Tuesday night\u2019s play-in opener<\/a> in overtime by the Charlotte Hornets. \u201cLike I said, in the minutes I have, I\u2019ve got to be perfect to get consistent minutes. If I don\u2019t, I\u2019m just going to be at the end of the bench, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\nWhich is where the 2022 Heat first-round pick was for the entirety of the loss to the Hornets, even with the Heat losing starting center Bam Adebayo in the opening ticks of the second quarter to the back injury inflicted by what later was ruled a flagrant foul on Hornets guard LaMelo Ball.<\/p>\n
To the Heat, Jovic\u2019s season-ending remarks were the polar opposite of what coach Erik Spoelstra expressed moments earlier from that same seat in the Heat interview room.<\/p>\n
\u201cNiko\u2019s objective this offseason?\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cTo not have a victim mindset about it, to not blame anything, just get to work and improve the things that he needs to improve \u2013 take it on his shoulders and he\u2019ll be just fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis skill set and his size and all the things that he brings to the table, that\u2019s not lost on any of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, yes, there also is another similarity to Robinson\u2019s Heat tenure: the weight of a contract.<\/p>\n
In August 2021, Robinson agreed to a five-year, $90 million extension, a payday that led to greater inspection, one that weighed so heavily on the payroll that it led to his trade last summer to the Pistons for Simone Fontecchio.<\/p>\n
With Jovic, there now is the pressure of the four-year, $62.4 million extension he signed in October that goes into effect next season.<\/p>\n
You take the money, you take the pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just needs to get out there, take the responsibility,\u201d Spoelstra said, \u201cbe ready for camp next year, and be ready to reach the potential that he has as a basketball player. What he does fits.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latter of which Jovic could not agree more.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy playing time and everything, it was a lot of ups and downs this year,\u201d he said. \u201cI really thought it was going to be different when things started. But, you know, things happen and it\u2019s got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the wake of Jovic\u2019s success in international play, Serbia teammate Nikola Jokic, the Denver Nuggets MVP center, cited Jovic\u2019s post-play and success with set pieces. In the movement offense adopted by Spoelstra to pick up pace, Jovic at times appeared lost \u2013 when even given a chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought this offense was going to be good for me, too,\u201d Jovic said. \u201cI think the part that kind of didn\u2019t help me is the fact that my playing time was so inconsistent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a few games, my minutes just went down and down more, and I just couldn\u2019t find the rhythm. I think this is not a hard offense to play because there\u2019s almost no rules, if I can say it like that, where you don\u2019t have screens that you\u2019ve got to make and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing at center, Jovic said didn\u2019t help either.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I played a lot more in the five this year than anything else,\u201d he said. \u201cSo there was a lot of little things that kind of didn\u2019t help me to catch that rhythm that I felt like I needed at one point. I think that\u2019s the only thing. If we keep this offense that was working for us this year, I think I can help for sure. I\u2019ve got to find a way where some stuff can be consistent, and I can, on a nightly basis, help this team win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll make sure I work on a lot of stuff that I didn\u2019t think I would need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 When it comes to this season\u2019s Miami Heat, the ultimate bounceback example was Jaime Jaquez Jr.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-237891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-miami-news","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}