NBA star makes a shocking return to the Heat after an eventful G League journey.
Before second-year forward Nikola Jovic left the Miami Heat to play in the G League last week, Jimmy Butler told Jovic his plan. With the Heat then in Chicago for a two-game set against the Bulls, Butler informed Jovic he intended to make the short trip to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to watch Jovic play in a G League game with the Heat’s developmental affiliate.
“He asked me where we played and I told him, and he told me he was going to come,” Jovic recalls, with the Heat now in Brooklyn to close its five-game trip against the Nets on Saturday (6 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) after wasting a double-digit fourth-quarter lead in a 100-98 loss to the New York Knicks on Friday to begin the back-to-back set. “I was 100 percent sure he would not come.”
But Butler kept his word, making arrangements to take the 175-mile flight from Chicago to attend Jovic’s G League season debut with the Sioux Falls Skyforce on Sunday.
“I was just shocked,” Jovic said of his reaction when he saw Butler sitting courtside at Oshkosh Arena. “It’s all love. He told me right after the game that he would not lie about stuff like that. He’s someone I really look up to and someone I really appreciate for everything he’s doing.”
Butler re-joined the Heat in Chicago after taking in that G League game last week, while Jovic remained with the Skyforce until re-joining the short-handed Heat to provide depth for Saturday’s matchup against the Nets at Barclays Center.
The 20-year-old Jovic, who the Heat drafted with the 27th overall pick last year, played in three G League games before returning to the Heat on Saturday. In those three G League games, Jovic averaged 16.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and four assists per game while shooting 42.5 percent from the field and 8 of 17 (47.1 percent) from three-point range while the Skyforce posted a 1-2 record.
“Just getting back in the rhythm of playing,” Jovic said of the benefits of his short G League stint after beginning the season out of the Heat’s rotation. “I think that’s the most important thing because I’ve been so much up and down lately and I’m just trying to play and that’s it. That’s probably the first thing, the most important one. The second one is just defensively staying good in one-on-one situations. That’s the most important thing, staying solid and seeing how my defense will be.”
That time in the G League also gave Jovic an opportunity to play a new position, as he has was used as a center for most of his minutes during his three-game run with the Skyforce.
Jovic, who is listed at 6-foot-10 and 240 pounds, is known as a forward and said the switch to center and “playing out of position” with the Skyforce was challenging. But he added that he knows playing as a center is “the only way probably I’ll get on the court with the Heat. So that’s what I need to do and that’s how it will stay for now.”
Why does Jovic feel that center is his quickest path to playing time with the Heat?
“I think it’s going to be the fastest way to get on the court because we have a lot of fours,” said Jovic, who appeared in just two games with the Heat this season before he was sent to play in the G League. “It’s something that everybody can see. At five right now, we have Bam [Adebayo] and Kevin Love is coming off the bench as like a stretch five. So I think and I think the coaches also think the fastest way for me to get back on the court will be just playing at the five.”
The toughest aspect of the adjustment for Jovic that comes with playing as a center is on the defensive end, as expected. That’s because Jovic’s offensive game is ahead of his defense as a big man who can be used as a ball-handler, facilitator and outside shooter.
“I need to adjust first defensively because they’re probably not going to let me switch, so it’s different coverages at the five,” he said. “It’s hard, really. Offensively, I know I’ll be good. Whatever position I play, I know I’ll be productive in some ways. Defensively, now zoning and that stuff that I normally don’t do and against those bigger guys, it’s different. I feel like it might be something that I’m really not good at. But still, I’ll try my best.”
When discussing Jovic’s move to center with the Skyforce, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has emphasized that Jovic “needs as much of that as possible.”
“I want to get him minutes at both positions,” Spoelstra said of Jovic getting experience at the forward and center spots while with the Skyforce. “… And when he plays five for us, it looks a little bit different than it does down there. He’s got a lot more bigger wings and there’s a dimension that can really help Jimmy [Butler] that’s intriguing to us. So he has to gobble up all those different experiences and it will change game to game.”
HEAT FACES MUST-WIN:
Friday’s loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden dropped the Heat’s record during the four-game group stage of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament to 2-1.
To have any chance of getting past the group stage and advancing to the quarterfinals by either winning its group or claiming the Eastern Conference wildcard spot, the Heat needs to win its final group play game on Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks at Kaseya Center. But even if the Heat wins Tuesday, its In-Season Tournament fate will be determined by tiebreakers.
Here are the current standings for the Heat’s five-team group for the tournament: 1. Bucks (3-0), 2. Knicks (2-1), 3. Heat (2-1), 4. Charlotte Hornets (1-2), 5. Washington Wizards (0-4).
INJURY REPORT:
On the second night of a road back-to-back set, the Heat ruled out Bam Adebayo (left hip contusion), R.J. Hampton (right knee sprain), Tyler Herro (right ankle sprain), Duncan Robinson (right thumb sprain), Orlando Robinson (G League) and Dru Smith (right ACL sprain) for Saturday’s matchup against the Nets.
Butler is listed as questionable after turning his right ankle during Friday’s loss to the Knicks. Butler remained in the game to play 37 minutes in the defeat.
The Nets will be without Ben Simmons (left lower back nerve impingement), Dennis Smith Jr. (lower back sprain) and Cam Thomas (left ankle sprain) against the Heat.