher the better.of course wemby ant cade lebrons alll #1s .michael jordan wasnt a #1 tom brady 6th rnd.heat need a better gm but its a family biz.
Kat Mitchell Bridges, everybody wants him to take over but can’t because of ballhog Brunson. Edgecome Drummond for Philly but sure keep hyping up the Tyler herros of the world
Brunson is the best player on NYK and one of the best in the Eastern Conference
PHI is the #25 rebounding team in the league this year and gets worse at DREB% with Drummond on the court. Like with Ware the individual rebounding numbers don’t tell the story. Drummond would not solve the Heat’s need for a backup big at all
Not too many folks around here hyping up Herro. You’re beating a dead horse.
O.G. and Evercrombe aren’t bad.
Pelle was drafted #44 in same year. Who do you think is better? Who would you rather have on your team? Why?
lebrons a 15pt dog tonight wheres d wade these days
I watched that video above, his best game. A good example, how good he can be, if everything goes his way.
Anyway, is it what is it. He stinks right now. His contract signing looks like a bust .
The following should be done till new year.
-Niko needs to work on his inner game and 3p shooting during summer.
-He needs to play summer league heavy minutes.
-He needs to take some counselling to get his mind right.
-Heat should play him heavy minutes till the end of December no matter results.
-Everybody should pray to stay healthy.
-Trade him after that, if there is an opportunity.
…should play him some heavy minutes until the end of December…in Sioux Falls or until he gets his head and his mojo back. Heat should have done that this year but they are all too stubborn.
they did he sukd sm
Could be done last year, when he was on rookie contract, camouflaging his struggles into injury recovery or getting to the game speed.
Not this year. If you send a 16 mill/year contract player into G league, its like admitting that’s not worth that money (or any money).
There is no way around, the only way to get something from this disaster is to play him heavy minutes in NBA and hope for the best.
A series of 15-20 solid games should makes him valuable enough, to convince some fool to bite.
admit your mistake and move on how many chances u need.jjj was very good when he burst on to the scene.then faded.niko has never shown consistent good play ever.id rather give kj those minutos or a newby
Then you have 4 year/64 mill problem on the bench. Basically another Rosier.
How do you suggest Miami move on?
Without the extension for the next 4 years he would be a good buy low in a trade. The talent didn’t go away last year but that was as bad of a year as possible after signing the extension and his comments showed a lack of maturity. Agreed that barring injury there is no way a team would ever send one of its higher paid players to the g-league, would be a slap in the face and would probably compound mental struggles/lack of confidence.
Better to force him to grow up and earn his salary in Sioux Falls now than regret paying him $62.4M over the next 4 years.
He needs a swift kick in the @$$! What better way than to humble him and force him to play how Miami wants him to play not how he sees himself as a player.
The choice is his. He can either grow a couple and dare himself to be all he can be or sit at the end of the bench whining like a spoiled brat. Time for him to grow tf up!
gn rc lets go heat
Heat, #1 always for me.
u look at these great teams and your throwing out niko pelle jaco jjj of the world lifes not fair thanks for nothing pat
You are comparing appleas and oranges.
San Antonio has five players drafted in the top 5: Wemby #1, Harper #2, Johnson #3, Castle #5, Fox #5, plus at least 5 other lottery picks. They tanked to get there.
Pelle #44, Niko #27, JaKo #20, Jaquez #18
The Heat got there by going whale hunting and failing and ending up mediocre.
Thank you for telling it like it is!
hes the best poster on the internet for heat stuff no doubt .do u want to go 10 years of mediocre to crape bball and then be really good?
That won’t happen.
ok were on year 3 now
For the last 2, you’ve stated “we can beat anyone in the east “ so I don’t know what you’re talking about. If we had traded Butler in February 2024 when he was dragging his dogging, pouting self, we’d already be on the way back up.
theyd still be irrelevant til they got wemby.one player changes org.harper johnson castle vasel not big time needle movers.find the next d wade in draft or find the next lebron fa.trade w/o a ss doesnt matter who u draft.u put bam on spurs and wemby on heat who wins.one friggin franchise changer needed its like a franchise qb in football
As the playoffs go on, the vanishing of the white man becomes ever more apparent. The Knicks have none (they let Kolek off the bench in mop up duty). Sixers have none. San Antonio has Kornet as a maligned reserve, no one else plays. The Wolves, only an injured player and guys who don’t see the court. Detroit, our Dunc, who is playing well, and Huerter, who is hurt, but seldom plays anyway. The last three teams do play some white players, but none have five in the rotation like the Heat, and maybe six when they force the guy this article is about into the line up because we pay him so much and can’t get rid of him. And that’s another issue, the difficulty of unloading players certain players because very few people in the league want these guys. That’s just reality.
