Why Miami Heat BELIEVE in Nikola Jovic’s $62M Contract Extension | Smart Move or Risky Gamble?

Why Miami Heat BELIEVE in Nikola Jovic’s $62M Contract Extension | Smart Move or Risky Gamble?

Nicola Yovic has signed a contract extension to stay with the Heat. Was it the right move for the franchise’s future? We debate that on today’s episode of Locked on Heat. [Music] You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. All right, welcome to Locked on Heat, your daily podcast on the Miami Heat. Whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. I’m Wes Goldberg, host of Locked on NBA Daily and Real GM radio. I’m here with David Rmill. Both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day. Uh before we get to what we think Ornra’s job will be with the Heat, we have big news right off the top of the episode. Nicola Yoic has agreed to a 4-year, $62.4 million rookie contract extension with the Heat. No options on the deal, David. No player option, no team option. It’s just four years straight up. It’s just over $15 million in average annual value per season. Slightly above the mid level. Uh he’ll be the third highest paid player on the roster next season if Andrew Wiggins opts out and leaves. So you look at this contract, David, we you and I had a conversation with Nico at media day about whether or not he thought their contract extension was coming. He really uh kind of was going both ways. I think this is very fair value for Nicola Yovic. Uh, we’ll get into the cap ramifications and stuff like that, what it matters in terms of Miami’s offseason stuff next summer, but in terms of the value for Nikico Yoic, this to me is is obvious value for that guy. It seems like a fair amount. Uh, at the same time, you have to keep in mind what we’ve already seen from him at the start of this year’s training camp. like obviously a good offseason for him working with a national team and then he comes into camp seems aggressive seems confident talking about competing for a starting role and then after a couple days of camp it seems like he’s getting ahead of even Khalil Wear and the possible rotation here talking a little bit about how he’s been able to implement some of the versatility and skills that he’s been working on over the course of his career and continue to develop and now that he’s manifesting in a way that’s a little bit more confidently and more consistently. It just seems like he’s a better player than he has been, which, you know, that’s what you would expect from a fourth year player, but he’s tying it all together. At least that’s what we assume it is. And because the way they talk about him, I think they’re optimistic that he’s going to continue to grow and develop. That’s what this is. This is a contract based on not what you’ve done yet, but what we think you’re capable of doing. And I think some Heat fans are just a little jaded about it because they’ve seen that contract before. I think you could look more recently at I’d say Duncan Robinson as a player that had performed outperformed expectations being an undrafted player and then kind of finding a way to start alongside Jimmy Butler in 2019 all the way up to the NBA finals. And while he had some limitations, the hope was that he’d be able to get past those and continue to develop. And I don’t know that he ever quite lived up to that contract. But in Nico’s case, I think we’ve seen enough growth where he’s better defensively than Duncan ever was. And I think he’s also continuing to grow into his body, feeling a little bit more comfortable in putting on some added weight, and he’s already got the skill. We’ve seen the versatility already play out at the NBA level and internationally. And that being the case, they’re looking at him and saying, “We believe in you. We think you’re going to be a capable, maybe even a great player for us in the future.” Yeah. There’s a couple things that differentiate the Yoic thing to me from Duncan Robinson. Number one, he’s a firstround pick. All the skill and the talent that you were just talking about, like you presume the ceiling is a lot higher than an undrafted guy like Duncan Robinson, as good as Duncan’s shooting was when he when he signed that cont. The other part is $5 million less per season. It was and you know four or five years after Duncan signed that contract. Um in terms of whether or not Heat fans think this is a good deal or not, we put it out on a poll. 92% of people who voted on our poll thought this was a good deal for Nicola Yovic. To me really I I’m not I I don’t know how you look at this and been like $15 million for Nikolai. Like the skill is there. Um there’s a bunch of really interesting things that we can get into with this contract, but to your point, it’s more about it’s a little bit about what he showed them obviously already, but what he showed them so far have been flashes, stretches, right? Played really well before he got hurt last year. The key for Nico to deliver on this is kind of connecting the dots on the things that make him so talented and skilled and making it, you know, we talked about him being more consistent in terms of rebounding, using his size, the shooting part of it, making an impact overall even when his shot isn’t going in. And then obviously being on the court, he played 46 games last year. He played 46 games the year before that when he was a real part of the rotation or at least