Nikola Jovic Breakout Game? Miami Heat’s Preseason Opener Breakdown! 🔥

Nikola Jovic Breakout Game? Miami Heat’s Preseason Opener Breakdown! 🔥

Miami’s first preseason game is in the books and we break down what went right and wrong and why Nicole Yovich and Andrew Wiggins look poised to break out 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 Locked on Heat 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 of 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 Jam Radio. Here with David Rmill. Both of us are Credential Heat Media members who cover this team every day. We are recording this Sunday morning after the Heat’s preseason opener over the Magic. They won the first half with most of their starters playing. They lost the second half when it was mostly reserves on both sides. We will talk a little bit about some concerns that we had in this game a little bit later in the show, but the headline here, David, is Eric Spolster deciding to start Nicola Yovic over Kel Wear. Uh it is something that we have discussed over the last couple weeks, things trending in the direction of Nico earning the starting job and that’s exactly what happened. and he signs the extension and a few hours later he’s starting in Miami’s preseason opener. Um, and frankly I I thought he looked like Miami’s best player in that game. He looked comfortable. Uh, the versatility was on display. He was making shots. He dished out a couple of assists. Um, I thought he was doing all of the things that we wanted to see him do, right? We talked about him. We we talked with him at media day and asked him about playing a little bit more physically, what he learned in Serbia, being able to play uptempo. There was another up there was a there was a new uptempo offense that we’ll also talk about here a little bit later, David. But he looked very comfortable in that. We started to see the duckins. We saw him punishing smalls. If all of this is where things are trending for Nico, it feels like he’s poised for a breakout season. Absolutely. Uh he looked really solid and confident and he just looked like he was moving with intent in a way that I don’t know everybody else was. And you you talk about the first preseason game. Normally players will look a little clunky. Maybe they’re not quite sure of what their role is. They’re a little hesitant. Maybe the body and mind aren’t necessarily aligned to where they want to be. But he looks like he’s in mid-season form. And that’s a great sign for Miami because if that’s the case, if he’s able to look this solid in his first preseason outing, building off of what he did over the summer, then that really bodess well for what the rest of his season is going to look like because I think he was just doing everything that he’s capable of and at a very high level. 10 points on three of six shooting, one of three from three-point range. Got to the line uh three times, made all three of those free throws, had three rebounds, two assists in the game. Um, it was I do Oh, I was going to I want to quantify to a certain degree. He he looks and we talked about this earlier in the week. Everything we heard from him in media day, what we heard in uh the first week of training camp, we knew that the starting position was certainly on his radar and that he looked like he was positioned to take it. But how much of the starting nod do you feel is tied to the fact that they were able to start a bigger lineup with Himeakis in the starting lineup because all the guards are out both Tyler Herro DaVon Mitchell. So your starters at guard positions or your projected starter in DaVon uh both out and and then starting Haime puts a little bit more size out there in the perimeter so that maybe you can afford to go with Nico over say Khloe. Yeah. So no Davon, no Tyler Herro, no Terry Rosier, no Pella Larson and no Kasparus Yakonis either in this game either. So basically all the guards except for Drew Smith were out and and so yeah, Eric Sper goes with Ta Hakage Jr. in the starting lineup. I don’t think that had anything to do with it. Not in a preseason game. Like, you’re not matching up that way. I I I think that he basically just started Haime to reward Haime probably for a strong training camp would be my guess. Um, but I do think that Nico starting next to Bam started to become more of a possibility once Tyler Herro got hurt because you need the shotmaking, you need the scoring. In terms of reading a ton into, well, Nico started the preseason opener in Puerto Rico. Is he going to be starting the regular season? Right now, I think things are trending in that direction. Again, Niklo Yoic, I would argue, has been the most impressive Heat player through training camp and in that first preseason game. And we’ll talk about a bunch of these other players as we go on here, but he has very much earned this spot where as we’ve heard from Eric Spolster talk about KL Wear and it’s just not there. And then you hear what Eric Spolster has to say about Nico after the contract extension. So Miami announces the contract extension, makes it official. And then Eric Boler has an opportunity to talk about it. And he talks he’s saying like he he’s earned this. It’s been amazing to watch him