Nikola Jovic gets ‘extra boost’ from impending extension with Heat: ‘I’m happy’
As of Thursday afternoon, Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic had yet to formally sign his extension. So he was encouraged not to speak about his impending new deal.
But Jovic’s smile after Thursday’s training camp practice at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton said it all.
“I feel good,” Jovic, 22, said. “I feel good. I’m blessed and everything. Still talking to my agent, you know, progress is being made. Haven’t signed anything officially, but hopefully we’ll get there soon. I’m happy that this ownership and organization sees the talent and sees the work I put in. And I’ll make sure to give my everything to make this contract worth a lot more.”
Jovic agreed to a four-year, $62.4 million rookie-scale extension with the Heat, a league source confirmed to the Miami Herald on Wednesday night. The deal does not include a team or player option and is fully guaranteed.
The extension’s average of $15.6 million per season puts Jovic just around non-taxpayer midlevel exception money, which is worth $14.1 million this season but will continue to go up each season.
Jovic has been eligible to sign a rookie-scale extension with the Heat since July 1. The sides struck a deal three weeks before that window closed on Oct. 20.
Jovic, who is due $4.4 million this season in the fourth and final year of his rookie deal, was eligible to sign a rookie-scale extension up to the max. By agreeing to this new contract, Jovic will avoid becoming a restricted free agent next summer.
“I feel not,” the affable Jovic said when asked if lucrative contracts can change NBA players. “I mean, I’m talking about myself. I feel I’m going to be the same person that I was coming in. Of course, grown up and maybe changed a little couple things. But I feel like it’s really important to stay humble and know where you come from and know how hard you work for those things.”
Jovic comes from Serbia, where he grew up. He moved from Europe to Miami as a 19-year-old after being drafted by the Heat with the 27th pick in the first round of the 2022 Draft.
“I feel a lot more comfortable,” Jovic said of his acclimation to Miami three years after being drafted by the Heat. “I feel like I see that stuff during this training camp, especially because it’s my fourth year. I know how things go. I kind of get used to how things go and I learn how to prepare my body, how to rest my body, what I do before a game, before practices and after practices. So it’s easier, for sure.
“This actually is my second home. I have never been anywhere else other than in Belgrade, Serbia, and now here. So I feel great here. Even this year, I actually missed Miami for the first time. So maybe one day I actually end up living here. Who knows? But, yeah, I feel a lot better.”
With the extension beginning in the 2026-27 season, Jovic is one of nine players locked into contracts with the Heat for the 2026-27 season along with Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Davion Mitchell, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, Pelle Larsson and Dru Smith. In addition, Andrew Wiggins holds a $30.2 million player option for 2026-27.
Jovic is now under contract with the Heat through the 2029-30 season. He’s the only Heat player currently under contract past the 2028-29 season.
“It will be easier in that way,” Jovic said of the long-term security that comes with his impending extension. “To think you don’t really have to play for something, but I never looked at basketball that way. I want to be the best I can be. And it just shows that they respect me and they want me here. So I got that little extra boost knowing that I can show what I can do.”
The skilled 6-foot-10 Jovic averaged career highs in points (10.7 per game), assists (2.8) and minutes (25.1) last season in his third NBA season.
Jovic’s best work came after he was moved to a bench role last season. He logged double-digit minutes in 31 straight regular-season games, averaging 12 points, four rebounds and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 45.3% from the field and 37.8% on threes.
But an injury put an end to that impressive string of games, as Jovic broke his right hand on Feb. 23 and missed the final 27 games of last regular season. He returned to take part in the Heat’s short-lived playoff run that ended in the first round for the second straight season.
“I felt like last year before I got injured, I really felt like I can help this team win,” Jovic said. “From there, even after the injury, I felt like they knew what I bring. They know what I can bring to the table and how I can help this team win. And [Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and assistant general manager Adam Simon] coming to Serbia [this past summer] and seeing me and meeting my family and everything, I felt really like a part of the family.”
Jovic has followed up his best NBA season with a productive offseason, impressing in this offseason’s EuroBasket tournament as a member of the Serbian national team. Jovic averaged 12.8 points, four rebounds and 2.2 assists per game while shooting 60% from the field and 11 of 21 (52.4%) from three-point range in six EuroBasket appearances.
Jovic’s challenge this season is staying healthy and carving out a consistent role in the Heat’s rotation after beginning last season as a starter, then being completely moved out of the rotation, and ultimately thriving in a sixth man role off the bench during the back half of the season. He has never appeared in more than 46 games in a regular season through his first three seasons.
Jovic has made clear he wants to be a starter this season after starting in 10 of his 46 regular-season appearances last season. He has started in 56 of his 107 regular-season appearances during his NBA career.
While Jovic’s situation is resolved, Heat guard Tyler Herro’s waiting game began Wednesday.
That’s because Herro’s window to sign an extension with the Heat — worth as much as $149.7 million through three seasons — opened on Wednesday.
Herro’s extension window closes on Oct. 20 just before the start of this regular season. If an agreement is not reached by then, Herro would become eligible to sign an extension worth as much as $206.9 million through four seasons during the 2026 offseason and would become supermax eligible (five years, $380 million) if he’s selected for an All-NBA team this season.
“I always felt like I have a responsibility, even my first year when I didn’t play,” Jovic said when asked if the extension will put more pressure on him to take on a big role this season. “So I always feel like I got to help any team that I’m ever with. I wouldn’t say I feel any more responsibility than now. It’s just that I know I got to show people that after the last two years that weren’t great. Yeah, we made the playoffs and everything, but we didn’t look really good. That’s where I feel responsibility, that we got to show our fans and everybody in Miami that we are better than that.”
HEAT ROOKIE MISSES PRACTICE
The first week of practice still isn’t over yet, but the Heat is already without four guards.
With Herro (left ankle surgery), Larsson (left quad contusion) and Terry Rozier (strained left hamstring) already sidelined, Jakucionis is the latest to go down.
Jakucionis was held out of Thursday’s practice at FAU because of a sprained left wrist. An MRI on the injured wrist returned negative.
While Herro is expected to be sidelined until at least mid-November, the belief is that Larsson, Rozier and Jakucionis won’t be out for an extended stretch.
The Heat closes training camp at FAU on Friday before opening the preseason against the Orlando Magic on Saturday in Puerto Rico (8 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network and NBA TV).
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 2:33 PM.