was supposed to be. And then, you know, it’s it’s injury after injury for this guy. He needs to stay healthy. If he doesn’t stay healthy, it doesn’t matter what the skill level is. It doesn’t matter what the talent or the ceiling is. It doesn’t even frankly matter what the impact is on the court. If he doesn’t stay healthy, then this contract becomes a problem. And it’s still it’s even then, like I don’t need him to even play 70 games a year. It’s really not that much money with what we’re talking about here. Uh but yeah, for him to deliver on the contract, he needs to stay out there. Yeah, 70 games seems fair, right? I mean, like between 65 to 70 I think is a target goal for him. Hit the minimum. Let’s get to 65 games. Yeah. Be eligible for some awards. And I think he’s he’s capable. I I think we had talked about before this camp battle seemed to maybe shift a little bit in Nico’s favor. And look, it’s very early. It’s still premature. We’re not sure whether or not he’s edging out where for a starting job or not. But just based on what Eric Sperer said in camp yesterday, it kind of seemed like that might be the case. Uh for Nico, I mean, he could be a potential sixman of the year candidate. So, I mean, there are if you’re saying $15 million a year for a guy who could win six mill six man of the year, that’s pretty good value, I think. Right. I mean, value. Tyler won it making $10 million more than that, right? So, I I think there’s potential there and I think it it could be a really great deal. And I I understand some of the fans that might be a little bit more vocal about why he hasn’t shown anything up to this point uh to warrant that contract and whether or not there is concerns about injury and stuff like that. But you know, you’ve got to take a chance and hope that he’s some of those injuries were fluke injuries beyond his control. Uh I don’t think he did anything to put himself in any situation. We’ve seen him develop. He’s different player and what I see or what we hear from him in camp or what we’re hearing from the coaching staff in camp, it just seems like he’s a little bit more aggressive in terms of being able to utilize the the new strength and the new confidence in his body and and being able to kind of maybe be a little bit more dominant out there because I think that’s the version of Yoic that we saw when he was first drafted was a guy who really didn’t know where to play. Like he was a little bit more skilled than he was aggressive. He really didn’t have that kind of oomph to him and to his game. He was a soft rebounder. He got pushed around a lot. Didn’t really have it. We saw some flashes in terms of him uh his ability to push the ball, kind of initiate offense that way. But, uh, he was being bullied and and guys were going to see him and see this guy and we’re like, you know what, we’re going to push at him. We’re going to we’re going to challenge him because we know he can’t handle it. And then last year, we I think we started to see flashes where he was responding a little bit more. He’s like, okay, I can embrace that challenge a little bit. maybe get that shot blocked or maybe even go for a steal or a turnover. Um those were great signs and and now yet another summer has passed and he looks we’ve talked to him every media day for the last three years. We’ve seen the growth up close and personal and and certainly he has put on weight. He looks a little different than he has over the last couple of seasons. And the fact that he’s tying it all together now, I think really bodess well because he’s he’s just showing that ability and he’s got the the body to match there where I think the team feels confident in his ability to be an impact player. The chances that this contract becomes an albatross or a negative value contract is really slim. It’s not impossible. It’s really slim. He’s 21 years old now. He’ll be 25 when this contract expires. He’ll still be really young, you know? Like this guy is so young. The talent is so obvious. He has fans around the league. To the back to the injury point. There are no concerns within the Heat organization that any of these injuries are like long-term things to like you said earlier, fluky kind of things. Got beat up here and there. Is he a little I hate to use the word fragile, but like maybe there’s a belief that he can play through some of these things a little bit more. or maybe they shouldn’t be be sidelining him as as long, but as he gets stronger and matures into that body, that stuff will come. And that’s the belief right now um within the Heat organization. Obviously, otherwise, they wouldn’t have signed him to this, right? They didn’t have to they didn’t have to sign him. They could have just let it go to restricted free agency next summer. But there’s a chance, I think a higher degree chance that this ends up becoming a positive value contract that Nico outplays this contract. I think there’s a higher likelihood that he outplays the contract then it becomes a problem contract. Um, I want to read you this quote. This is from Nico asked about the the the extension uh after training camp today. I’m happy that this ownership and organization sees the talent and sees the work that I put in and I’ll make sure to give me to give my everything to make this contract worth a lot more. End quote. I don’t know what else you’d want to hear. I love it. I love that he um is is emboldened