Ira Winderman explained why he thinks it would be in the best interest of the Miami Heat to start Nikola Jovic at power forward to begin the 2024-25 campaign.
“Then it gets interesting for the Heat on a number of levels,” Winderman said. wrote In response to a question about what would happen if Erik Spoelstra decided not to start Jovic. “First of all, I listed Nikola Jovic as a starter because I’m not sure I see another option on this team. I still think it would be too early for Kel’el Ware. Haywood Highsmith would be an undersized player. He wouldn’t really maximize Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s skill set. And it seems like the Heat and Erik Spoelstra are past the Bam Adebayo-Kevin Love pairing in the starting five. But… if the Heat are going in that direction, then I’m not sure where Nikola Jovic would fit in Erik Spoelstra’s rotation, given the amount of wing options he has on the small-man pairings. So I think you should start Nikola early in the season to get the best read on your roster. Of course, that might be the goal of camp.”
Winderman believes Ware doesn’t have the experience to start right away with the Heat, and you can see where he’s coming from. Ware is a rookie who has yet to play an NBA regular-season game, though he’s only a year younger than Jovic (20) and played at a high level on both sides of the ball during Miami’s time in the Las Vegas Summer League.
Jovic, who played power forward for the Heat last season, started a lot of games during the 2023-24 regular season, his second season as a pro. After all, he started 38 of the 46 games he played in as a sophomore and averaged 7.7 points on 45.2% shooting and 39.9% from three-point range to go along with 4.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.
The 21-year-old has also been in Miami’s starting five for each of the Heat’s five games in the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Jovic’s play has been one of the few positives to take away from the team’s run to the playoffs, given that the Heat have been completely outclassed by the Boston Celtics in the first round.
Against the 2024 NBA champions, Jovic was a consistent 3-point shooter and rebounder. He averaged 4.4 3-point attempts per game and connected on 40.9 percent of those attempts, an impressive combination of efficiency and volume.
Additionally, Jovic averaged 6.6 rebounds per game, which was second among all Heat players behind Adebayo, who averaged a team-best 9.4. The lion’s share of Jovic’s rebounds were defensive rebounds, however, as he averaged just 0.4 offensive rebounds per game.
Only time will tell who the Heat will line up as their starting power forward when the 2024-25 regular season begins, but Jovic stands out as a legitimate contender to earn that starting spot.