But, think about it, five of the eight teams remaining, rotations nine players deep, forty five players, there is only Dunc, Kornet, and the hurt Dante. And people on this site get upset when I say the Heat is too white. Mind you, I don’t say we should have no whites. I like an integrated team if everyone contributes as it’s nice for everyone and good for the sport. But, five whites in your rotation?- that is so out of step with the league it’s a statistical anomaly. Are we living in an alternate universe down here?
exactly pats stuck in the 60s im stuck in the 70s though.just way it is like my 70s rock long hair and johnny carson baretta kojak mannix i dream of jeannie all in the family etc.those were the days ty archie and the 70s
Boy the way Glenn Miller played…
I strongly believe in one of those days creatures from space jam will invade the earth. That’s the universe I live in.
That’s cool, I just learned how to play the song Across the Universe on guitar. But, it was harder to get the lyrics down than learn the music.
Great song. Yes, that Johns mumbling is hard to understand.
I got them down now… Words keep pouring out like gentle rain inside a paper cup. They slither as they wash their way across the universe. Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting thru my opened mind, possessing and caressing me.
And there are two more verses just as hard to remember for my nursing home gig today.
with minn okc spurs theres no way in the next 5 -8 years i will ever meet my buddy rc bisc blvd in july.we might be able to get to finals but it ends there.these are 3 super power teams all with young great players
There is a way, but it may require a bit of tanking.
And you also need luck
If it wasn’t for bad luck, Heat would have no luck at all.
bad luck would be injuries if it wasnt for pat the heat might still be relevant
u live in cali theres a team in broward county that has won 2 last champs and might have been 3 until their 2 ss chucky and barky got hurt before the year started mickeys well aware of that .heats not tanking
A little bit could be referred to as a tankini.
randle was the go to guy with ant hobbled at the end.tough cover julius great handle strong goes left all the time just cant stop him power speed and size
yes yes yes champagne missees gw3 go wolves 1 down 3 to go
antman wtf lazy poass
pls never say bam is better than randle stop it u dontknow ball if u say that
Randall better offense. Bam better defense and rebounder.
randall on wemby he bullied him like a baby bro.didnt even hardly play rudy in second half.u get physical with wemby only way to play him.bam would have no shot vs wemby hes to soft.randalls a better player sm so is kat.alot has to do with bams passive mentality .bam has improved offensively the other two are born scorers
102 98 good guys lets go wolves 1 min left
Didn’t you just write yesterday in no uncertain terms you don’t care who wins? That you’re only a Heat fan?
That was then. Things change.
I HATE THE FN CHEATIN SPURS.TURN OFF THE AC ITS COLD IIN HERE.3 GENERATIONAL PLAYERS WHEN THEY HAVE TOP PICK.i DONT CARE WHO WINS AS LONG AS ITS NOT THE SPURS.
gobert not playing wemby there using randle whos one rough guy
they are roughing wemby id be surprised if he lasted the series,thats the way to play him
this shannon guy is so quick and powerful wow
i dont think any eastern team could beat minn spurs okc just to athletic and skilled
95 86 good guys go wolves 4 30 mins left
antman warming up great to see
72 69 end of 3 antman no factor
go wolves go wolves 70 69 cheaters
a team cant get admiral duncan wemby just very very fishy look at the sorry teams wash charl atl each one should of had one but no the cheating spurs get them.worse team picks first thats the way it needs to be
Mr Silly Conspiracy strikes again. Moon landing, anyone?
just pisses me off rc my generals couldnt land one lol
kornett repping the vanillas in minn spurs series.go big guy
shannon is a blur pat prefers jacos pelles jjjs of the world
ant in def not 100%
wemby 8 10 8 .dude doesnt even have to jump to block shots.
this jaden mcdanels some good looking player u add ant and dasomu both out with randle rudy believe minn best team in nba
old france vs new france adv wemby
antman still hobbled dam go wolves f the cheatin spurs.turned off ac btw
Everyone who thinks Miami is one ss away from competing with Knicks, Spurs, Thunder, Lakers, OKC, TWolves raise your hands. Now check yourself into a mental hospital.
The Heat got here because Riley kept trading the future for temporary gratification. This is what mediocrity looks like and will continue to look like as long as the Arisons and Riley continue settling for a shot at a playoff spot rather than a chance for a championship.