by the trust and and the and the contract extension. And he said something else which I thought was really interesting. He said um he’s never played with the idea of playing for a contract before and he’s really excited about not having to do that this summer or or this season rather. I thought that was really insightful and interesting because you’ve heard about players having contract years and there are a lot of players across the league, we know who they are, who always tend to have their best years and contract years. Nico’s like, I don’t even want to deal with that. That’s to me that’s a distraction. That’s not motivation. That’s a distraction. I’d rather just focus on the basketball. And now that the extension’s done, he can do that. So to his point then is he he’s just not he’s never been worried about a contract or now he’s finally not worried about a contract because you know obviously he wasn’t really up for an extension over the last couple seasons but the fact that he doesn’t have to worry about the contract that it’s done right. That’s fair. I mean look I uh I like the approach of saying he’s going to outperform the value there or make it even more valuable than what it actually is on the surface. And that that’s great and you want that kind of attitude. But uh you know the health is a big concern. I think the production will be there. It’s strange. I’m not even worried about the production because I think he’s going to be able to live up to that because we’ve seen him be able to continuously grow over the course of his short career. It’s just I think the biggest sticking point is can he play that 65 to 70 game benchmark? And and if that’s the case then I think at the end of the season we’re going to be like wow we got this guy for 15 million a year. What a great deal for the team. Let’s talk about what that deal for the team means. Uh, what does Nico’s contract extension mean to Miami’s cap space going forward and their ability to be a player next summer? We’ll talk about that next. 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We’ll be right back. [Music] So, let’s talk about what this means for the Heat’s cap going forward. So, like I said earlier in the show, uh Yoic next year is going to be Miamiy’s third highest paid player on the roster next season. If Wiggins opts out and does not come back, it’ll be Bam, it’ll be Tyler, it’ll be Yoic. Now, I say that it sounds like it’s a big deal. It’s really not. It’s like there’s a there’s Bam, there’s Tyler, and then there’s like a big gap, and there’s everybody else on the roster. Niko Nikolovich um basically making what the mid-level exception would be essentially which is obvious value again to me but um in terms of the cap space part of this does obviously eat into 2026 cap space and basically if Wiggins either opts in or if they bring back Wiggins on a different contract they have none. Now, if Wiggins opts out and he leaves, they’d have a little bit of cap space. But really, what we’re talking about here is no real cap space. I wouldn’t freak out about that. We’ve talked about this before, David. It was pretty clear that the Heat weren’t prioritizing 2026 cap space anyway based on some of their moves lately. It’s really about 2027. Um, the Tyler Hero extension here also, we’re now in that extension window, by the way, also plays a part in that. So, we’ll see. Right. So there’s there’s there’s two, in other words, there’s too many moving parts between a pending Tyler Hero extension, the Andrew Wiggins player option. Too many moving parts to really figure out are is Miami going to be a cap space team or not over the next even two years. That said, they’re going to be way under the tax under the first apron. Uh they’re going to be way way way under the second apron. As of now, they’re going to be operating as a non-taxpaying team. And there’s really no reason to think that they don’t have they they they have to cut the come out of that. Um they’re going to have access to the large mid-level exception which is going to be worth between 14 and $15 million which I think and we again we’ve had this conversation a couple weeks ago. I always thought that that was going to be the main tool that Miami could use to fortify the roster next summer and that’s still the case now. So for any Heat fans that are worried about, oh did we pick Nico over potential cap space 2026? No, not really. It was never really going to be there. Uh you you sign Nico to a contract that more than likely he’s probably going to outperform at the very least will perform to the level of the contract, I think. Uh and then you’re still going to have access to the level of mid-level exception that the Heat haven’t really used in a while now. And we’ve seen player like a Nikuel Alexander Walker sign for that mid-level exception here. So, you can get really useful players to add to this group. Um, even if Wiggins comes back and you’ve got Nico now under contract and we’ll see what happens with Tyler. Well, how does it affect Norm Pal though? That’s the other part of it, too. You’re right. I should have mentioned him. Yeah. And Norm Pal is up for an extension between now and the end of the regular season. So, if they bring back Norm Pal, then things get a little bit fuzzier. But then again, you’re like, “Okay, do we want Norm Pal or do we want a guy that we could have on the mid-level exception?” That’s really