mature over his four years. We drafted him and he was so young and now he’s so mature and the work ethic and all this stuff like you know he doesn’t care about the injuries from the past because again Nico has earned this like that kind of language Spo does not just throw around as we know. That’s true. I’m a little surprised too because uh you know we know how Bam feels about the pos the the center position there that he’s tried to kind of get himself out of there but uh I I think you just you know a point we’ve made before about starting your best five players and and Nico is that like he’s just at a point right now where he’s better and more impactful than Khar is there greater potential on where’s side but I I think Nico is at a point now where he’s kind of flourishing and he’s comfortable and like I said I think the Euro basket tournament not only help from a confidence and mental perspective, but he’s just in game shape. He’s ready. Yep. He looks it and and he’s bringing that kind of energy and confidence to this training camp and preseason. And he looked really, really solid. So, great vote of confidence for him. Something that has always been a point for Nico where he can kind of lose confidence in himself, but I think he’s feeling it now. And the coaching staff is feeling it as well, and they’ve rewarded him as a front office by giving him the contract. So, he’s just free to do what he does best and play basketball at a high level. So, I I I’m feeling great to be honest with you about his chance as continuing as a starter because I think he just does look that good. Uh to your point, I I agree with you. I think he’s been the best player in a Heat uniform based on everything we’ve heard and seen and he just does look ready to we talked about what an X factor he was this season a couple weeks ago and I think this is a great sign for Heat fans and I know you know there there will be your critics who will say well he he’s got to play healthy he’s got to stay healthy he’s got to be consistent no doubt you could say that about any player at the NBA level like especially one who’s who’s competing for a starting job but I think Miami season really does hinge on getting something like that out of Nico consistently because if he’s healthy, he brings a level of dynamism, size, versatility that is missing from almost anybody else on this roster. And we and we saw it go in that direction, right? Like with with with Miami clearly trying to also play more uptempo and play with pace, which was the other big takeaway from this game. Nikolovic fits in with that. He is right at home in that. And we talked with Nico at media day about taking those lessons from Serbia, playing a little bit more uptempo and snappier and a little bit more um intuitive and free flowing and all this stuff. And man, I saw all of that. I saw all of it in the preseason opener. He was the duckens that we talked about. He was ducking in towards the basket in transition. He was ripping the rebounds and then pushing it down the floor. Uh he was attacking smaller players. He was seeing them in the post and being like, “Okay, I’m going to go in and I’m going to establish post position.” And what I loved about that, his teammates were looking for him in those instances. Now, it didn’t always result in points. It didn’t I don’t really care about any of that. I don’t care. I don’t care that they lost this preseason game. I don’t care. It’s a preseason. Nobody cares. I’m about the process over the results. And right now it felt like Nico was so at home and so comfortable in what this was and this in the offense that Eric Spolster seems to be trying to put together that I am doubly confident that it’s Nico’s starting job to lose at this point because he’s comfortable. It it it serves him in a way that the system doesn’t really serve somebody like Kell wear in the same way, right? Like Nico kind of flourishes in this kind of system. But um that was the other thing that Go ahead. You made a No, you made a great point about the teammates looking for him because I don’t think we’ve seen that. We’ve seen flashes of it here and there, but the fact that it’s not just Nico’s confidence or the coach’s confidence. It’s the fact that the teammates know what he’s capable of and are looking for him to create opportunities for himself. I think that speaks volumes. That’s how much faith they have in his ability and the knowledge that he can be dominant. And we’re talking about a really big Orlando team that plays defense at a high level. Sure, they’re missing a couple players themselves. They’re integrating Desmond Bane. None of that matters. Like it’s the preseason, every team is going to go through some changes here and there. But the fact that Nico was able to do this against a really solid magic group that plays defense at a high level, I think really speaks volumes that the teammates were looking to him and recognizing that he had those mismatches. Something that we have not seen from them in the past. He had a beautiful like step back three-pointer in that game. He finished a play with a lob. He was running down the court. Uh I I just it was again just a tremendous game for Nico. One other interesting note