Miami Heat: Why has Nikola Jović been inconsistent this season? | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: Why has Nikola Jović been inconsistent this season? | Five on the Floor

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Enter this one or just use the link that is also in the description. legal in the state of Florida. Our official fantasy partner, prizepix.com. And now today’s episode. Uh oh. Yeah, it’s Mercy Music by Mercy again. Keep Nation the coach. Yo, I need you to call out for the shot. Still five on the floor. Still ride for my dog soon on the court. Still survive in the war. Keep your eye on the ball or get burned from the heat. The smite off the wall without turning the cheek from night to day. No sleeping pads or allowed to mourn us. They love to sleep in us. Never catch us alive from Miami. We pour in the heat with five reasons from the court to the streets. [Music] Hey, be patient. [Applause] Welcome to Five on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sander, Alex Toledo, Brady Hawk, and others from the Five Reason Sports Network. Also, make sure to subscribe to Off the Floor for the most heat anywhere. [Music] All right, welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me at Ethan Joling at Five Reason Sports. I got A Leto. You can follow me at Tropical Blanket. Pretty simple topic here. Where’s the Nico Yovic? We were promised or that I promised you. Nico, what are you doing, man? I’ve been pumping you up the entire off seasonason. So was Eric Spolstra. Got the contract, which I think all of us were in favor of four years, $62 million and $62.5 million. He’s really had one and a half games so far where I think we’ve seen what we were hoping to see. And Eric Spolster after the game last night kind of gave him the wear treatment. I mean, which is interesting because Nico was who wear was sort of unfavorably compared to in terms of professionalism and development and all that kind of stuff when Spo was talking over the summer. But yesterday, I IRA was speaking about Yovic adjusting to the new offense, and Spolster basically said, “No excuses.” Uh, and I’ll get the entire quote here at some point, but Alex, what’s happening here? Because I didn’t expect him to have these. Look, I don’t expect consistency from him completely. He’s still young. It is a new system. I do think a little bit of grace needs to be given for that. Um, you know, Tyler’s still not out there. Who is someone I do think Yoic plays really well off of and you know then he was going to start or we thought he was going to start but Spo never really expected him to start was going to start wear. Now neither of them are starting. Now he’s paired with Wear who he’s had a good connection with before but the overall production with the exception of that one game where he was allowed to play through the six turnovers and he ended up with a crazy statline. He’s not been as impactful as Hakez, who was not great in this last game. We’ll talk about that, too. Uh, he’s not been as impactful as Larson. He’s not been as impactful as Fontekio in terms of Fontekio’s role. Right. So, or Drew or DaVon. Um, what’s happening here? Honestly, um I do agree with some of the stuff you said as far as like, you know, having to give him some grace because he is still like really young, you know, even though um he’s already signed his rookie scale extension and it feels like he’s been here so long at this point really like he he is he’s still a really young player and I I think the inconsistency stuff is to be expected when um you know there’s a lot of changes to the offense, but I think more than that is the big difference between what we thought, right, was going to be uh Nico’s role. It’s really that’s Jaime’s role, right? Like they kind of flip-flopped there. Jaime is the guy who has the ball in his hands the most in these bench lineups. And these bench lineups have been a huge part of why that he’d have been so surprising to start the season. Like they’ve been insanely effective, right? That wasn’t necessarily the case last night, but throughout the season, those bench lineups have been huge and and Jaime has been the biggest part of that on offense, right? Um, like you said, the other guys are playing the role well. I think Nico is finding himself having to kind of play in this weird in between role where he’s not necessarily touching the ball that much. It feels I I really like that they have him as like a grab and go type of guy. Um, cuz I think that part of his game is just an awesome fit into what they’re doing. And I think, you know, that doesn’t show up on the stat sheets, but a lot of times he’s making the right decisions off those grab and goes, whether it’s uh like in fast break or an early transition to get into their offense earlier. I think that part of it is great. I think he’s had some flashes where you can see the playmaking a little bit more when he gets like a mismatch on the in the post and then, you know, can feed it to the right player from there. I But other than that, like the I feel like the touches for him have been a little bit inconsistent. I