Time to scrap what doesn’t work and do what does. Lottery picks this year and next and trade players that aren’t part of the future for young players and picks. In other words……………… R-E-B-U-I-L-D!
the heat are here because jimmy quit on us also got old.wash has had lottery picks for a decade where are they now.there arent many generational players via draft lately.ant wemby cade maybe flagg.not ez to get sm.i know a greek is still a top 5 player.we have alot of 3s and 4s need a real stud to lead us.lets say u put wemby on the heat where would u say we stand.adam rigged the lotto for popcheatic
Your extreme jealousy is showing. Pretty embarrassing.
pls explain jealousy of what
we need a ss had one in jimmy he quit
Don’t fool yourself. Miami would need more than Wemby to compete for a ring.
fa fa fooling im a big def leppard fan u?.not so sure about that we will never find out.u cant get a layup on the dude.hes gonna win multiple champ.its all about him.antman gonna win a few in the coming years.sga got a few more.theres no room for us for us next5-8 years lets be real guys.maybe get to finals at best
what if we added greek and derozan would that do it for u less bam herro
It would help, but not ensure Heat could even get out of the East, much less win a championship. Plus who (players) and what (picks) would Heat need to give up in return.
watching greek for 82 games with e reids call and rcs homer posts ill take that .and with your recaps its great to be a greek heat fan
A slaughter at the Garden. But, it’s only one game. Still, they stopped both Maxey and Embiid. Not easy to do.
series ova after maxey and hobbled embid who can t move not enough. annonoby hart bridges great support cast for jb and kat,think phily might win one game.
talking about bigs that cant guard embid is head of class.
oubre grimes weak links they could use a jjj wigg powell type
does anybody still think bams 3rd best center lol?
is lowry hurt he never plays .playoffs think he can help no?
Hmmm, I suspected there may be a few comments on this thread.
he was very very average when they gave him a ridiculous contract.we should not be mad at niko hes trying hard its not like he loafing but we should be mad at the ahole that gave him the contract
Exactly. That mistake was egregious.
Sometimes the adage don’t say anything if you have nothing nice to say applies.
doesnt apply when talking about niko and pat
Jovic…the bait for Jokic. We’ll see.
Story of the Mia heat a “wait and see” we’ll get em next year team
when your void a ss theres nothing to wait and see about.with prime jimmy it was wait and see.with the big 3 it was just see and enjoy
Maybe Niko will find his mojo. We’ve got plenty of time. We should start him and play him no matter what because we can’t afford to waste that money.
thats bball suicide sort of like dunc and ty on floor at same time
if your tanking yes.fins paid tua 50 mil eventually had to bench him
Sarcasm.
This maybe the last but…
You don’t hope, wish better things for the future anymore for this team?
I wish, but instead he will be bait for an injury prone star player that doesn’t play over 50 games yearly. Take your pick, they’re tons of them young and old.
According to Spotrac Jovic’s trade restriction expires July 1. Jovic as salary matching in a Giannis trade would be ideal but Miami would probably have to include more assets (my guess).
Jovic’s defense 1 v 1 not being bad was a good sign – thought he looked good guarding on perimeter, but not good in help defense – and he has good positional size. Thought his body language all year was bad and his comments blaming the offense and coaching for his lack of playing time stood out.
theres not one positive u can say about niko last year every player deserves 5 years of chances
Team has a bleak future because of not wanting to tank. I can’t name one team in the east that Mia will be better than next year
Brooklyn, Washington, Chicago, Milwaukee
Not sure about the last three.
All those teams clearly lack talent compared to Miami
Washington – tanking team that added Trae and AD in salary dump trades, AD likely to be traded again
Chicago – tanking team hiring new FO and coach
Milwaukee – Giannis likely to be traded, even with Giannis playing they were still worse than Miami last year
Maybe the Washington Generals. Maybe.
“Running it back” hasn’t worked. “Small Ball” hasn’t worked. “Run & Gun” offense hasn’t worked (without incorporating a strong pick & roll/dribble drive half-court offense as well).
The Heat went 0-13 against the Celtics, Raptors, and Magic this season. All 3 were just eliminated in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, That should tell us all we need to know about how far Miami needs to go to become competitive again. A little tweaking won’t cut it. I think the Arisons, Riley Spo and all know it. The fans sure seem to.
Good point. We can only watch from the sidelines sadly.
Miami had a winning record in regular season vs the 4 teams left, NYK, CLE, PHI, DET – 8-6. Regular season W-L record isn’t something to draw conclusions from.
Got to admit that’s pretty good rebuttal. It’s funny how matchups matter. For some reason we gave Detroit a lot of trouble. But, even though the 8-6 record is also true, the 0-13 record seems more telling. There are times when competing stats have to be parsed out for the greater validity.
