The Miami Heat’s first big roster move after acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo came on Monday.
Hours before the option deadline, Andrew Wiggins exercised his $30.2 million player option, though he also tacked on two additional years for $34 million combined, with cap hits for $16.5M and $17.5M, respectively.
As it currently stands, the Heat have nine players rostered — excluding rookie Ryan Conwell, who’s expected to receive a standard contract in the coming days (or weeks) — and are $20.5 million below the first apron, where they are hard-capped. Thus, they are not privy to their full $15.0 mid-level exception, nor are they able to re-sign Norman Powell (unless he takes a massive pay cut), barring any other roster moves.
But one player could help create more flexibility.
How Nikola Jovic helps Heat create more flexibility:
There’s no denying that Nikola Jovic had a disappointing season last year. Coming off his most impactful season as a pro in 2024-25, Jovic regressed, averaging 7.3 points and 3.3 rebounds on 36.6 percent shooting and 48.0 percent true shooting.
Jovic signed a four-year, $62 million extension last summer. He will be on the hook for $16.2 million this season, followed by $14.9, $15.1 and $16.2 million the next three seasons, respectively. He won’t exceed 9.8 percent of the salary cap in each of those four seasons, which, on the surface, is very reasonable for the recently turned 23-year-old.
However, Miami will need to either 1.) Offload Jovic or 2.) Find a new home for Bobby Portis, adding further complications to the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade, to re-sign Norman Powell or gain full access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. They could also hope that they acquire something of value in return in a Norman Powell sign-and-trade, assuming he signs with a team without cap space for more than the MLE.
The difficulty of trading Nikola Jovic right now:
How the Heat allocate their funds this summer is quite important.
On the surface, Norman Powell is quite replaceable — more than Wiggins. But the Heat also desperately needs shooting and shot creation. Powell, when healthy, is about as good an option as any realistic target on the open market.
There are pros and cons to every move. That same can be said about moving Jovic.
The pro is extra flexibility under the first apron. However, Miami essentially has nothing to attach to Jovic; they’re bereft of draft capital, owning just one second in 2027 (least favorable of MIA/OKC/SAS/HOU/IND) and own just one conditional first-round pick (2029) over the next seven years.
We aren’t privy to conversations in other front offices. But who is willingly taking on Jovic plus one second-round swap? And why wouldn’t said team try to take advantage of the Heat’s desperation to move off Jovic by potentially demanding, say, Myron Gardner or another low-cost player who would be useful in a different context?
Miami has an incredibly thin margin for error entering free agency. If the Heat decide to move off Jovic, my guess is that it will come when the dust settles around the NBA as free agents find new homes. But that will be much easier said than done with a limited amount of assets to attach to Jovic.
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Team Serbia is scheduled to play Switzerland in a FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers game on July 2, 2026, followed by a matchup against Bosnia & Herzegovina on July 6, 2026. It will be intersting to see how Jovic does.
He is still growing, so no worries. My concern is that too early in his career he has been prone to injuries.His unavailability may deter his potential for growth. Is keeping him for the long term, worth the risk. I doubt so.
u can say jovic is the worse guy to ever play for the heat who has gotten pretty good diet of pt.
Don’t write him off just yet. He is innocent until proven guilty.
He was on a rookie contract until now.
It is premature to write him off until he has an opportunity to earn his salary in 2026-2027.
Best case scenario, he gets his mojo back and plays to his potential and earns his salary.
Worst case scenario, Miami is stuck with a bad contract for the next 4 years.
Jovic’s been bad. But this feels like hyperbole. Daquan Cook played nearly 4 thousand minutes for Miami, and shot less than 40% from the field. Shabazz Napier played 51 games for Miami. There have been plenty of guys who got run and were awful.
Now, Jovic might be the worst player to ever get a contract extension from Miami, but there is still a chance he develops. He’s 1 year and 6 months older than the Heats second round pick Ryan Conwell.
Yeah…the difficulty is that he is not a pro basketball player. Doubtful he could play at the D-1 college level. Can’t shoot, avoids all contact so forget rebounding, turnover machine, slow & awkward, horrible attitude, plays like he’s 6-2 vs whatever he is…just a complete entitled negative asset that has attained zero Heat accomplishments. His contract will be forever one of the worst in the history of sports. Any questions?
no u pretty much see it the way i do.biggest miss with pat.at least unc could shoot pretty good
I think this is a contributor off the bench this year if he can get fixed. If JJJ can comeback from spin moves to nowhere, then Niko can also comeback.
Hard to say. Jaime really had a rough sophomore year, and his turnaround was nothing short of amazing. But, I think Jovic may have an ever steeper hill to climb. We shall see. One thing may work in Niko’s favor is the expectations put on him, on a notably better team, will be less, especially if we keep Portis.
Let’s be honest, it is an extremely bad contract. The Joker makes him look good when they play together off season. Miami both in the Dragon as a tutor for Niko. He is injury prone and unprofessional. He simply doesn’t fit the Heat Culture. It time to part ways, if the Heat are in a win now mode.
The old me would agree whole heartedly. I was the first to label him our weak link, much to the chagrin of a former poster. But the new me only has love and support for our greatly improved team. And if we fill in this team correctly, Niko’s spot, and his salary, will be an impediment, but not anything that holds us back completely. Yes, I believe there is only, maybe a ten percent chance he “finds his mojo” (as if he has any mojo to find). If so, it was a mistake, and a bad one, by the GM I have chosen to forgive because he did something so great that any past recent transgressions melt in comparison. I would rather hope he can give us something cause he’s going to be hard to move. It’s not like we can expect him to give us a break on his salary. So, a worse case scenario is it could be four years of watching his misadventures, but hopefully only in mop up time.
Although the jury is still out, from what I have seen, Jovic is no Jaquez.
Niko came in at like what, 19? Jaime was bout 30, man.
Niko came in 4 years ago with every opportunity to succeed. He should be pretty mature/ripe about now at 23. Que no?
Which is why we are expecting a bounce back this season. But a guy coming over from Europe that young was bound to go through some things. But like everyone knows, it’s put up time.
Jakucionis didn’t have that problem and he was 19.
Expecting may be a little too strong. Hopeful is a better word.
Nice. Keeping things on the q2, bien!
😉