{"id":198119,"date":"2025-07-27T22:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T22:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/198119\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T22:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T22:33:09","slug":"heat-notes-star-duo-jovic-larsson-fontecchio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/198119\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat Notes: Star Duo, Jovic, Larsson, Fontecchio"},"content":{"rendered":"

If this season goes poorly, it could lead to an internal examination of the Heat\u2019s longest-tenured pairing, writes Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an offseason mailbag, Winderman says that the entire organization, including head coach Erik Spoelstra, understands that the team\u2019s performance the last two years, which landed them at 10th and 8th, respectively, in the standings, is not to the franchise\u2019s lofty standards.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Butler<\/a>\u2018s impact on those outcomes can\u2019t be overlooked, but Winderman also says, \u201cThis very much could be the make-or-break season for the Tyler Herro<\/a>\u2013Bam Adebayo<\/a> duo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herro had a career year last season, averaging personal highs in points (23.9) and assists (5.5) while making his first All-Star team, but that coincided with Adebayo posting his lowest scoring year since the 2019\/20 season. Most importantly, it didn\u2019t lead the team to wins.<\/p>\n

Winderman notes in the mailbag that the trade for Norman Powell<\/a> was a win-now move designed to bring in more reliable offense, and that there will be expectations for the team to show signs of growth in the first full season of the post-Butler era.<\/p>\n

We have more from the Heat:<\/p>\n

Nikola Jovic<\/a> understands the risk for the Heat\u00a0in Jovic\u2019s participation in EuroBasket for his home country of Serbia, and is grateful for both the opportunity and the guidance from former Miami guard Goran Dragic<\/a>, writes Winderman<\/a>. \u201cYou\u2019re letting someone play for their country, paying them a lot of money, and they\u2019re important to you,\u201d Jovic said. \u201cAn injury would definitely be a setback for them. But, by chance, and to my great fortune, I\u2019m part of the Miami team that had Goran Dragic<\/a>.\u201d The Heat expressed that Dragic always came back from international tournaments a better player, a pronouncement which gives him confidence in himself and his development. Jovic is expected to command a large role with the Serbian team, which won the bronze medal at the 2023 World Cup, and he hopes that will help him solidify a more consistent role with the Heat. \u201cThis way, I enter the new NBA season already in game rhythm. I just keep going,\u201d he said.
\nAlso set to participate in EuroBasket is Heat shooting guard Pelle Larsson<\/a>, who will represent Sweden not long after playing for Miami in Summer League. Winderman isn\u2019t worried<\/a> about the workload for Larsson, especially since the team let him out of his summer duties four days early to join Team Sweden. He adds that rather than being nervous about the grind of going from Summer League to EuroBasket to training camp, the Heat are excited to see what the 24-year-old can do as a leading man in the games.
\nSimone Fontecchio<\/a> has arrived in Folgaria, in northern Italy, to join the Italian EuroBasket squad, writes Michele Nespoli of Sportando<\/a>. However, he will be unable to start training with them until Wednesday, July 30, as stipulated by the NBA\u2019s regulations in regards to FIBA competition. Fontecchio has chosen to report to the team early to be in closer communication with them, as he did in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If this season goes poorly, it could lead to an internal examination of the Heat\u2019s longest-tenured pairing, writes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[1179,7,6274,144,295,189,3881,6,2202,2248,3303,492],"class_list":{"0":"post-198119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-bam-adebayo","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-goran-dragic","11":"tag-heat","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-heat","14":"tag-miamiheat","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nikola-jovic","17":"tag-pelle-larsson","18":"tag-simone-fontecchio","19":"tag-tyler-herro"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114927580392355808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}