LAS VEGAS \u2014 Still in Miami Heat colors, still working out at the Heat\u2019s summer-league hotel, still with the opportunity to make things right with the team that drafted him in the first round of the 2022 NBA draft.<\/p>\n
For a player who didn\u2019t go anywhere in terms of the NBA trade market this summer, it still has been quite the whirlwind for Nikola Jovic, and for more than the forward\u2019s play the past week with the Serbian national team.<\/p>\n
As the Heat reset in the wake of their trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>, a significant portion of last season\u2019s roster is gone, including Tyler Herro, Kel\u2019el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis, with those four sent out in the deal with the Milwaukee Bucks for Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis, along with Norman Powell departing<\/a> for the Chicago Bulls in free agency.<\/p>\n Yet there on the makeshift practice court at the Heat\u2019s team hotel remains Jovic, who in some regards stood as a player most likely to be dealt after a disappointing 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, I was happy that I stayed,\u201d Jovic said of surviving the Antetokounmpo trade. \u201cI thought I was probably not going to be here. But I\u2019m really happy. Obviously, not only because I\u2019m going to share the court and play with him, but I\u2019m also happy that I\u2019m going to be able to learn from one of the greatest power forwards ever \u2014 the way he lives, the way he treats basketball, and stuff like that.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy for him, too. I hope he\u2019s going to enjoy everything we can bring him and help him try to win. And I\u2019m happy this team looks pretty good right now.\u201d<\/p>\n The hope once again is that the Heat can get the Jovic who consistently has thrived on the international stage with the Serbian national team, including 22 points and five assists in a July 2 Serbia victory over Switzerland in World Cup qualifying and then 32 points on Monday in a Serbia World Cup qualifying victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good. I think it builds your confidence back up a little bit,\u201d Jovic, 23, said of the international competition over the past week. \u201cLike I always say, I know how good I am. I never didn\u2019t believe in myself. But it\u2019s always good to look good and play good for your country. It\u2019s good to build my confidence back up a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Which was needed, with Jovic not only coming off an uneven season, but with his Heat value on the trade market having cratered just as he is about to begin the four-year, $62.4 million extension signed prior to last season.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t really worried because, like they always say, you cannot control it,\u201d he said of the trade conjecture that continued even after the Antetokounmpo deal. \u201cIt\u2019s not up to me, at the end of the day. Of course, I want to stay. As long as I\u2019m here, I want to feel like I\u2019m giving something back to the city, to the fans, to the team. That\u2019s the most important thing to me. I\u2019m happy.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, I can help this team go further this year, and really make our fans and our front office happy.\u201d<\/p>\n What Jovic said can\u2019t happen is viewing last season as a throwaway year.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you ever throw something like that away,\u201d he said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a great season, but I learned a lot. You learn a lot. I feel like while you\u2019re down like that, I think that\u2019s when you actually learn the most. At that point, you feel like you never want to be at that place again.<\/p>\n \u201cSo you do everything to not be at that place again. I feel like I learned a lot. It wasn\u2019t great. The last season wasn\u2019t great, but I learned a lot. Hopefully, this year, I know it\u2019s going to be a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n And, yes, the extension weighed as his salary was going up and statistics going down.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there was a lot of little stuff that kind of came together and kind of didn\u2019t help me really succeed,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, mentally, I feel like after I signed that deal, it was the first time I felt like I wasn\u2019t really motivated. I felt like I needed something to motivate me more. After you don\u2019t play great, there goes your motivation. You want to be great again.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, there is an opportunity to do that alongside Antetokounmpo, with the mechanics of the deal leaving the Heat short on depth.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I\u2019m just going to play smart,\u201d Jovic said of his perceived revised role. \u201cI\u2019m not going to have the ball a lot in my hands. It\u2019s something that we have other guys for that. I\u2019ve got to get my shot right. I think it\u2019s the most important thing. From there, the small things like cuts, working around the baseline, being ready.\u201d<\/p>\n As has been the case when playing alongside Nikola Jokic with the Serbian national team.<\/p>\n \u201cNow you have Bam (Adebayo) and Giannis who pull a lot of attention toward them,\u201d Jovic said. \u201cI feel like everybody else just got to fit perfectly. I watched a lot of film. Even during the national team, you work on the simple things \u2014 cuts, flares, offensive rebounds, and stuff like that to try and fit perfectly for the Heat.\u201d<\/p>\n So from Greek national-team opponent on the international scene, now Antetokounmpo as a teammate.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a beast,\u201d Jovic said. \u201cThere\u2019s not much you can say more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Still in Miami Heat colors, still working out at the Heat\u2019s summer-league hotel, still with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2558,8173,355,99],"class_list":["post-753311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}