here again starters only really played the first half and Bam and Nico played most of the first half and Kell got most of his minutes in the second half although he did play a little bit in the first half as the backup center but we didn’t see any minutes of Bam and Kell together. I thought maybe we’d see it for a couple of minutes maybe at the end of the first quarter or something like that. Nope. None of that. I’m not reading too much into that again because the rotations were all weird. A bunch of guys were out. The starters basically didn’t play the second half. So, you were kind of just doing different things. But, um, just one thing to note. We’ll talk about the tempo a little bit more coming up next. Plus, we’re also going to talk about Bamab Bio and why his game wasn’t as bad as the box score might lead you to believe. Today’s episode is brought to you by Pelaton. 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Explore the new Pelaton Cross Training Tread Plus today at oneplaton.com. That’s oneplaton.com. We’ll be right back. [Music] So, the other big takeaway from this game in terms of the things that we learned, we talked in the last couple weeks leading into this looking at the roster, hey, we think that this heat team needs to play faster. We think they need to take more threes. They need to push the pace. That’s where this roster is. Talking to people at media day, everybody talking about how young this team is and all these things. And then we hear from Eric Spolster after training camp and he starts to downplay maybe playing fast, playing up tempo. says that it’s really up to the players and it’s really not about that. It’s about being intentional and doing all this. Sure, he was lying. He was playing koi. The hell with all of that. This this game was played at such a break neck pace. And I also want to point out Orlando very much helped in that too because that is also clearly a priority for the Magic is trying to play up tempo. So, you had two teams who played so slowly last year trying to reverse course and play as fast as anybody plays in this preseason game. So, with all of that in mind, keeping in mind it’s a preseason game. It’s the first one. Everybody’s excited coming out of training camp and all these things, but it is clear that the intention right now is to play fast. They got into their actions quickly. I it felt like I knew it felt like they knew what the first action was always supposed to be and it kind of felt like they knew what the second action was supposed to be. When that first action was blocked, they flowed really nicely into that second action whether it was a dribble handoff or more often than not just another pick and roll on the same side or something like that. They had their principles working. Um anybody who got the rebound was empowered to push it up the court. Y um there was no negotiating with uh after a made basket who’s inbounding, who’s bringing it up. It was just like if you’re closest, grab it and then if the other guy’s closest, he’s he’s there for the inbound and and we’re pushing we’re pushing up pace. So, um I thought tempo was a huge thing in this game. They played at a pace of 107.0 in this game. What does that mean? Memphis last year led the league in pace at 103.7. So this when I say break neck speed, that’s exactly what this is. We don’t anticipate they’ll play that fast every single night. But again, the intention here is what matters. You you ask what does it mean? And my first response is say, I don’t know. I haven’t seen this before. I don’t know what it’s like for a team to play with this kind of speed after the kind of slo we’ve seen from this group over the last few years. But uh I like the use of that word. It’s a it’s one of Spo’s favorites in tention. But you’re absolutely right that uh the players seem to understand that they were actively working towards this. But I think it’s also one of the byproducts of starting this lineup and you could take Hime out of it and put it in Davon and I think it’ll flourish just as well if not better because you have five players that are all capable of activating and moving right away and bringing the ball up. And you get that with Nico that you don’t get that with where more of a finisher at the rim, a guy who can, you know, get those looks that way. But if you’re looking to play with pace and we’ve been on this for a while during the offseason looking at this roster and what they needed to do in order to maximize this group in order to be able to capitalize on the fact that they don’t have a superstar but want to be able to increase their offense. Pace was a big part of it. Three-point shooting was a big part of it. And now with this starting lineup as tentative and tenuous as it might be because of injury, you’re still looking at a group that can push the ball that can all create. And you’ve got five guys capable of doing that. bringing the ball up, looking to dish, looking to move off ball, create secondary opportunities when those so much offball movement in that game. Yes. Uh I loved I loved how much movement it was. Everybody just sort of spacing and moving. A lot of five out things at work. A lot of flow offense principles at work. Now