Nikola Jovic Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southeast Notes: D. Smith, Heat, Wizards, Djurisic

July 29th, 2025 at 12:46pm CST by Luke Adams

While Dru Smith had been considered the favorite to claim the Heat‘s final two-way slot, that can’t actually happen, notes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, since a CBA rule prohibits a player from being on a two-way contract with the same team for four seasons.

Smith hasn’t spent the entirety of the past three years on two-way deals with Miami, but he has been on a two-way contract for at least part of each of the past three seasons since 2022/23, making him ineligible to do so again in ’25/26.

The Heat did tender Smith a qualifying offer in June, but that offer is for a one-year, minimum-salary contract with a small partial guarantee (approximately $102K), rather than another two-way deal. Miami has just 14 players on standard contracts for now, so Smith could be the club’s 15th man, but team salary is already over the luxury tax threshold, so it’s unclear whether or not the front office plans to carry a full 15-man roster into the regular season.

Meanwhile, there’s still a two-way spot open on the Heat’s roster alongside Vladislav Goldin and Myron Gardner.

Here’s more from around the Southeast:

It hasn’t been an especially eventful offseason for the Heat — they’ve made modest additions like Norman Powell, Kasparas Jakucionis, and Simone Fontecchio, but will bring back a roster pretty similar to last year’s group. With that in mind, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel suggests that internal improvement represents Miami’s best hope of taking a step forward and identifies Andrew Wiggins, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Terry Rozier, and Nikola Jovic as a few of the top candidates to give the team more in 2025/26 than they did in ’24/25.
Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum are the only two players on the Wizards‘ roster who are older than 26 or earning more than $14MM in 2025/26, according to Varun Shankar of The Washington Post, who says the front office views the two veterans as positive influences and potential role models for the team’s younger players. Acquiring Middleton and McCollum also put Washington in position to create significant 2026 cap room, since both players are on expiring deals.
Nikola Djurisic, a 2024 second-round pick who signed his first NBA contract earlier this month with the Hawks, was left off Serbia’s roster for the upcoming EuroBasket tournament. As Kevin Chouinard of Hawks.com relays (via Twitter), Serbian head coach Svetislav Pesic referred to the 21-year-old forward as part of “the future of Serbian basketball” in explaining that decision. “There was a thought to include him (on the roster) as well, but we have a lot of experienced players in that position,” Pesic said. “Let him take a break from everything now. He spent a whole year in America.”

Nikola Jokic Headlines Serbia’s Preliminary EuroBasket Roster

July 28th, 2025 at 8:32am CST by Luke Adams

As expected, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is among the 17 players listed on Serbia’s preliminary roster for this year’s EuroBasket tournament, the Basketball Federation of Serbia announced in a press release (hat tip to BasketNews.com).

Jokic is one of a handful of NBA players on the Serbian roster, along with Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, Thunder guard Nikola Topic, Heat forward Nikola Jovic, and Wizards center Tristan Vukcevic.

There are also several other players in the group who have previous NBA experience, such as Vasilije Micic, Marko Guduric, Filip Petrusev, and Alen Smailagic.

The Serbian national team is convening on Monday to begin training for EuroBasket and will play a series of exhibition games in August leading up to the event, which tips off on August 27.

The Serbians will face Estonia, Portugal, Latvia, the Czech Republic, and Turkey in the EuroBasket’s group phase. The field is made up of four groups of six teams apiece, with 16 of the 24 total clubs advancing to the knockout round of the tournament.

It will be the second straight summer in which Jokic has represented Serbia in an international competition — he led the team to a bronze medal finish at the Olympics in Paris in 2024. However, the Serbians were eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy in the most recent EuroBasket tournament in 2022, despite 32 point and 13 rebounds from Jokic in that game.

Heat Notes: Star Duo, Jovic, Larsson, Fontecchio

July 27th, 2025 at 5:02pm CST by Eli Cohen

If this season goes poorly, it could lead to an internal examination of the Heat‘s longest-tenured pairing, writes Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

In an offseason mailbag, Winderman says the entire organization, including head coach Erik Spoelstra, understands that the team’s performance during the last two years – including back-to-back No. 8 seeds and pair of first-round playoff exits – is not to the franchise’s lofty standards.