don’t think it’s the system’s fault. I think the system, you know, um is is something that plays into what he does well, right? But when you look at just, you know, the who has the ball in their hands more, I think Jaime has taken a lot of the touches and it, you know, rightfully so. Like he he’s been awesome getting into the paint and spraying out and that’s been the main thing and and he’s just flat like flat out more capable of doing that than Nico is. Nico is not the, you know, the automatic paint touch and he’s he’s definitely not the finisher that Haime is. Now, he’s he’s capable of that, but you know, Haimey coming off the catch when he has that burst like he he pretty much gets into the paint at will. And I think Nico is sort of like he’s this connected guy who brings the ball up in transition and gets maybe a post touch per game. So, it feels like his role has been kind of has kind of dwindled a little bit, right? Especially because, you know, we thought that he would have uh an increase in the role this year. No, I you know, I don’t think either of us were expecting them to run the offense through him or, you know, he’s the point guard now. I don’t really think that’s what it was, but we expected more touches and I don’t think I don’t think uh that’s been the case so far. And then the other thing is he the the threes are not falling right now. So, it kind of makes things feel worse cuz it’s like the the the the shots that he that he is getting up from the perimeter, you know, he’s he’s shooting what is it 31% right now from three. So, that’ll that’ll come up. I think that’ll people feel a little bit better. But to me, the the the big story here with with Nico is not the system, but the role. Okay. So, a lot of things there because we talk about role and we’ve talked about this so much with him and I think Spo’s tired of hearing about it cuz that’s got brought up the last couple years. Um, he’s getting minutes. The minutes are not the problem. He did close the game when he had 29 points with the six turnovers. I I’ve wondered whether Spo’s going to close with him much because of the fear of mistakes and turnovers. Um and especially with the glut of players they have to close. We’ve talked about this and obviously they didn’t close anything uh because it all fell apart in this last game, but Powell, Hero, Bam, uh and then are definitely going to close and then you’ve basically got what Wiggins, Hakez, um and DaVon uh as primary options to close. Well, that’s six. So that’s before you get to Yoic Wear or Larson. Uh those are nine options to close. I mean they want to give Spo as many options as possible. That’s the whole idea. Give him seven. He’s got more than that. And two of the players on that list are confidence players. Wear and Yoic. Uh where he’s trying to he’s playing these pushpull games with them to try to get them get the most out of each of them. And they’re different. Wear doesn’t have a confidence problem. He has a focus problem. Yovic has a confidence problem. And I mean, he’s he’s very honest. That’s one of the things we like about him. But Spo doesn’t want to hear about the confidence stuff anymore. But how much do you attribute some of the struggles finding a fit with confidence? Right. because it seems like the game that Spo let him play, he played through it and he was a house on fire in that last quarter, right? But the other games, it seems like he drifts and gets frustrated and then he’s just and he’s admitted that he wasn’t he didn’t feel he contributed the first two weeks of the season. For sure. I do think that’s definitely um playing like playing a role into why um the effectiveness has just not really been there for Nico game to game. And like you said, it’s really just been a game and a half or so where he’s looked really good. Other than that, you know, like even up and down doesn’t necessarily feel like the best way to assess it because other than that, it’s been a lot of downs. Like I’m not saying he’s a negative player. It’s not like he’s he’s really hurting them out there, but he’s not doing, you know, like he’s not necessarily doing everything at the the rate that we would expect him to, the level we would expect him to. Like I really do think the passing chops are still there. And I and that’s where you can really see his confidence go up and is when he’s passing the ball, right? Um I think or not go up, but that’s where it is, right? I think passing and pushing. Passing and pushing, the pushing and the break 100%. The grab and go when things slow down though, that’s what’s been problematic, honestly. Exactly. He’s not necessarily a great half court player. Like I think he’s still somebody who can be helpful for them in the half court, but that’s not his best thing. um like when he’s not playmaking out there, the scoring part of his game is where the confidence really affects him for sure. I think like the finishing um you know, he he’s a capable finisher, but sometimes I feel like, and look, Brady has said this before, he he he’s talked about this with me at the games where like you know, sometimes if he doesn’t