He has been thriving in the role for Miami as it provides the team with size that was desperately lacking at that position as the 20-year old has the ability to be a trick under the sleeve for the Heat. Whether he will be heavily involved in the postseason rotation seems to be pointing in the direction of positivity as Spoelstra said that process is “already happening.”
“It’s already happening. You just don’t know until you get to the playoffs, but in all the things that I’ve talked about for the last several weeks, positional size the skill level,” Spoelstra said. “He [Jovic] and Bam [Adebayo] are unique, because they both can handle, they both can initiate, both can pass and Niko has really developed and worked on his shooting ability. And then all those hours drilling our defense, it’s gotten incrementally better each week of the season. Whether he is in the rotation or not. And that kind of size and habits, those things defensively help our team.”
Adebayo said Jovic is “making it hard not to play him”
Adebayo himself has always had no hesitation when praising and raving about Jovic’s ability in all departments and did so again after the win over the Raptors where the Miami All-Star finished with 19 points on eight for 10 shooting to go with six rebounds. When asked about Jovic, he said that “he’s making it hard not to play him.”
“He’s making it hard not to play him,” Adebayo said. “It sets the tone every night, he makes plays, he makes the right plays, gives those extra efforts that we need.”
Jovic talks about the aspect that will keep him on the floor
There is no doubt that the team will be throwing Jovic in the hypothetical deep end once the postseason starts as he will be playing in the most high-stakes games of his NBA career so far. It will be entirely beneficial for him by the end of it, but the biggest aspect that will keep him on the court is his defense according to Jovic after the win.
“Defense and I think defense keeps you in court. And as long as I can be good there, I think, you know, I’ll be able to play and I feel like at this point, they believe in me and they can see that I can defense,” Jovic said. “And that’s where I’ve been working a lot. That’s what I’m going to keep working on and that’s what’s gonna keep me on the court.”
Jovic speaking about his time playing for Serbian national team
Even at 20-years old, Jovic has played on a number of big stages with one being the FIBA World Cup this past summer where he was on his national team of Serbia, who finished second place in the tournament. He said after the game that it no doubt “helped a lot,” especially where it made him get familiar to playing in big games like the playoffs.
“I mean, it helped a lot. For sure. Especially because, you know, every game there matters,” Jovic said. “And if you lose, you know, it can be the game that sends you home. And those are the games that you know, probably feel like the playoffs and helped me a lot just been one of those guys there and playing against all the good teams there. You know, the only good national teams even though you know, maybe the USA will not be the best roster they still had a good squad. We played a lot of good teams and I think it prepared a lot for this year.”
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