BOCA RATON — Listen to teammates and coaches gush about Nikola Jovic at Miami Heat training camp and the praise flows regarding the playmaking, shooting, ball-handling and skill level of the 2022 first-round pick out of Serbia.
And yet arguably the single skill the Heat, with their current roster, could use most from the 6-foot-11, 247-pound big man is one rarely mentioned.
Why can’t Niko rebound?
And here’s the rub: Jovic wants to know, as well.
“I really don’t know,” Jovic said with a sheepish smile. “It’s not like I haven’t been thinking about it. And I want to be there. But sometimes the ball goes the other way.”
It has proven confounding in multiple languages.
Not only is it a focus as the Heat continue training camp at Florida Atlantic University, but it was during the recent World Cup, as well, when Jovic helped the Serbian national team to the championship game and a silver medal.
During that competition last month in the Philippines, there was a moment when Serbia coach Svetislav Pesic had seen enough.
“At halftime, in our loss to Italy, he was all over me,” said Jovic, who closed that game with two rebounds while playing 24:20. “Coach was like, ‘I want to help you.’ Because they know my best thing is when I grab the defensive rebound and bust out.
“And we talked about it, and even during halftime, I would tell him, ‘I just cannot get a rebound.’ ”
In the Philippines for the World Cup as a Team USA assistant to Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said it wasn’t as if the effort on the boards wasn’t there.
“The thing I noticed he improved on in the World Cup was blockouts,” Spoelstra said in between the Heat’s two-a-day camp sessions. “So it’s not always about the rebounding. Now, we would like him to finish plays and pursue balls even out of his reach.
“But I know his head coach in Serbia, and you could see that, they were hammering that home to block out, to put his body on guys, and be physical. I thought that was a nice step of improvement. We’ll continue to drill his defensive habits ad nauseam. I see a much improved player on both sides of the floor.”
To Heat center Bam Adebayo, the fact that Jovic is willing is a step forward.
“I feel like Niko does the little things,” Adebayo said of his 20-year-old teammate. “People talk about his rebounding, but he sacrifices so other people can get a rebound. So you will lose rebounds in that, when you block out. I’ve been on the court with Niko many times and had that conversation. I feel like stats can be deceiving.”
Which was all well and good last season, as a seldom-used rookie who split his time between the Heat and the G League, when he otherwise wasn’t sidelined by a back issue.
But now with limited size in the Heat’s power rotation, there could be a place for Jovic.
If he rebounds.
Jovic closed the World Cup averaging 3.0 rebounds in an average of 23.9 minutes per game. That was in line with his previous international numbers, when he averaged 5.5 in Serbia in 2020-21 and then 4.4 there in 2021-22, before being taken at No. 27 in the 2022 NBA draft.
Last season, Jovic averaged 1.5 in an average of 13.6 minutes in his 15 Heat regular-season games, with a high of six in 30:14 in a start against the Washington Wizards. In his seven G League appearances with the Heat affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, he averaged 5.6 in 22.5 minutes per game.
“During the World Cup, sometimes when I saw the ball, and a smaller (teammate) said, ‘I got it,’ I’m letting him get it,” Jovic said after a Heat morning session at FAU. “I really did bad in that way during the World Cup. And I’m really looking forward to improving that. And I know I will. I don’t think that’s a lack of skill, because I know I can rebound. It’s not going to be a problem.”
With a beefier build, he said he is ready, willing . . . and able.
“I know I can be physical. I don’t think it’s a problem. I don’t think it ever was,” he said. “I think I’m ready, body wise and mentality wise, I’m ready to play against anyone.
“Even last year, when my body was not ready, I was playing center, guarding guys like Rudy (Gobert). Right now, I feel like I can compete against everyone.”