it’s nice first day at school, everybody’s in a good mood, right? Um we’ll see. Right. It’s one thing to run in a preseason game. Are you going to keep running in December and January and February? We don’t know, right? We can’t predict the future. What we do know is that they’re going to try. And that to me is important because they weren’t really that wasn’t this that wasn’t the scheme the last five years with Jimmy Butler. It was a very different kind of offense. Yeah, exactly. That’s what it is. It’s it’s the the different personnel now that’s more geared to this. One of the common refrains we heard at media day, this is a younger team, a younger vibe, and again based on this roster, you’ve got those players capable of of picking up the pace to a considerable degree. And uh I I think I I’m cautiously optimistic because you’re right, it is just a preseason game and yet you look at the roster, you look at their strengths, and I think they’re going to be able to do it without a doubt though. I can say pretty confidently that they’re going to be better and faster than they were last year. is probably not as fast as they were at an all time playing at an all-time pace in a preseason game, but faster. That’s pro that’s probably the best way to put it. They’ll be faster than the way they were last year. Now, does that settle into a top 10 in pace or something like that? I don’t know. But to me, what’s most important is yeah, they’re going to play faster. They’re going to try to at least play to their strengths. Let’s talk a little bit more about Bam Adabio, though. Um rough box score for him. He goes 0 for five in the game. But here’s the thing. He got to the line eight times. Went seven of eight from the free throw line. Before I say anything else, good or bad, about Bam. He missed a couple of bunnies. He missed two or three shots right in the restricted area. He can’t do that. All right. He has to make shots. You can’t go over five. So, I want to make that very clear obviously right off the top. Like, he has to be better. Now, am I concerned? Not necessarily. Maybe people are a little bit more concerned because Bam missed a bunch of shots in the portion of Miami season that people paid attention to last year. Started making shots when people stopped paying attention to the Heat. But um he’s going to have to make shots and he can’t go over five. So that’s at least something worth monitoring there. But the fact that he was aggressive that even when the shot wasn’t going in, he was so involved in the offense, David, he had the highest usage rating on the team. Yeah. And when I think when I again when I say process over results, which is really what this preseason is about, Bam being aggressive, being involved in the offense at a high usage rate, getting to the free throw line when his shot wasn’t going in, and being as aggressive as he was, that is a much bigger positive than the missed shots to me are a negative. 100%. Um, yeah, I I think he said it best. Uh, he has to get better. you know that he has to be able to hit those shots. We didn’t see him uh really go out to the perimeter the way that he did at at the close of last year pretty consistently throughout the season. And at the same time uh you just you know that those are going to get there. I I think pre maybe game one preseason jitters doesn’t have whatever it is. I’m not I’m I don’t know what to chalk up the missed bunnies too, but I’m not overly concerned about it. Yeah. I mean again Orlando’s a pretty big team. Like they’ve got the the defensive chops there. They’ve got the size there. or Wendell Carter Jr. Uh, you know, pretty solid in that regard. So, I think he’s over those guys, though. He He should He should We’re not letting him off the hook. No. Uh, and yet you recognize that I think he’s going to be able to have his moments. And uh you you want him still, and I know this is I don’t know, year 100 of of saying the same thing over and over again. He has to be more aggressive. But I think he also looked apart the getting to the line, you know, with Jimmy off the roster, where are those free throws going to come by? And we saw a jump in that department from Tyler last year, but somebody else needs to be able to compliment him and step up accordingly. And I think Bam is poised for that because he does have the expanded range now where it kind of keeps a defender guessing a little bit. Is he going to pull up? Is he going to be able to drive past me? And we know that Bam’s size and speed is such a great combination because he can get past those initial defenders or he can still attack authoritatively in the painted area. I think he’s going to get his free throw. I would say he’s poised for a careerhigh free throw attempts per game because I think he’s just at that level and I think he recognizes that’s something necessary for him. Hopefully, it doesn’t lead to injury or anything along those lines, but uh as a a building block for this team and a a central player of what they’re looking to do moving forward, he has to be much more consistent in that regard. And yesterday was certainly a good sign of that. Staying aggressive when the shot isn’t going in. We have seen Bam on nights where the shot