Jimmy Butler‘s impact on those outcomes can’t be overlooked, but Winderman also suggests that the coming season could be “make-or-break” for theTyler Herro/Bam Adebayo duo.

Herro had a career year last season, averaging personal highs in points (23.9) and assists (5.5) per game while making his first All-Star team, but that coincided with Adebayo posting his lowest scoring year since the 2019/20 season. Most importantly, it didn’t lead the team to wins — Miami had a 37-45 regular season record, its worst mark in a decade.

Winderman notes in his mailbag that the trade for Norman Powell was a win-now move designed to bring in more reliable offense, and that there will be expectations for the team to show signs of growth in the first full season of the post-Butler era.

We have more from the Heat:

Nikola Jovic understands the Heat are taking a risk by allowing him to represent Serbia in this year’s EuroBasket tournament and is grateful for both the opportunity and the precedent set by former Miami guard Goran Dragic, writes Winderman. “You’re letting someone play for their country, paying them a lot of money, and they’re important to you,” Jovic said. “An injury would definitely be a setback for them. But, by chance, and to my great fortune, I’m part of the Miami team that had Goran Dragic.” The Heat expressed that Dragic always came back from international tournaments a better player, a pronouncement which gives Jovic confidence in himself and his development. The fourth-year forward is expected to play a large role with the Serbian team, which won the bronze medal at the 2023 World Cup, and he hopes that will help him solidify a more consistent role with the Heat. “This way, I enter the new NBA season already in game rhythm. I just keep going,” he said.
Also set to participate in EuroBasket is Heat shooting guard Pelle Larsson, who will represent Sweden not long after playing for Miami in Summer League. Winderman isn’t worried about the workload for Larsson, especially since the team let him out of his summer duties four days early to join the Swedes. Rather than being nervous about the grind of going from Summer League to EuroBasket to training camp, the Heat are excited to see what the 24-year-old can do as a leading man in the games, Winderman writes.
Simone Fontecchio has arrived in Folgaria, in northern Italy, to join the Italian EuroBasket squad, writes Michele Nespoli of Sportando. However, he will be unable to start training with them until Wednesday, July 30, as stipulated by the NBA’s regulations in regards to FIBA competition. Fontecchio has chosen to report to the team early to be in closer communication with them, as he did in 2023.

Heat Notes: Center Spot, Rozier, Goldin, Johnson

July 24th, 2025 at 2:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Do the Heat need to add another center? Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel believes so.

While they have Kel’el Ware and Bam Adebayo to play that position, the Heat’s options are limited if either has to miss a game or gets in foul trouble. Nikola Jovic would be playing out of position if he’s utilized as the third option and rookie Vladislav Goldin, who is on a two-way deal, lacks agility to make defensive switches. However, the Heat are already over the luxury tax, which complicates any effort to bring in a veteran for depth, Winderman notes.

We have more on the Heat:

Terry Rozier‘s trade value is practically non-existent, according to Winderman, who doubts any other team would look to acquire him without a sweetener. The Heat aren’t in a position to do that, since they still owe a first-round pick to Charlotte for the Rozier acquisition. The only other trade scenarios involving Rozier, in Winderman’s estimation, would be a team looking to acquire his expiring contract for a player signed beyond next season or his salary being packaged as part of a bigger deal.
One thing about Goldin that endeared him to the coaching staff during Summer League appearances was his motor, according to the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang. “Vlad was really good for us,” Heat assistant coach and Summer League head coach Eric Glass said. “He plays so freakin’ hard out there. He plays so physically. You’d like to have him on the floor even longer, but he goes so hard, sometimes he burns himself out. That’s why we love him.” The former University of Michigan big man, who was undrafted, averaged 9.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in six games this month.
Keshad Johnson has a guaranteed $1.955MM contract for next season and he doesn’t want to wind up at the end of the bench. “The goal is to crack the Heat’s rotation and prove that I belong on the floor,” Johnson said entering his second NBA season. Johnson’s Summer League outings were generally positive, according to Chiang, but somewhat inconsistent. Johnson would likely have to leapfrog two or three other players at the small forward spot to get minutes.

