It’s been a slow start to the 2025-26 season for Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic, and he admitted that he feels like his struggles are “a little more mental.”
“It is surprising to me, especially because I felt pretty good during training camp and a little bit during preseason,” Jovic said. “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.”
Jovic is averaging just 8.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game this season while shooting 40.0 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from beyond the arc. For comparison, he finished the 2024-25 season averaging 10.7 points (a career-high), 3.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game while shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from 3.
So, Jovic has seen a pretty big drop in his efficiency as a shooter, especially from beyond the arc. The former first-round pick has also seen his role in head coach Erik Spoelstra’s rotation dip a little bit, as he’s averaging just 20.6 minutes per game compared to 25.1 minutes per night last season. Last week, he was even out of the rotation for a game.
The Heat are certainly hoping that Jovic can shake his early struggles, as they invested in him in the offseason.
Miami and Jovic agreed to a four-year, $62.4 million extension in the offseason, locking him up for the foreseeable future. That should show Jovic that the franchise believes in him, even though he’s worried about his playing time early in the 2025-26 campaign.
Even with Jovic struggling, the Heat are off to a great start this season. Miami currently holds the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference with a 13-7 record, and it has won nine of 11 games at home.
The Heat will look to build on that home record on Monday when they host the Los Angeles Clippers at Kaseya Center. Miami already beat the Clippers in Los Angeles earlier in the 2025-26 season.