isn’t falling take a step back and just be like, “Okay, I guess I’ll just do the dribble handoff thing for the rest of the night.” Because was not the case, right? He got to the line. He was he was putting pressure on on Orlando’s defense. All we want to see from Bam is to be aggressive, right? That’s any that’s the only thing that’s the word thrown around all the time with Bam. Be aggressive. And he was. And he was. And he had a usage rate of over 27% in that game, highest on the team. Like he’s so involved in the offense. He’ll make the bunnies, the shots will go in. Other nights, the shots won’t go in. That’s the case for everybody, right? But the but when you every Yeah, there’s nights where the stars But it’s a matter of making an impact, scoring points, doing things even when the shot isn’t going in and staying aggressive and setting uh and like make again making an impact offensively. And I think I think Bam made an impact offensively despite the fact they didn’t make a field goal, right? Yeah. And that’s the worst preseason game that BAM has. I wouldn’t be surprised shooting wise. Absolutely. Yeah. I I think that you’re right. Um he he’ll get more comfortable and the shots will fall. Hopefully uh yesterday’s game wasn’t a sign of and you pointed this out, you know, something similar to what we saw last year where he kind of started off the this the first half of the season a little bit slowly, but I think a lot of that was mostly due to just kind of implementing a new offense and you kind of got bad vibes being like, “Hey, we’re not taking mid-range shots at the beginning of last year.” And Bam’s like, “Well, that’s the only thing I do.” So, we we talked about that a lot in the first half of last season. And eventually they were like, “All right, fine. Just take them.” and then his and then they and then his his offense started to take off from there and clearly I think he’s just more involved in what’s going on right now than he was at the beginning of last year. So, um process over results with BAM, we feel pretty good about it. What else do we feel good about? We’re going to get to that next. Also, we do have concerns, things that are worth flagging. We’ll talk about all of that next here as we wrap up uh our first postgame reaction to our preseason game here on Locked on Heat. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season’s here. VanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss because right now, new customers can bet just $5, and you 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. Uh you’ll love how FanDuel gives you so many ways to play. You can build parlays, you can try player props, you can even follow the live lines during games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. I know the Dolphins season has not gone the way a lot of Miami fans would like it to. And if you want to add a little action to it, well, this is the best way of doing it. Whether you’re a casual fan or whether you love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. It’s football Sunday. Make the most of it. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com. Download the FanDuel app today and get started only when you go visit fanuel.com. We’ll be right back. [Music] All right, final notebook dump from our first preseason game. What else did we learn from this? Let’s start with the negative. That way we can end on a positive. David, um concerns. This one is obvious. You gave up 22 offensive rebounds and 43 second chance points. Uh that is going to be an issue if this is the starting lineup. U it’s my main concern with Yoic in there instead of KL Wear. Um, also worth mentioning, Tyler Hero is an excellent rebounder at the guard position. Wiggins and Powell were non-factors on the boards in this game. They have to be better on the boards. Now, the Orlando Magic are an abnormally very good rebounding team. So, you have a little bit of that’s part of what they do and Miami kind of figuring out what they do. Eric Spolster was asked about it. He said that they definitely have to work on it, but I do think it is a concern when you look at what the starting lineup looks like. Um, Hayakos Jr. not a great rebounder at that spot. Wiggins pal have to be. Wiggins can be a very good rebounder when he’s engaged. And there’s other nights where like, is he ever going to grab a rebound? Um, they have to be better. They have to be. They cannot give up 43 second chance points and expect to win games in the season. Do you think it’s a concerted effort though in in terms of you have to make a sacrifice because you’re leaning into this faster pace in this style of play that you’re going to give up more possessions that way because you’re looking to you know maybe uh you know just pick up the pace initiate action sooner and if that means giving up the rebound here and there it’s just a byproduct of that because I kind of feel like that’s where it was where you had some players maybe be a little less aggressive or maybe out of position a little bit because they were already kind of trying to figure out how Yeah, that that’s that was exactly what my thought was when I was kind of combing over the stats this morning, David. And I actually