see those first couple shots go down, like it’s just not going to be a great game for him, right? Um I don’t necessarily know that’s always going to be the case, but look, he’s a human being, right? like we all have our our strengths and our weaknesses and of course like a a couple shots don’t go in that might affect the rest of your game and he’s not somebody who um you know like you brought up the wear comparison where for the most part like even with everything that’s been said about him on offense right like the ball is going to him when he is right under the hoop or when he’s right over the hoop right uh in that case catching lobs but he’s not necessarily having to create for himself so I think it’s a little bit of a different thing with Nico where it’s you know his his game is about creation um a lot of it in transition, but in the half court, I feel like when things slow down for him, like you said, he’s not getting the most out of his game. And and again, going back to the wear comparison, it’s funny that, you know, you brought up like uh kind of what Spo was doing with them. It feels like Nico is like the he’s like, “Okay, I got to bring Nico up in this way. I got to make sure that I I give him some criticism and feedback when he doesn’t play well because if not, maybe it like discredits some of the stuff that they’re saying to wear when they talk about the stuff that he’s not doing well.” It’s almost like the like the like siblings, right? It’s like you’re trying you’re trying to make sure it’s balanced out so one of them doesn’t feel like, you know, there’s like some sort of favoritism or something. So yeah, like I And it’s 100% fair, by the way. Like it’s not like some game like they’ve both had their flaws and they’ve both been kind of the guys who’ve been most up and down in this rotation compared to everybody else. And they’re the youngest guy, so it feels like it makes a lot of sense for to take that approach. Well, we talked about that when he made his comments. Um, we we talked about when he made his comments in the summer that and one one of the episodes I did with Matteo and Shawn was that it can’t just be where if it’s going to be just where then where is going to take all this stuff personally. So, I do think that there’s a little bit of a method to the madness here by you trying to treat Nico somewhat the same way that he’s treated wear even if the primary issues with Nico are different. I I don’t think Nico drifts like that. We don’t we don’t talk about that. Like it’s not a lack of sometimes with wear it looks like a lack of trying and then it really sticks out when wear tries because you’re like wait a second look at this guy. Okay, now we see what they see. Um and he’s doing all little things. Nico’s trying all the time but sometimes he’s either trying to do too much or he’s scared to do something. It’s it seems like it’s one or the other. And uh you know I still see the potential there. I think we all do. It’s just it’s been interesting to me because I did think this offense would fit him. So, the context of the offense not working for him is interesting. And on the other side of this, quickly, I want to get into what this means when Tyler comes back. Uh, because I I do think that changes the equation. It could be a good thing for him. Uh, but it also could take away additional touches. So, we’ll get into that on the other side. Before we do want to mention our friends over at Real Estate Shop, you can find them at real estatefl.com. That’s Javier and Amanda. And they’ve got open houses going on all over South Florida. We know that the housing market is a little weird. a little wonky, a little slow right now. Well, they’ll walk you through the entire process. If you’re looking to sell your house, they’ll do your open house for you. They’re based uh here in Broward County. They’re all over Broward, though, all the way from my area in Fort Lauderdale, all the way west, uh Pines, Miramore, Plantation, Dave, all those spots. Reach out to them at the Fort Lauderdale Realtor on Instagram or at real estatefl.com. Again, that’s real estate shop, two P’s and an Efl. So, as we’re podcasting here, Tyler and Bam are traveling to New York today. Um, I’ve said I wouldn’t read into that too much. Tyler’s not going to play uh Friday in in New York. Um, Brunson, by the way, likely not going to play. He left in a walking boot. Okay, so that doesn’t necessarily help the Heat because we know that the Heat don’t play well against teams that don’t have their stars. Look what just happened against Cleveland. Um, I don’t know if Bam will play or not. I’ve cautioned everyone that New York is a different kind of trip. It’s a one-ame trip. You’d say, “Well, why would they travel on a one-ame trip? Why wouldn’t they both just get treatment back here in Miami, but that’s a trip that that particularly high-profile players of which Bam and Tyler are the two most high-profile players on the Heat at the moment. They plan for that trip because sponsor stuff is set up for them, all kinds of other things cuz it’s New York.” I remember Dwayne being hurt at least two