MIAMI – With a month remaining in a regular season that ends April 14, the question with Nikola Jovic is whether the second-year Miami Heat big man is a stopgap starter or eventual playoff lineup lock.
The uncertainty arguably is more about another lineup component.
With Tyler Herro missing Wednesday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets at Kaseya Center, his ninth consecutive absence and sixth in a row missed with medial tendinitis in his right foot, part of the thinking with Jovic as starter has been to get playmaking and ballhandling from another aspect of the lineup.
For now, Jovic, 20, has been able to open eyes arguably more so than at any previous point since being drafted out of Serbia by the Heat at No. 27 in 2022.
To center Bam Adebayo, a sage 26 by comparison, these past few weeks have been a sort of extended play date.
“The biggest improvement is he’s taking advantage of the opportunity,” Adebayo said, with the Heat next to head out on a four-game trip starting Friday night against the Detroit Pistons. “Sometimes he was in; sometimes he was out of the lineup. He would start some days; he wouldn’t play the next day.
“So being able to get this consistent routine where he’s in the lineup, he’s starting, it’s big for him obviously, to see what he brings to the table.”
Jovic went into Wednesday night having started 10 consecutive appearances. After being held out of six of seven by coach Erik Spoelstra, the only time Jovic had failed to see action entering Wednesday was when he was suspended by the NBA for the Feb. 26 road victory against the Sacramento Kings.
When paired with Adebayo, it has given the Heat dual ballhandlers in the power rotation. Grab the rebound . . . and go.
“In terms of the two-man action between the two of them, will we be running actions with those two guys in particular? I don’t know,” Spoelstra said. “The ball has to go to a lot of different places. The one thing I do know is they both have great skill levels. And it’s almost inverted with us, when two bigs can handle. They both can pass. They both can make plays. They can both finish at the rim. And they both feel very comfortable just being facilitators.
“I think that adds to the diversity of our menu. And Niko also helps us run more, which I like. The head coach likes it. I think the players hopefully like that, if they can get some easy baskets. I would like to get more of that. But his passing and skill level, size, all of those things fit.”
With Love out, missing his seventh consecutive game Wednesday with a bruised right heel, Jovic this week also received time as backup center, something the Heat previously had moved away from.
“Playing center when K-Love is not there, I try to bring what K Love brings,”Jovic said. “Defensively is where I need to be locked in.”
Another factor of playing time has been foul trouble. It is an ongoing adjustment from a much more physical European game.
“It’s hard here,” Jovic said, “because you need to really concentrate on where your body is here on defense. Defensively, you cannot use hands. And if you do that, they start to call those cheap ones. And the cheap ones are really weird. You need to concentrate through the whole play.”
That effort is ongoing.
“He’s soaking up knowledge as much as possible,” Adebayo said. “He’s taking advantage of his opportunity. Obviously he’s a great passer. When you play alongside somebody like that who can also pass, it just makes your (offense) more dynamic.
“Just being able to get it off the rim and just be able to push and make plays for himself, I feel like that’s his biggest improvement.”