Erik Spoelstra Talks Heat Youth, Expectations

July 13th, 2025 at 5:03pm CST by Eli Cohen

In their first full season without Jimmy Butler since 2020, the Heat are counting on some of their young players to help bridge the gap to the new era. As Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes, head coach Erik Spoelstra has faith that Jaime Jaqu ez Jr. and Nikola Jovic are up to the task.

Spoelstra has been impressed with the Jovic’s improved approach during his nascent career with the Heat.

“If you look at where Niko was as a rookie to where he’s becoming right now, it’s night and day, the work ethic and it’s a consistency of approach every single day,” Spoelstra says. “I think the last two summers have been really good because it’s been a strong balance of the Miami Heat player development program and then going to play for his national team.”

As for Jaquez, Spoelstra is unconcerned with the 24-year-old’s below-average shooting numbers and is more focused on how he reads the floor.

“He’s clever, when he gets into all of his spins and fake spins and putting the shoulder down. Now it’s about making the paint-decision reads when you get in there,” Spoelstra said. “But I don’t want it to be his whole game based on whether he’s making a three-point shot or not. That’s not him at his best. Him at his best are these plays that are unscripted, getting downhill.”

Another Heat neophyte who is set to make an impact going forward is their 2025 first-round pick, Kasparas Jakucionis. Jakucionas recently shook off a brutal start to Summer League, exploding for 24 points on 7-of-12 shooting (including 5-of-9 three-pointers) on Friday against the Hawks. However, he’s not satisfied with the performance, writes Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.

“It felt good, yeah,” he said. “But eventually we still lost. I didn’t do a great job on the other side like rebounding, getting out on transition defense.”

Jakucionas said that he’s been watching a lot of film and talking frequently with Heat legend Udonis Haslem and the rest of the coaching staff. Spoelstra has been encouraged by the 19-year-old’s play and suggests his early struggles could be a positive in the long term.

“He had a lot of turnovers, some mistakes,” Spoelstra said. “All the intangibles — the defense, the hustle plays, the passing, all of that he was able to do while having some uneven offensive play. Sometimes that can take a spirit or confidence away from a player, but he found a way to impact the game, impact winning.”

The Heat have a solid guard rotation in Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, and the newly acquired Norman Powell, among others, but none of them bring quite the same skill set that Jakucionas can. Given the rookie’s size and play-making, his ability to play alongside any one of those guards could help unlock different lineups for Miami.

Heat Rumors: Young Core, Adebayo, Herro, Rozier, Wiggins

July 2nd, 2025 at 4:31pm CST by Luke Adams

It has been a relatively quiet free agency period so far for the Heat, who agreed to re-sign Davion Mitchell on Saturday and worked out a sign-and-trade deal sending Duncan Robinson to Detroit, but haven’t made any veteran roster additions outside of Simone Fontecchio, who will be sent to Miami in that trade with the Pistons.

According to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, Miami are content to “let our young guys show what they can do” this fall, with a full training camp together. As Jackson explains, the Heat believe they can’t accurately judge the current group based on last season’s results due to the Jimmy Butler chaos, changing roles, and Andrew Wiggins‘ health issues, among other factors.

The team also believes that its young prospects – Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez, Nikola Jovic, Pelle Larsson, and Kasparas Jakucionis – all have a chance to be “really good players,” with some of them set to take on increased roles this season, Jackson writes.

The Heat are remaining open to taking a bigger swing if a star hits the trade market, but would only be aggressive if a player in his prime is available, Jackson continues. That’s why Miami wasn’t willing to go all-in for Kevin Durant, with multiple sources telling the Herald that the team never thought it was close to landing the 36-year-old forward.

Whether or not the Heat have the assets to beat out rival suitors if an in-his-prime star such as Giannis Antetokounmpo is on the trade block is a fair question, Jackson notes.

Here’s more on the Heat:

Miami haven’t considered the idea of trading Bam Adebayo and/or Tyler Herro in order to launch a rebuild, a source with knowledge of the situation tells the Herald. The Heat believe that tanking fails more often than it works and doesn’t plan to rethink that philosophy, according to Jackson.
The Heat also aren’t weighing the idea of waiving and stretching the final year of Terry Rozier‘s contract, which will pay him $26.6MM this season, Jackson says. Unlike Milwaukee with Damian Lillard, Miami doesn’t need the immediate cap savings, so the plan is to either trade Rozier at some point or simply keep him for next season, Jackson adds.
Although the Heat are entertaining inquiries on Wiggins, there’s no urgency to move him, according to Jackson, who says the club acquired him from Golden State in February because it likes his game, not to use his contract in a subsequent deal. The Heat view him as a player who can complement Adebayo and Herro.
The Heat officially signed undrafted rookie Vladislav Goldin to a two-way contract on Wednesday. Our story on the deal can be found here.