went back and watched uh a bunch of the first half and I expected to see specifically Powell and Wiggins when the Magic put up a shot leaking out to try to beat them in transition. That wasn’t really happening. It was mostly just standing around. Yeah. And getting beat, by the way, by a very big Orlando team. Again, the Magic are a very good rebounding team. So, it was just sort of a tough thing. But I do think part of it also to your point is we were so focused on the tempo. We were so focused on like who’s handling the ball because of all all of our point guards didn’t make the trip to Port like who all this stuff that maybe the rebounding fell to the wayside here and it just has to be more of a concern. They’re not going to be as good of a rebounding team as the Orlando Magic. They’re going to give up second chance points and offensive. They’re going to be at a deficit. Uh the reason they lost this game for all of that matters is because of the second chance points, right? They basically won on all other fronts. They just have to narrow that margin. They can’t give up 43 second chance points. But that’s the thing, right? Is if you’re going to start this lineup with um presumably DaVon Mitchell in the high spot, uh then you’re going to have to figure out ways to gain rebound. You’re going to have to figure out ways to narrow that margin to the point where you’re not the worst rebounding team in the league, which is what they basically were acting like last night. Um and if you can win in the other spots, then that’s how you win games. Yeah, it makes sense. Um I’m trying to recall. Da’Von is solid rebounder despite his size. Uh, you know, aggressive in that regards. Good at using his physicality to to box out a little bit to create those opportunities for elsewhere. But I mean, Nico is just starting to round into It’s Nico. He’s got to be better. And Wiggins, those those guys have to be better. Yeah, Wiggins. Uh, look, Nico, that’s been a weak spot for him throughout his career. um for all the other things that he does well rebounding and that kind of level of aggression, not a strong suit for him yet. But Wigs is just too lanky and long to be able to just give up on a play like that where he sees the the ball car him off and just kind of let it go to somebody else, expecting somebody else to pick zero rebounds in 12 minutes. He’s got he just he got better. That said, I don’t want to uh go off on Wiggins too hard here if we’re going to go to the positives. He looked really good outside of the the non-factor on the boards, right? Like Wiggins was pretty excellent. 11 points on four of six shooting. Made both of his three-point attempts. Did have two assists. Had a steal in that game. Looked much more comfortable right away. Um it was a really strong performance overall, I thought, from Andrew Wiggins in a system again that can utilize a little bit of his strengths. Yeah. Uh what he did poorly really stood out, but what he did well also really stood out and that’s where looking to Yeah. stood out more. Uh you’re looking at his strengths there. He was forcing turnovers. He was quick in the pace. He was aggressive with the shot making hit a three. Like he looked really solid in every regard and and just using his size and speed to get to the rim and and so if you’re looking and this is what we expected from him when he joined the team last year. Again, not a star, never will be, and that’s not the hope. He’s not replacing Jimmy Butler, but is he a very good complimentary player because he’s a two-way player because of the size and speed? Absolutely. and and that being the case, he looks like he’s going to have a really solid season. And I think you use the right word, he’s embracing his role and he knows how to flourish alongside guys like Bam and eventually Tyler here. Drew Smith played his first game since uh returning from his Achilles tear that he suffered in December. Seven points, three of five shooting. Made his one three-point attempt in this game. Had a rebound. Um had a steal, had two block shots in this game. Did turn the ball over twice. Did all of that in 10 minutes. I thought he looked really good. More importantly, he was out there with basically zero restrictions. And um with all the point guards being hurt except for Drew Smith, Spo decides to bring Drew Smith off the bench so that that second unit that played in the second half had somebody to run the offense. I thought that was smart. It allowed Drew to kind of do his thing, explore the studio space a little bit, and just kind of get back onto the court for the first time since December. So, it was great to see him out there. I’ve done such a 180 on Drew like over the last few years because at first he he felt like the scapegoat of what was wrong with a team kind of relying on on you know scrubs and and guys like I mean that’s unfair guys. Yeah. Yeah. you know, you don’t want to just bolster, especially when they were at that point looking at themselves as championship contenders or playoff contenders and and he felt like part of the problem. And yet, uh, he’s just worked so hard to get here. And every time you see him now, like he feels this was very much like what we saw from him at the