the math at that point. And I and and the Heat can literally just wait until the end of the season and see how Norm Pal fits. So the move to sign Nico’s extension, does it preclude them from bringing back Pal? No. Does it preclude them from bringing back Pal and Wiggins? Not if they don’t want to. Yeah. I mean, then you start nudging up against that first apron probably. And again, it depends like does Wiggins opt into the 30 million? Does he opt out and take a long-term deal with Miami? Or does Norm Powell expect something that he was making before? Is he willing to take a little bit less at the stage of his career? But you could potentially bring all of them back and and and stay probably under the first apron or maybe just really close to it. Yeah. I mean, we’ve talked about it in terms of the salary cap future. I don’t think they’re taking themselves out of the the running for any major player. is players don’t enter free agency the same way they do anymore. Like the one major free agent that we’ve seen over the last couple seasons, Paul George, and I’m sure Philadelphia 76ers fans are probably regretting that they had the cap space to bring back a guy like George anyway. So, uh I just it any move that we’ve seen KD, uh Dame Lillard, etc. those kinds of moves invariably wind up using a trade scenario and the contracts that they’re looking to sign these players. Even Nico, um I think are tradable contracts that you could use to acquire a player. Like if we’re looking at specifically the Yoic deal, he’s either going to live up to the contract or he’s going to overperform as he’s just said that he was going to be making it one of the more valuable deals out there. And if that’s the case, that’s a good player to have for $15 million a year. And that’s a fair that’s a fair value for somebody like that. Like the the chances I I think you made that point earlier, the chances of him not living up to the terms of that contract for $15 million a year, very very slim. Uh just because of his youth, because of his skill, because he’s still a growing player, because we’ve seen him make those kind of leaps. And so this just feels like a really good deal. And if you have to wind up using that in order to maybe make a push for a superstar if one becomes available, that’s a pretty good deal for this team. So I I I think it’s uh the salary cap impact seems like a bad thing. And I think it’s just it’s a different world out there. Like I think everybody’s still kind of looking at 2010 and being able to clear all the salary cap space and say, “Oh, you’re going to bring it this player, this player.” That doesn’t work anymore. It just doesn’t. We just don’t see those kinds of moves happening. the biggest offseason, the biggest free agent was Nikil Alexander Walker and he went for the mid-level exception which Miami is most likely going to have access to anyway. Like it’s a great point like don’t worry about the free agent stuff even for I would I would argue yes Giannis could potentially be a free agent in 2027. Jokic could be Luca like not not Luca anymore. Um don’t worry about that. Don’t count on that. More likely than not, those situations will be resolved before they’re unrestricted free agents in 2027, right? That’s just how this stuff works. You have a lot of pre- agency stuff. You made a great point, though. This contract for Nico becomes very tradable. He doesn’t even have to exceed the value of it. Just be at the value of it or at least have the promise of at the value or exceeding it. And at this age, he probably does, right? As long as he’s not, as long as there’s no long-term injury concerns with him, this $15ish million dollar contract becomes really chunky and really valuable, a lot chunkier and a lot valuable than three or four million is, right? Like you can potentially move him with in combination with one other guy and escalate up to a pretty interesting kind of player. And and for the record, I just want to say one thing here. $15 million these I know it sounds like it is a lot of money. $50 million is a lot of money, but compared to the rest of the league, like Patrick Williams is making $18 million. Kevin Herurder is making $18 million. Grayson Allen’s making $16.8 million. Bogdan Bdonovich is making $16 million. Max Struz is making $15.9. Terrence man for the Brooklyn Nets is making $15.5 million. These are the kinds of players making the money Nico is making. Nico has a very good chance of clearing all of those guys I just mentioned in terms of onc court value. So, um, and even if he doesn’t, right, he’s at least as good as those guys. So, uh, more likely than not. Anyway, one other interesting part about Nico in this contract. I mentioned it’s $15 million on average. That’s not really what it is, though, right? As we know, these contracts escalate up. What’s really interesting about this Nikico Yovic contract, it’s worth $13.9 million in its first year and then it begins to escalate up over $15 million. It goes 13.95 million6.17.2. Why is that interesting? because in the first year that $13.9 million that fits right under the mid-level exception, which means if it becomes a problem for the Heat where they have to clear this Nicoloic salary for any reason, it becomes a lot easier to move that into somebody else’s mid-level exception because you can sign players with the mid-level exception. You can also trade for players and absorb