Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic (5) reacts to hitting a shot during an NBA preseason game against the San Antonio Spurs at Kaseya Center on October 8, 2025, in Miami. D.A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
It doesn’t take a shrinking role or outside criticism for Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic to realize he’s not playing well. Jovic has enough self-awareness to admit it.
“I’m not looking great,” said Jovic, who is in his fourth NBA season. “I know that I’m not playing great basketball right now, and that’s the thing that bothers me for sure.”
After signing a four-year, $62.4 million extension with the Heat in October, Jovic’s play has been one of the few disappointments amid an otherwise strong start to the season for the team.
While the Heat enters Monday night’s matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers at Kaseya Center with a quality 13-7 record this season, Jovic has gone from starting the opener to the fringes of the rotation. He has scored single-digit points in 11 of his 15 appearances, and he’s averaging a team-high 4.3 turnovers per 100 possessions this season.
“The most important thing for me is to win as many games as possible,” Jovic, 22, emphasized. “So even if I look bad, but we’re winning, I’m good with it. Since I came, other than the first NBA Finals run [in 2023], even that season we were kind of in between sixth and eighth place. And I’m just trying to get out of there. I’m just trying to help this team win. Right now, even though I’m looking bad and I’m not playing the way I know I can play, we’re still looking pretty solid.”
But the Heat knows it needs Jovic to be better to reach its ceiling as a team, especially just weeks after investing a four-year extension in him.
“Our ceiling goes so much higher when there’s a consistency to Niko’s game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He’s extremely versatile on both ends of the court when he’s really locked in, paying attention to details, giving the maximum effort.”
Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic (5) is guarded by Cleveland Cavaliers forward Dean Wade (32) during the second half of a game on Nov. 10, 2025, at Kaseya Center in Miami. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
But Jovic’s early season struggles have led to a diminished role recently.
With the Heat fully healthy for the first time this season, Jovic received his first DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season in Wednesday’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks after missing the previous four games with a right hip impingement.
Then with Heat sixth man Jaime Jaquez Jr. missing his first game of the season because of a groin injury, Jovic re-entered the rotation in Saturday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons. But Jovic was again underwhelming, committing five turnovers and posting a plus/minus of minus-15 in just 10 minutes off the bench.
“He needs to get in better rhythm,” Spoelstra said, downplaying Jovic’s recent struggles. “He needs to put in some work. He’ll be just fine. But the more you put into it, and he was sidetracked a little bit with his injury. But it’s the attention to detail, it’s the work ethic every single day. That has to be consistent and he’ll get there. He’ll get in a better rhythm.
“It’s not easy to jump into a game that’s as intense as this [Saturday against the Pistons] and it’s physical, and where you have to be in rhythm and he hasn’t really fully practiced. ... He just needs to get into the work, get into the process, and he’ll be fine.”
Jovic is also confident he will soon get through this rough patch to again help the Heat on the court.
“I believe in myself,” Jovic said. “I don’t think it’s something that’s going to last a lot longer. I still think I’m playing good basketball for the others. I’m just playing bad basketball for myself. But, yeah, that’s it. I’m working every day to be better, and I know I will be.”
As one of the Heat’s six first-round picks on the current roster, Jovic is an important part of the team’s young core after being taken by Miami with the 27th pick in the first round of the 2022 Draft. But while other recent Heat first-round picks such as Jaquez (Heat’s first-round pick in 2023) and center Kel’el Ware (Heat’s first-round pick in 2024) have displayed noticeable signs of improvement early this season, Jovic has shown signs of regression through the first month of the schedule.
“We’re going to continue to push for that development,” Spoelstra continued on Jovic. “And the beginning of the year so far has been a little bit uneven, but that’s going to happen to young guys. I’m not stressed out about that challenge. When you’re coaching a team that has several young guys, it’s probably not realistic that everybody is going to hit at the same time. So there’s going to be some ups and downs. But he’s dedicated. We’ll continue to work with him.”
Jovic has been through ups and downs before. Just last season, Jovic received six straight DNP-CDs just before logging double-digit minutes and making a positive impact in his final 32 appearances of the regular season.
But Jovic hoped the downs were behind him after a productive offseason that included an impressive run with the Serbian national team at the EuroBasket tournament. Instead, Jovic is again working to prove to Heat coaches that he deserves consistent playing time.
“It is surprising to me, especially because I felt pretty good during training camp and a little bit during preseason,” Jovic said of his shaky start to the season. “And to come into the season like that, it feels weird. It still feels weird. You feel like you’re just trying to figure out where it went kind of sideways. Like why does it look that way? Because I’ve never played like this.
“I feel like at this moment, it’s a little more mental. I’m hunting for shots because I’m worried that I’m not going to play as much or I’m taking bad shots, and stuff like that. But, yeah, I’ll be good. It’s nothing that’s going to last long. The most important thing is for us to win, and that’s what I’m really concentrating on.”