(Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
Coming off a great summer Serbia in EuroBasket 2025, it’s been an uneven start to the 2025-26 NBA Season for Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic.
Jovic received a brand new four-year, $62.4 million extension that won’t kick in until next summer. Through 14 games, he’s averaging 8.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists on 40.2 percent shooting and 52.4 percent true shooting, six percentage points worse than his career TS% heading into the season.
Outside of one 29-point, nine-rebound, six-assist performance on Nov. 8 against the Portland Trail Blazers, the 6-foot-10 forward hasn’t quite found his footing.
Is it time to feel some buyer’s remorse? According to Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley, it is.
“They can’t quite call it an A-plus summer, though, because the four-year, $62.4 million extension given to Nikola Jović is already aging like spoiled milk,” Buckley wrote. “Granted, they were paying more for potential than actual production, but even then the numbers were supposed to be better than this: 8.8 points on 40.2/29.4/74.3 shooting.
“And remember, Miami was already absorbing some risk when it made that investment, although the risk was supposed to be regarding availability not on-court performance. So, if his injury problems resurface and his stats don’t recover, this decision will demand a lot of second-guessing.”
Why it’s still too early hit panic button on Nikola Jovic:
It’s been a disappointing start to the season for Jovic after a considerable step forward pre-injury last year.
But he’s also 22-years-old. And as we all know, development is far from linear, especially from those who have had an inconsistent role with just 121 career games under his belt.
Unfortunately, he’s suffered either ill-timed injuries or, such as in 2023-24, didn’t emerge in the rotation until the second half of the season.
Let’s not forget that Jovic was playing outstanding basketball — impacting on both sides — in the 25 games leading up to his hand injury last year, averaging 13.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists on 46.0/37.2/86.4 shooting splits.
He’s had multiple 20-30-game stretches of positive basketball throughout his career, which is saying a lot for a player with 121 career games. That’s only a year-and-a-half worth of games, which is nothing for a player’s long-term development.
Furthermore, his extension hasn’t kicked in yet … and $62.4 million isn’t that much for a fringe starter, which Jovic is! And this rough patch hasn’t jeopardized that trajectory.
As the cap continues to rise — Jovic won’t make more than 9.8 percent of the cap in his new deal — it will continue to look better as Miami’s 6-foot-10 becomes more seasoned. Rightfully, he’s still raw as a defender as a rebounder and ball handler. But he’s made progress in each of those three areas, especially as an individual and team defender.
Though we have seen players develop at different stages over the last several years. Jaime Jaquez Jr., who was unplayable last year (in part due to injury), is the perfect example; Kel’el Ware’s season has been a roller coaster despite putting up gaudy rebound numbers; we saw rocky rides with Gabe Vincent, Max Strus and Duncan Robinson before they all consistently performed, among several others.
Not all players develop at the same rate nor do they require the same tools to develop. But it’s not linear. Jovic’s start to the season is less than inspiring, but it’s way too early to be pressing the panic button.
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