them into that larger mid-level exception. So, if the Heat want to move Nico for some reason next summer, it’s it that unlocks a whole other avenue. It becomes a little bit easier to do that if they decide that they need to do that. I just thought that that was worth flagging. And we we expect that the salary cap will continue to raise, right? So, it’s percentage of the cap and it’s going to be a pretty fair value. I think it’s going to be it won’t be as Yeah. These are estimates, by the way, based on the projections. Yeah. It could be a little bit less, a little bit more. Right. So, yeah. Yeah. And it just it seems like a good deal. I know there are concerns. You hope that the injury issues won’t manifest and that he continues to develop. I think the skill part of it is one that Heat fans can feel a lot more confident in. Uh the injury issues, we’ll just have to wait and see. you hope that there’s nothing long-term or anything that can impact his future, but other than that, I think it’s a a good deal for a player with a bright future. That seems like he wants to continue to develop and grow and has shown evidence of that so far this season. Uh we’ll get to some notes from day three of training camp, including what job we think Orra could take with the Heat. We’ll do that after this. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season’s here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss because right now new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. You pick a bet, you put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. You’ll love how FanDuel gives you so many ways to play. You can build parlays. You can try player props or even follow the live games. The live lines are in games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. So many uh games taking place over the weekend. Maybe you know you’re not quite invested as one. Well, you will be when you’ve got FanDuel on your side. Whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience even better. So, what are you waiting for? Go visit fanuel.com today to download the FanDuel app and get started. That’s fuel.com to get started. We’ll be right back. [Music] Quick injury update from training camp. Kasparus Yakonis with a sprained left wrist did not participate at uh practice today. The he did uh he did undergo an MRI. Testing came back negative. Not considered to be a long-term issue obviously, but something to monitor. Obviously, Tay Rosier, Ty Herro, did not participate and won’t be participating in training camp. But the big news here is that Goran Draich has been around the team. David been around the team at training camp. Eric Spolstra said that um he loves having him around and went so far as to say he hopes to find a more defined role for Goran with the team. Now, nobody thinks that Goran Dragage wants to get into coaching full-time. He’s pretty much put that out there, but I love Spo just saying I we love having him around and I want I want to get this guy on the payroll. Um it’d be interesting to think about what kind of defined role Gore and Dragic can have, but you know, the players love having him around. Spo loves having him around. he loves being around, but he obviously doesn’t want to be a full-time coach with all the rigors that come with that. But, um, having him part of the organization would obviously be a huge, uh, positive, I think. So, I think it, uh, look, we talked about it recently. We were looking at Goran’s impact with this franchise and his tenure here. It ended badly, but I think he really embraced the culture. He was as big a spokesperson for the team culture as anybody we’ve ever had on this roster. And I I I think uh he he really has always spoke so glowingly of his relationship with Spo. I I think he described it even if I’m not mistaken as kind of like a big brother kind of relationship and that uh Spo’s always looked out for him and really helped him be the kind of player he’s always believed in him and put him in a position to succeed and that’s why he just embraced every challenge that the Heat threw at him and he he really thrived in that. And so now he just wants to pay a little bit of back and I think he just wants a little something to do. He loves the game. He always knew that when he was playing and now he just wants to help out in some regards and I wonder like we see him kind of mentoring a little bit uh with Casper Yakianis. Uh is it possible he’s going to be kind of a a liaison there? I mean I talked about that. I hope so. the possibility of maybe being UD but like UD in the uh the development assistant or development vice president but almost on the international level like is he a guy who can work with of with international players and help them reach their potential help them acclimate to the NBA game because I think that’s a big part of it is you know I think Yakush is maybe a little different than where Goran was when he first entered the NBA but you know there is a cultural barrier there there is a language barrier there is a it’s very different to go from being a European player to all of a sudden somebody who never experienced AAOU or the college system and understand how to thrive and uh how to earn your keep in the NBA. It’s a very very different world and it doesn’t get any easier. And so when you have a guy like Goran who had to develop and had to figure that out over the course of his