Trade Rumors: Giannis, K. Murray, Ellis, P. Williams, Heat

June 24th, 2025 at 4:40pm CST by Luke Adams

Superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo hasn’t requested a trade and the Bucks are reportedly focused on improving their roster around him, but teams around the NBA continue to monitor the situation, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who said on First Take (YouTube link) that potential Antetokounmpo suitors are hoping he won’t be thrilled by the moves Milwaukee makes in the coming days and weeks.

“The Bucks have seven free agents. Seven. Three or four of which I would refer to as core players,” Windhorst said (hat tip to RealGM). “The Bucks do not have salary cap space. The Bucks do not control their first-round draft pick for the next five years. They can’t trade it — they can’t trade the pick or the swap. The Bucks are in situation where they cannot count on Dame Lillard for next year. Maybe he can come back, but they cannot count on it. The Bucks are not interested right now in trading Giannis Antetokounmpo. And Giannis, to our knowledge, to my belief, has not asked for a trade. Those are the facts.

“We are also before the draft. We are before free agency. Will the Bucks do some things over the next two, three weeks to put themselves in a position where they can look like they could win the Eastern Conference, with those limitations? Maybe.”

Windhorst’s ESPN colleague Stephen A. Smith interjected at that point to say that the Bucks’ odds of reemerging as an Eastern Conference favorite seem “highly unlikely.”

“Right, so that’s why the league is waiting,” Windhorst continued. “People want to know why aren’t the Knicks going all-in for Kevin Durant? Why aren’t the Heat going all-in for Kevin Durant? Because, in part – there’s other reasons, but in part -they want to see what happens here with the Bucks. And we’re going to be watching closely.”

Here are a few more trade rumors from around the NBA:

Checking in on the Kings‘ roster situation and potential trade candidates ahead of the draft, Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee reports that the team wants to add “length and athleticism” in its frontcourt and is hoping to add a power forward/center in order to slide Keegan Murray back to small forward. According to Anderson, Murray and Keon Ellis have been generating “strong” trade interest, but Sacramento isn’t enthusiastic about moving either player.
The Bulls‘ front office has been “more responsive” to trade conversations this offseason than in the past, a source tells Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Cowley suggests that forward Patrick Williams is viewed as a prime candidate for Chicago, though the former No. 4 overall pick – who hasn’t taken a major step forward in recent years – still has four seasons and $72MM left on his current contract, which will make it difficult to move him for positive value without a sweetener attached.
Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Shams Charania provided a little more information on what the Heat would’ve have had to give up to get Durant from the Suns, supplementing prior reporting from The Miami Herald. In order to keep Kel’el Ware out of a Durant deal, Miami likely would have had to put Jaime Jaquez, Nikola Jovic, Haywood Highsmith, the No. 20 overall pick, and a pick swap in its package, according to Charania. The Heat’s final offer reportedly fell well short of that.

Heat Notes: Durant Trade Offer, DeRozan, Kuminga, Robinson, Johnson, Smith

June 23rd, 2025 at 12:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Heat weren’t willing to part with rookie center Kel’el Ware, young forward Nikola Jovic or more than one future first-round pick in Kevin Durant trade discussions, a source tells Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Their source says the final offer included Andrew Wiggins, Terry Rozier, two bench players and the No. 20 pick in Wednesday’s draft. Another source tells the authors that Miami was willing to take an unwanted salary from Phoenix, and they note that Marc Stein recently reported that there was interest in Cody Martin.

Jackson and Chiang explain that the Heat are permitted to offer two future first-rounders prior to Wednesday, but would have three available if the trade wasn’t finalized until after the draft is over. Miami wouldn’t consider parting with its picks in 2030 or 2031 to get Durant, and its first-rounders for 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 are in limbo due to obligations owed to Charlotte in the Rozier trade.

