Heat’s Nikola Jovic steps up in rotation and up in competition, now viewed as real deal

Nikola Jovic has spent the past month as a Miami Heat starter, appreciating what it's like to go against the NBA's best from the outset.

MIAMI – There was a time when this was viewed as much as an experiment as a pathway to the postseason rotation.

Curiously, Nikola Jovic starting at power forward no longer comes off as a curiosity for the Miami Heat.

With efforts such as Sunday night’s against the Indiana Pacers, when he helped turn around a moribund Heat start with his 16 points second half, and then with his 23 points in Tuesday night’s double overtime victory over the Atlanta Hawks, the 2022 first-round pick out of Serbia has made it look more possible and plausible that he also could be Erik Spoelstra’s starting power forward in the Heat’s postseason opener.

“It really just goes to show who Niko is,” said forward Jimmy Butler, who arguably stands as Jovic’s biggest supporter in the locker room.

“We’re going to need that guy for this run that we’re going to make.”

With Jovic in the starting lineup, it has provided the Heat with some of the shooting and ballhandling that the team had missed in the 20-game absence with Tyler Herro sidelined.

But now with Herro back, it could mean another adjustment for Spoelstra, who often alters his lineup and rotation in the postseason.

Still, with so much at stake for the Heat, the fascination with Jovic as a starter comes off as more than seasoning, at a point of the season when the Heat are beyond such concerns.

“I’m feeling good about where this is,” Jovic said ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks at Kaseya Center.

The splits with Jovic are difficult to compare, considering he went into Wednesday averaging 21.5 minutes in his 35 starts, compared to 7.5 minutes in his eight reserve appearances. But his offensive rating is significantly better as a starter this season than as a reserve (with the Heat at 111 points per 100 possessions when he is a starter compared to  to 100 as a reserve), with his defensive rating also better as a starter than reserve (110 to 118).

Of course, as a starter it means playing alongside the two-way skill sets of Butler and Bam Adebayo.

But it also means a higher-level initial challenge, with Jovic having grown comfortable against the upgrade in competition.

“For sure it’s different,” he said. “The starting lineup, everywhere star players are in it. You notice the difference. It’s hard, anyways, even in the second unit or first, but you know you have to take a challenge against the first team.”

The thought had been that when the postseason arrives, Spoelstra would turn to someone more polished, someone more mature than a 20-year-old who received only 13 minutes of playing time in the Heat’s postseason run last season through the NBA Finals.

That hinted toward a turn to Caleb Martin, last season’s playoff breakout star for the Heat, or perhaps Haywood Highsmith.

Instead, Jovic has shown staying power, with the type of 6-foot-10 length the Heat otherwise lack in their power rotation.

“He’s improved in so many of the areas. It started with his work ethic,” Spoelstra said. “I often have to remind myself that Niko is 20.

“But he’s getting better. He’s getting better each month. And offensively he just gives us a very unique skill set.”

He also has surprised with his defensive growth.

“He’s gotten a lot better with his defensive fundamentals,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t know how many more guys on our roster, other than our young guys, that have done more defensive drills the last two years than Niko, and that’s including during the summer and in preseason and all during the season. He’s big. He moves his feet well. And all those 10,000 reps have helped.

“He’s starting to be able to do multiple coverages, which definitely helps the versatility. More than anything, though, forget above moving feet, forget about schemes, forget about understanding our system, it’s more of a mentality and mindset to defend and do tough things. That’s probably where he’s grown the most.”

Jovic said, there now appears to be a genuine opposing recognition of his arrival as an NBA contributor.

“I think they know who I am, for sure,” he said of opposing starters. “I’ve played now against almost every one of them. And some of them saw me last summer (playing for Serbia in the World Cup).”

More significant is an awareness that he has landed on opposing scouting reports.

“Especially I’ve noticed it lately, because  they’ve been closing out really hard because they know I’m going to shoot it,” he said. “So I’m sure I’m somewhere on the scouting report.”

The counter has been more of an attack mode in recent games than previously seen from what largely had been a spot-up game.

“I think I have to attack now because of the way they’re close out,” he said. “And then, if I have to, I have to make the play for someone else.”

Which is a bit of a revelation, that opponents now are trying to force Jovic to give up the ball to the likes of Butler, Adebayo, Terry Rozier.

“I am seeing that so much more,” he said, with a flash of a smile, of opponents perceiving him as a threat. “I like that. It’s good.”