0-13 vs ORL, BOS, TOR – the Toronto losses matter the most imo
0-5 vs ORL – losses of 4, 1, 9, 9, and 4. Total point differential for ORL was only +27 over five games. Miami season record vs Orlando could easily have been 2-3 or 3-2. Not a believer in Orlando as a great clutch team, although they always play Miami well. Their offense this year was all about hitting difficult shots and they did that vs Miami.
0-4 vs BOS – losses of 13, 5, 2, 16. Total for BOS +36 over 4 games, which included the blowout loss in April. Season W-L record vs BOS could easily have been 2-2 if those 5 and 2 point game had gone the other way
0-4 vs TOR – this was the big one. No game was closer than 10 points and TOR was +71 over 4 games. Miami’s offense couldn’t create any advantages against Toronto’s defense. This is the main result that matters, how does Miami fix this.
In the 2025-2026 NBA regular season, the Heat struggled against top-tier competition, finishing with an 8-15 overall record against the top 4 teams in the Eastern Conference (6-9) and Western Conference (2-6) for a winning percentage of .348. Does that help?
Again, regular season record with no context is not very useful and doesn’t prove anything. MIN was 8-13 against those same teams (.380). NYK was 9-8, barely above .500.
Not many teams in the league per year are going to have a winning record against the best teams in the league, and then how useful is that regular season record in projecting going forward in the playoffs? MIN was 1-3 in the regular season vs Denver before round 1 this year.
It feels like you are picking stats to prove your fixed conclusion that the Heat are a bad team that needs to tank. Whether that is the playoff sweep last year, the 0-5 vs ORL, 0-13 etc.
Those results are just a handful of games, they matter but the conclusion is that the Heat weren’t a top contender either last year or this year, a result that was expected (Vegas gave the Heat only a 1.9% chance to win the East this year before the season started). But they don’t “prove” anything fixed or permanent going forward.
we did beat nyk det maybe even cleveland.one brunson type player away from competing with the big boys.the diff between our best player and a ss is like the size of the grand canyon
Follwing are excerpts from YARDBARKER article May 4, 2026 entitled:
Heat’s Pat Riley hints at bigger role for young guys, keeps door open to trading pick
As Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald noted, Riley circled back more than once to the idea that Heat coach Eric Spoesltra may need to loosen the reins a bit with younger players. Not bench them at the first mistake. Not expect them to be finished products right now. “Even if it costs you during the regular season, you got to play it through their bad times,” Riley said. “They’re not the top five picks in the draft.”
The Heat have tried to thread the needle between development and winning for years, but this sounded like a nudge toward patience, even if it comes with some bumps along the way.
At the same time, Riley didn’t exactly shut the door on going star hunting. He acknowledged the team’s lottery pick, projected around No. 13, could be in play if the right deal presents itself. The key qualifier was just as telling.
He made it clear he’s not interested in taking on what he called “damaged goods.”
So there it is. Develop the young guys more freely. Stay ready to strike if a real difference-maker becomes available. Same Heat philosophy, just said a little louder this time.
NOTE: Riley “not interested in taking on damaged goods” sounds like it eliminates players with injury histories, such as Ja Morant, Kahwi Leonard and Tyler Herro.
Giannis not yet damaged goods? Or just playing it maybe
Riley says a lot of things but shows little consistency in seeing anything thru. In the recent past, it’s been mostly just lip service and excuses for not getting much accomplished. It will be interesting to watch him this summer as we need to make some big changes and his fallback move is often to stand Pat.
Miami has 3 options:
Pathetic. The most overpaid NBA player in history based on production. Has only proven he is not a NBA caliber player in any way, shape or form. Another horrible decision by Heat to extend his contract with no basis that will haunt Heat for the length of contract. Has negative trade value currently…but does carry a negative victim type attitude into the off season. Hope I’m wrong…but how did this guy impersonate a basketball player for so long?
Everyone deserves another chance. 2025-2026 was bad in general for the Heat, considering the team didn’t make the playoffs.
Even though I’ve been critical of Jovic, I still think he has potential to turn into a good rotation player. He needs to get his head together, before he can ever get his game together. One way for him to get both together is if he could be mentored by Denver’s Nikola Jokic. They played well together for Serbia last summer.
I proposed a trade of Herro, Jovic and a pick for Jamal Murray yesterday. If Jovic can show some sign of coming out of his funk, I can see that trade happening at some point in the not-too-distant future.
If Jovic can fully recover from his bad year, the way Jaquez did, I can see him being able to earn his contract salary if he stays with the team. The Heat sure could use him if he gets his mojo back.
2026-2027 MIP 😉
Anything is possible. I hope for his sake and Miami’s that he overcomes his current funk and gets his mojo back. If not, we may be looking back at Uncans contract as a stroke of genius in comparison.