{"id":94530,"date":"2024-09-06T06:21:29","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T10:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=94530"},"modified":"2024-09-06T06:21:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T10:21:29","slug":"miami-heat-make-decisions-on-a-pair-promising-youngsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/06\/miami-heat-make-decisions-on-a-pair-promising-youngsters\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat Make Decisions on a Pair Promising Youngsters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Miami Heat<\/a> became the first team to make decisions on its rookie scale team options for the 2025-20026 season as they decided to exercise the provisions in Nikola Jovic<\/a> and Jaime Jaquez Jr.<\/a>\u00a0per Tim Robbins of The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Heat have picked up the fourth-year option on Nikola Jovic and third-year option on Jaime Jaquez Jr., keeping them under contract through 2025-26.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Miami Heat Make Decisions on a Pair Promising Youngsters<\/h2>\n

Jovic developed into a rotational player last year for the Heat after beginning the year in the G-League<\/a> and coming off an injury plagued rookie campaign season. The 21-year-old, 6-10 power forward averaged 7.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 46 games, including 36 starts. He drained 1.4 treys while compiling shooting splits of 45.2\/39.9\/70.2%.<\/p>\n

Jovic, who scored 20-plus points three times last season, demonstrated his potential during the Heat’s first round playoff series loss. He scored in double-figures on three occasions during the postseason and 17 total times overall.<\/p>\n

Jovic produced one of his best games of the season in the Heat’s lone playoff win (Game 2 against Boston) with 11 points — on 4 of 5 shooting including 3 of 4 from deep — nine rebounds, six assists, and three steals in 24 minutes. He was<\/p>\n

Jovic’s extension means that he is guaranteed $4.4 million for the 2025-26 campaign. He also becomes rookie extension eligible next offseason and could be a restricted free agent in 2027, if no extension is reached.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jaquez had a fantastic rookie season. The No. 18 overall selection in 2024 draft was chosen to the NBA All-Rookie first team as he compiled 11.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.0 steals. He compiled one double-double while shooting 48.9\/32.2\/81.1% from the field.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old forward did struggle shooting from the perimeter, connecting on 23.1% on his attempts from 16 feet to 3-point line and 32.2% from deep. Still, Jaquez finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and ninth in 6th Man of the Year.<\/p>\n

With the extension, Jaquez will earn $3.86 million in 2025-26. Jaquez has a club option ($5.9 million) for 2026-27 with a deadline of October 31, 2025.<\/p>\n

What Does the Extensions Mean for the Heat Going Forward?<\/h3>\n

Jovic and Jaquez project to have major roles this upcoming season as the Heat didn’t do much in the offseason. According to Five Reasons Sports<\/a>, Jovic could have to battle\u00a0Haywood Highsmith<\/a> or Ke’el Ware<\/a> for a spot with the first unit. Jaquez could also earn a starting nod, if Erik Spoelstra<\/a> decides to bring Tyler Herro<\/a> or Terry Rozier<\/a> off the bench.<\/p>\n

Jovic and Jaquez’s extensions mean that the Heat will have 11 players under contract for 2025-26 with salaries totaling over $191.0 million. Therefore, the Heat will likely be a major taxpayer for the second straight season. They are projected to pay $36 million in taxes this year and their tax is already at $10 million in 2025-26. However, Jimmy Butler<\/a> has a $52.4 million player option and Duncan Robinson<\/a> has a $19.8 million early termination option.<\/p>\n

Butler has said he plans to play a couple more seasons and could re-sign with the Heat. But he is going to wait until the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Robinson produced his best year in three seasons and shot nearly 40% from deep. Robinson may be in the mix for a starting spot. He has been much better as a starter throughout his career and that proved to be true this past season as well. Saying all that, it is hard to imagine that the 30-year-old will opt out.<\/p>\n

But back to Jovic and Jaquez. It is possible that the Heat will flip Jovic around the trade deadline for a star or very good player. For example, Bleacher Report<\/a> proposed a mock trade between Miami and Washington that centered around Kyle Kuzma<\/a> heading to South Beach while Jovic would be among three players headed to the Capitol.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Miami Heat became the first team to make decisions on its rookie scale team options for the 2025-20026 season as they decided to exercise the provisions in Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez Jr.\u00a0per Tim Robbins of The Associated Press. The Heat have picked up the fourth-year option on Nikola Jovic and third-year option on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":94537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,16,62],"tags":[2803,49152,142,4515,1896],"class_list":["post-94530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-heat","category-nba","tag-duncan-robinson","tag-jaime-jaquez-jr","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-nikola-jovic","tag-tyler-herro"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}