NBA career, he could be a real help and a real benefit to players along those lines. There’s a lot of international guys on the Heat roster, right, between Yoic and Yakonis and um you know there Yeah. Pella and and these guys. So far um they’re like Drag has an obvious, you know, value to those guys. I just love the idea of him mentoring Yakonis for everything that Gor Drag was able to do on the court. If he can imbue any of that, like if Yakonis can pick up any of like the the iron, what was the iron shoulder, steel shoulder, the iron shoulder, if he could pick up the iron shoulder, if he could pick up the little Steve Nash thing where he goes under the rim and comes back out, all that stuff. and and and Dragage’s ability to see the court and anticipate and maybe help limit those turnovers that Yak that gets Yakonis in trouble. Um if all Agoran Dragage does is mentor Yakonis, it would be a plus. Like pay him, pay him, pay him, you know, like let’s go. Um but yeah, I I don’t I don’t know like Drag just talked about maybe not wanting to coach because he doesn’t want to leave his family and all this stuff. So maybe the international thing I don’t know if you mean like actually going over probably not, right? it would just be sort of like all the international players currently on the roster he would kind of have some sort of involvement with which I love right and Drag is a really smart guy he pays a lot of attention to the league I wouldn’t mind him having a little bit of say in the front office right as like a consultant type of thing I I do whatever you want Goran so um I just want him around I just want him around and and when you think about heat culture having those guys around whether it’s him it’s Udon Hlam obviously Bam’s there having as much of that around that positive energy considering what we just came out of like Dragitch is such a shining light he’s such like a burst of energy in locker rooms and in practice facilities and stuff having him around I just think it’s it just adds joy just have him around and I think it’s a value ad yeah I mean he wasn’t on this roster not too long ago he played with Bam he’s played with well that’s it right Tyler like Bam Tyler it’s Wow it’s incredible when you think remember it that way. I almost thought like there’s been less roster turnover, right? He did play with Precious because they were both stuck at Toronto. Oh wow. But other than that, him and Precious can commiserate about being traded for Kyle Lowry, who’s now working for Amazon and the 76ers at the same time. SL Yeah. Slash also uh getting a Kawi Leonard type of contract from a no-show deal for I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Um love Goran Drag. Would love to have him on the roster. Um, anything else on this, David, before we get out of here? No, not on the roster. I mean, on the on the staff. Yeah. Yeah. No, that would be a little unusual on the roster. Why not those injuries, you know? Look, if we could I I just kind of like talking about some of the videos we had from media day and some of the conversations we had. It’s, you know, we had that kind of running uh gag at the end of each interview looking at players to identify where in the cafeteria maybe they’d want to sit and the table that was I think chosen the most was the one with the assistant coaches because they’re just they’re they’re still in that kind of nebulous phase. They’re not the old heads. They’re not the head coach. They’re not the front office necessarily. They’re just they’re just guys and this is CB Kar Butler who retired a few years ago. Wayne Ellington retired recently. UT who retired very recently. like those guys are still part of the uh part of the brotherhood, so to speak. And I think Goran is still there. Like he’s a guy who could he could still mix it up. I mean, if he was out there practicing, I don’t think anybody would be surprised by it. So, I think it would be Yeah, it’s a it’s a great move to have somebody like him. I think he would certainly fit in the table number five. Go check out those videos from the keys under the mat, Goran. Keys under the mat. That’ll do it for us today and probably for the rest of the week unless we have breaking news. So, thanks so much for making Lockdown Heat your first listen today. again unless there’s breaking news. We’ll see you right back here at the beginning of next week.

Miami Heat News: Nikola Jovic Signs $62M Deal | Cap Impact & Goran Dragic’s New Role

Nikola Jovic has officially signed a four-year contract extension with the Miami Heat, and fans are debating whether it’s a franchise-defining move or a risky gamble. In this episode of Locked on Heat, we break down what this deal means for Jovic’s role, Miami’s salary cap future, and the team’s overall direction.

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil analyze Jovic’s growth, his potential ceiling, and how his development impacts the Heat’s rotation. They also discuss Goran Dragic’s possible new role with the organization and what it means for Heat Culture. Tune in for in-depth analysis, Heat insider updates, and all the context you need to understand this major move.

0:00 Intro
1:30 Nikola Jovic signs extension with Heat
11:55 What this deal means for Miami’s cap space and roster moves
24:34 Training camp updates & Goran Dragic’s potential new role with the Heat

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