end of last year or the middle of last year when before he got hurt, like when he was just making winning plays and impacting the game and constant effort and doing all the little things and he looked really solid. So, great to see him again. preseason game, you wonder how he’s going to fit into the rotation. But I have a hard time seeing Spone not giving him minutes at some point just because of what he can do when he’s out there. Yeah. And that’s like of all the people to like not matter that it’s preseason versus regular, he’s he suffered an Achilles tear and now he’s healthy, right, just a few months ago. So the fact that he’s out there is like the real important thing with Drew Smith. Uh last guy I want that we want to talk about here, Norm Pal, uh makes his heat quote unquote debut, preseason debut, whatever. What I found really interesting, David, not asked to run the offense. And I thought with Tyler Hero out and then especially in this game where so many of your guards didn’t make the trip, were they just going to put the rock in Pal’s hands and say, “All right, man. You think you could be a featured guy, show us?” And they were and they did the opposite of that. He was very much a complimentary piece in this game. I don’t think he was bad. That’s not what I’m saying. He had five points, two of six shooting. It wasn’t the best night for him. No, it wasn’t. But the fact that they’re not asking him to be this featured guy, I thought was interesting. Uh especially when you didn’t have any real guards available in this game. So, uh point guards available in this game. So, um is that a sign of things to come with Norm Powell? Was this just a one-off? I don’t really know. But he did hit a really nice uh pull up three-pointer in this game. Uh space the floor well. I thought attacked the basket pretty well overall, even if the shot wasn’t going in. So, that was my biggest takeaway though. not asked to run the offense, being more of a complimentary piece, which is frankly probably what he’s best at. Oh, no, undoubtedly. I was just thinking about that. It’s like he’s never been the lead guy. He’s never expected to do so. Frankly, I don’t think he’s capable of it. And and that’s fine. You’re not hoping for that from him. Uh maybe it might be born out of necessity because of the injuries and things of that sort, but the reality is that’s not going to be his strong suit. So, put him in a position to succeed, and what he does best is to be that kind of complimentary scorer. But I do like the aggression from him. Similar to what we said with Bam. You hope that those shots do fall with regularity, but the process is there. The aggressiveness was there in a way that I don’t even know we saw that. We saw a little bit of that from Bam, but uh he just got kept attacking, was able to put the ball down and and and move towards the the paint with intention. I feel like I feel like we’re echoing that word from Spo all the time. But it really does matter because we’re seeing it with Norm and with Bam that even when the shots don’t fall, you’re still trying to create something. You’re still trying to make an opportunity there and eventually those shots will fall. He’s just too good a score for that not to be the case. He might not be what he was last year, but he doesn’t have to be either. And I still think that what we saw from him was a positive sign and hopefully he’ll continue to build off that. Anything else from this game that that stood out that we didn’t get to before we uh before we get out of here quickly? I mean, some of the the guys at the end of the bench or the guys competing for minutes, but you never really know how uh how much they’re going to be playing anyway. Simone, I guess he was okay in his outing there. Uh you know, but you know, can you read too much into Kishad Johnson or Myron Gardner? Kasha Johnson had a nice uh reverse layup in that game. That was pretty sick. Um so, yeah, you know, good good to see him out there. Um, let us know what you think in the comments section. What was your big takeaway from Miami’s preseason opener? For now, thanks for making Locked On your first listen every day. For your second listen, go find Locked On Fantasy Basketball. Josh Lloyd hosts the number one fantasy basketball podcast, giving you daily tips and helping you win your league, all while making you a smarter NBA fan. Find Locked on Fantasy Basketball on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

The Miami Heat won the first half of their preseason opener vs the Orlando Magic, and the headline was that Nikola Jovic earned the first start next to Bam Adebayo.

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil react to Miami’s preseason opener, what they saw from Jovic and why Erik Spoelstra chose to start him over Kel’el Ware. They also discuss the good and bad from Bam Adebayo’s performance, Andrew Wiggins’ standout game, Dru Smith’s return and Norman Powell’s debut. They also touch on some concern areas the Heat need to clean up.

0:00 Intro
1:30 Nikola Jovic shines in start
12:00 Heat’s new up-tempo offense
15:00 Good & bad of Bam’s game
22:45 Wiggins, Dru Smith and Norm Powell notes

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