years and still travel to New York because he literally had a Dwayne Wade conference up there with all of his sponsors. Something with Jimmy last year too when he was like in the middle of that whole thing like he went to New York and there was like a sponsor thing going on with the with the coffee. The coffee was up. Exactly. And then there was another one down here. What of course we we don’t talk about this but yeah there was another one that came that that he had down here which was related to what was it? pickle ball or something along those lines and he was in one place he was supposed to be in another but the team knows about these things but it’s like you take the trip to New York basically particularly if you’re a high-profile guy and I’m sure we see Tyler is now in a new commercial and you know Bam has his own promotional stuff as well so I would not read into it with Tyler at all. Okay. Uh with Bam as of the moment it’s 2 o’clock on on Thursday. I he hasn’t been ruled out. They haven’t released that report yet. So we’ll see. He did get some work yesterday. Uh, as you guys saw in practice, well, pregame he did. He did some work, too. And he’s not in the walking boot. He’s moving okay from what it looks like, but I don’t know that he’s ready to play yet. So, we’ll see. But let let’s just close with this on on the Yovic thing. So, you mentioned that that Hakez has taken some of Yoic’s touches. We think Hero is going to take some of Hakez’s touches, right? Yeah. I mean, touches, right? Okay. So, but I also think that Nikos has has a good chemistry with Tyler from what from when they they’ve gotten the opportunities to play. How and I can see Tyler anchoring some of those bench units actually or Norm one or the other. Although, uh Brady thinks it’s going to be more Tyler. I think he thinks Norm’s going to be tied to Wiggins in a lot of ways. But h how do you how do you view it? Like how do you view Tyler coming back in terms of how it affects uh Yoic? It’s a great question. Um, and I’m 100% not sure when it comes to how they’re going to treat their rotations when Tyler’s back. Not only the starting lineups, but like who, you know, again, going back to what I was talking about earlier, these bench lineups have been so important for him. And I I don’t know how much they want to mess with what’s been going well. Now, of course, that might not last all season long. Teams might get used to like what the Heat are doing. And look, like we’re already seeing some adjustments, right? like the Cavs threw out a whole lot of size on them last night and, you know, that’s not the only reason the Heat turned the ball over and, you know, um didn’t get to the free throw line like they did, you know, the the time before, but it’s a part of it. I think teams are starting to realize what the Heat are doing. The fact that they’ve gotten so many more shots at the rim this year because of the pace they’re playing at, you know, it’s different than in years past where the Heat were constantly in the bottom three or bottom five in shots taken at the rim. I think there’s a, you know, there’s going to be some scouting um and some adjustments made and so who knows, maybe there are changes made to um the bench lineup and stuff like that when Tyler’s back. It’s it’s a little bit hard to project at the moment. But as far as Tyler and Nico together, um I don’t really see it affecting him too too much. Um honestly, I don’t think Nico is somebody who is going to, you know, like have a high us like a super high usage role this year anyways. And like you said, they kind of play um well together as it stands. And it also like what I’m looking forward to seeing is how they use Tyler when he’s back because I’m expecting a lot of the stuff that they’re doing with Norm, right? Where um it’s not like they’re going to they’re giving the ball to Norm at the top of the key and having him do what Jaimeir D or excuse me, Davon um does out there where it’s oneon-one, get to the rim. That’s not necessarily what they’re doing with Norm, but Norm has been getting to the rim coming off the catch either on a curl or or off a pin down. And I think we’re going to see a lot of that with Tyler. Um where he’s coming he he’s getting the ball coming off the catch and I think he’s going to go from there and it’s either and from there it’s make the read of shoot the ball or get downhill which a lot of times teams are going to take away the three from Tyler. Same thing with Norm. So, I I think we’re going to see that type of role. And if that’s the case, I think that that is like good for Jaime, good for DaVon, guys who have like really showed what they can do getting to the basket. Um, and I don’t really think it hurts Nico. Like, it gives Nico another guy who he can pass the ball to who’s an elite shooter. Um, gives him more space out there on the floor to work with. um on top of like, you know, the the way that they’re running their offense where the spacing has been better this season. Um I don’t really think Tyler coming in is going to hurt Nico at all. I’m really more interested to see what that does for Haime and