What Pat Riley told Jovic and reaction to his Heat debut. Lowry: ‘He’s going to be good’
Rookie forward Nikola Jovic was at the Heat’s practice facility recently when team president Pat Riley stopped him.
“He said I changed — in a good way,” Jovic said. “Basketball wise and strength wise.”
Jovic arrived as a highly skilled but raw prospect needing to add strength and muscle.
And when the 27th overall pick from Serbia made his NBA debut Wednesday night in Portland, he immediately found himself at a 65-pound weight deficit against Portland’s Jusuf Nurkic.
But he wasn’t pushed around like a rag doll. He didn’t look out of place, despite his festival of fouls (five of them) in his 14 minutes during the Heat’s 119-98 win at Portland.
“Jovic played well,” Kyle Lowry said before the Heat traveled to San Francisco for Thursday’s late game at the Warriors. “He’s going to be good. He’s going to be good.”
Coach Erik Spoelstra opted for Jovic after Bam Adebayo picked up his third foul with 7:30 left in the second quarter, then went back to Jovic with 4:06 left in the third, even though Dwayne Dedmon had just two fouls at both of those junctures.
“He’s been putting in a lot of time; he still has a lot to learn,” Spoelstra said. “The guys encourage him. They see his skill set. They see how he can help.”
His final numbers: two points and two rebounds on 1-for-3 shooting, plus a steal, a turnover and those five fouls in 14 minutes. The Heat outscored Portland by two when he was in the game.
“It was good to have him out there when we are playing well so you can see the possibilities, so hopefully we can build on that,” Spoelstra said. “There were some things offensively where we could move him around.
“He’s mobile. Even though he did [draw five] fouls, a lot of them were on [Damian] Lillard pick-and-rolls. He’s going to draw fouls on your best defenders.”
When Spoelstra summoned him off the bench, “I was like, ‘me?’”Jovic said afterward, smiling.
Playing in an NBA game, he said, felt “amazing. I’m just happy we won and luckily I made a basket.”
That basket came on a second-quarter tip-in of his own miss.
As for the fouls, “it’s OK,” he said. “They told me it was going to happen. I’m a rookie. I’m a new guy. Of course they are going to do that to me. But it’s all right. I’ll get used to it.”
He admits that he felt “nervous a little bit” making his regular-season debut.
His 6-11 frame is starting to fill out after a summer in the Heat’s strength and conditioning program.
“My body fat went down a lot,” he said. “It’s looking good. I’m adding weight little by little. It’s not easy to gain weight at this time. I’ll add more weight for sure during the season. They expect a lot from me” in terms of sculpting his body.
The Heat lists the 6-11 Jovic at 225 pounds and he said the team hasn’t told him a long-term target.
That makes him the lightest of the Heat’s power rotation players.Adebayo, at 6-9, and 6-11 Omer Yurtseven are both listed at 255; 6-11 Dwayne Dedmon is 250.
Jovic has heard the comparisons to several NBA players, most of them skilled shooters from overseas.
“It’s funny, because everybody thinks I look like that player, this player,” he said. “I heard [Danilo] Gallinari, [Nemanja] Bjelica, a few players.”
Others have mentioned Kristaps Porzingis, who’s 7-3 and 240 pounds. Is that a reasonable comparison?
“I’m not going to compare myself to him; he’s a great player,” Jovic said. “For sure, there are some similarities. He can shoot, spread the floor.”
The Heat views Jovic as a power forward with the ability to play center; he never played either position in Serbia and was strictly a wing player growing up.
“I like it,” he said of playing in the power rotation. “The power forward, center position, I feel comfortable.”
Heading into camp, this was widely viewed as something of a developmental season for Jovic as he adjusts to the NBA game. But his preseason play at least has given Spoelstra something to think about.
“Being in the rotation and a winning team is something everyone wants,” he said.
Jovic said some members of his family visited him in preseason. But whereas Adebayo moved his mother to South Florida to make his life easier as a rookie, Jovic said he’s fine living alone, cooking his own meals and doing his laundry.
“My mom was here for a couple of weeks,” he said. “She’s now back in Serbia. My family is probably going to come soon. Sometimes, it’s good to have some of your family around you. But I don’t have a problem living alone.”
MARTIN’S MASTERPIECE
There was so much good to come from Miami’s win in Portland, including an efficient night from Kyle Lowry (17 points, 6 assists and 5 for 7 on threes), Strus’ continued punch off the bench (16 points), good work from both Jimmy Butler (17 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) and Adebayo (18 points, 8 rebounds) and improved work on the boards (46-38 advantage) and shotmaking (50.6 percent from the field, 39.5 on threes).
And at the epicenter of everything was Caleb Martin, who was a defensive menace with four steals (three leading to his own transition baskets) and 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting and 8 rebounds.
“If he hadn’t scored one basket tonight, he was going to be the player of the game regardless,” Spoelstra said. “His activity was really contagious for everybody else.”
Martin did admirable work while rotating defensive assignments among Portland guards Lillard and Anfernee Simons and forward Jerami Grant.
And “even when he was switched and had Nurkic in the post, he used his speed, quickness, disruptiveness to use it as an advantage for us,” Spoelstra said. “It felt like he was the Matrix out there, a bunch of different places at the same time.”
Wednesday “was one of those games [reflective of] the reason he got paid,” Lowry said. “He hustled to the floor, got offensive rebounds, played defense, picked up full court. That’s the element he always brings.”
YURTSEVEN RETURNS TO MIAMI
After traveling with the Heat to Portland, Ore., for the start the trip, Yurtseven returned to Miami ahead of Thursday night’s matchup against the Golden State Warriors to receive more treatment on his injured ankle. Yurtseven has yet to play this regular season, as he recovers from a left ankle impingement.
Yurtseven said Wednesday that he hopes to make his return within a week, but added that he’s still feeling the effects of the injury.
The only other Heat player who is set to miss Thursday’s game against the Warriors is guard Victor Oladipo, who is also in Miami recovering from an injury. Oladipo has yet to make his debut this regular season because of left knee tendinosis.
▪ Udonis Haslem made his debut in what he says will be his final NBA season, playing the final 2:16 of the blowout win in Portland and finishing with a blocked shot and rebound.
He joins Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki as the only players in NBA history to appear in games every year for 20 seasons with the same team.
This story was originally published October 27, 2022 at 10:56 AM.