specifically like what units are they running out there. Um I I I’m still optimistic about it, but I I’m almost unsure where exactly they’re going to go from here and how they handle it. I’ll just close with this. I I think that we may get to some of the numbers that Yovic that we projected for Yovic, but I don’t think it’s going to be through consistency. I think that’s what we’re seeing so far. I think there may be pockets of games in the season where he puts up a lot of numbers um where he is featured in more of a way and then there’s going to be games like we’ve seen so far that you’re like, well, he’s not really giving you a lot. And I and I we’re not I’m not really getting into all the defensive metrics and all that sort. I I from what I’ve seen, he’s held up pretty well in a lot of that stuff. Um, you know, I think with him, we tend to focus on offense, and it’s like, okay, can he can he be at par on defense, right? Are are you comfortable with him out in space? But the one thing that does need to get consistently better is just is the rebounding. And I that’s not just him, it’s everybody. They they have given up second most uh defensive re uh offensive rebounds in the league right now. And I I know Coupe had a stat the other day and I just did a story on this for SI where when BAM plays their def this is prior to the last game but their defensive rebound percentage is third in the league and when he doesn’t it’s 30th. So obviously he has a lot Go ahead. Okay. Well go ahead. Give me that one. I got you. So essentially like before that Nuggets game the Heat were eighth in defensive rebound percentage. Ever since then they’re in the bottom three. And by the way some some like Nico is not a good rebounder. He wasn’t at the four. He’s definitely not going to be at the five. Um, but the other thing that has to happen with Nico is some progression to the mean, man. Like the I mentioned the 31% shooting. That should get better. Like that is unacceptable. He can’t be a 31% threepoint shooter. And the other thing, like I mentioned, the up and down finishing. Like it’s just not, you know, the the the sub 60% finishing right at the rim is not good enough for him. He it’s it’s a below average level right now. So like just that stuff has to come up or if this like sustains all season, you know, like again for as much as I like Nico and you know um how helpful he can be as a player, all of a sudden that contract starts to look a little bit iffy because like I remember even when we were having these discussions before the season as far as like well like when should you extend Norm, when should you extend Nico? I remember saying like I felt like they should have waited till you know maybe you know like after the season or I don’t know like there’s no easy answer for these things but they made that decision ahead of time and now here we are. We’ve got it to this point where maybe his role is a little bit inconsistent. He Tyler’s going to come back. Bam’s going to come back. Maybe the ball’s going to be in his hands even less. He’s going to have to find a way to make the most out of these minutes that he’s going to get because the minutes will be there. Like maybe it’s not 28 minutes per game when everybody’s back, but he’s going to have a role. And I get it. Like it’s it might be a little bit uncomfortable for him, but what he’s done so far offensively is just not it’s not up to bar. Well, they made the decision to extend him based on what they were seeing behind the scenes all summer and in training camp and but at some point it has to manifest on the court. It does. And I you know once once the contract is signed, he’s not getting paid that yet. Okay. So, just to be clear on it, but once the contract is signed, the expectations change. Um, and he’s going to get the minutes in part because even if he struggles, they don’t have a lot of other options with size. They just don’t. Even if he’s his size is not traditional, they don’t have anybody else to go to. So, he he’s going to get chances like he he can be outplayed by Pella Larson, but Nico’s minutes are more secure because there are so many guards and, you know, wing types on this roster. Uh, so he’s going to get chances to play through it, but again, he’s got to make the most of it. The rebounding, the three-point shooting obviously needs to come up. And I’m okay with the turnovers more so than most are. I I as as if he’s playing aggressively um and he’s making an impact, you live with a couple of them. But I the other stuff uh needs to get better. All right, that’s where we are today. We’ll have coverage of Knicks Heat Friday night in New York. Uh also, of course, uh they’re back here. The Knicks will play Monday again. Not expecting Tyler. Uh maybe Bam. We’ll see for one of these two games. Maybe. He doesn’t seem that far away. Uh and Brunson, we’ll get a report on that, but that didn’t look good uh coming out of their their loss against Orlando. Have a good one, everybody.

Ethan and Alex discuss what’s been an up-and-down season for the recently-extended Jović.

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