The authors add that the Suns could have opted for some tax relief by trading for Duncan Robinson and waiving him before July 8, leaving them on the hook for only the $9.9MM guaranteed portion of his 2025/26 salary. However, sources tell them that Phoenix never expressed any interest in Robinson. As we explained last month, Robinson’s partially guaranteed contract was never as valuable a trade chip in a Durant scenario as the Herald’s duo made it out to be.

There’s more from Miami:

Reports have linked the Heat to Kings forward DeMar DeRozan and Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, but neither player has been the focus of trade talks as of Sunday afternoon, Jackson and Chiang add in the same piece. They note that DeRozan, who’s believed to be on the trade market, will make $24.5MM next season, but only has a $10MM guarantee on his $25.7MM salary for 2026/27.
The Heat should have been willing to give up more of their young talent to add a player of Durant’s caliber, contends Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. He argues that Jovic, Jaime Jaquez, Haywood Highsmith and even Ware if necessary should have been sent out to add a star who’s capable of making Miami an instant contender in the East. While Winderman would have been hesitant to part with future draft assets beyond this year’s first-rounder, he believes Miami could have easily topped the package the Rockets are sending to Phoenix in exchange for Durant.
If the Heat can’t trade Robinson, it’s possible that he could decline his $19.9MM option and return on a new deal starting with the $9.9MM he has guaranteed for next season, possibly around $32MM over three years, Winderman suggests in a separate piece. He also examines the possibility of declining a $2MM option on Keshad Johnson and bringing him back on a two-way contact, as well as Miami’s options with Dru Smith, who is eligible for another two-way deal but appeared close to receiving a standard contract before suffering an Achilles injury in December.

Southeast Notes: Wizards, Heat, Jovic, Harris

May 16th, 2025 at 5:12pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Wizards fell to No. 6 on lottery night after finishing the season with the second-worst record in the league, taking them out of the Cooper Flagg conversation and forcing them to confront a draft picture that’s far less certain to deliver a star.

One option, according to Varun Shankar of the Washington Post is center Derik Queen, who, like last year’s 14th overall pick Bub Carrington, is a Baltimore native. The two even briefly played together in high school, Queen told Shankar (Instagram link). The 6’10” big man has some athletic limitations, but would make for an interesting fit with last year’s number two pick, Alex Sarr.

Egor Demin and Cedric Coward could also potentially be in play for the Wizards, Shankar writes. Demin, a 19-year-old 6’9″ point guard, met with the Wizards during a pre-draft process that has seemingly gone well for him. He struggled with his shot in his lone season at BYU but has impressed scouts with his shooting drills at the NBA combine.

Coward is one of the draft’s big potential risers after playing just six games for Washington State with a shoulder injury and could be under consideration at No. 18. The 6’6″ wing boasts a 7’2″ wingspan and shows promise as both a shooter and a defender, which would fit in with the team’s draft track record, according to Shankar.

Here’s more from around the Southwest division:

Wizards owner Ted Leonsis rebukes the idea that his team was tanking this year. “We weren’t tanking. We were developing players. It’s a little different than maybe what some of the other teams’ strategy was,” he told Front Office Sports editor in chief Dan Roberts, as reported by Colin Salao. However, Salao notes that Jordan Poole‘s late-season minutes drop-off, as well as the moves to trade established players such as Deni Avdija last summer, point to a team intentionally limiting the minutes of its impactful veteran players.
The Heat don’t have a specific type when it comes to drafting, writes Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez, and Kel’el Ware all represent very different age and experience ranges. With the 20th pick in the 2025 draft, the Heat will have to figure out what they’re prioritizing. “We talk about looking for upside, but we’ve seen players that are four-year seniors that get drafted lower that turn out to be Hall of Famers, and you see guys that are drafted younger that have upside that don’t pan out,” Heat VP of basketball operations Adam Simon told Winderman. He went on to add that the goal would be to find a player who can contribute immediately, similar to Ware and Jaquez.
Speaking of Jovic, the 21-year-old forward had an up-and-down third season in the NBA for the Heat, going from starter to out of the rotation to key reserve. A year out from restricted free agency, he’s looking forward to an offseason of work, according to Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang. “I have a solid three months to work on something,” Jovic said. “What that something will be, I don’t know yet. I still have to connect with the coaches and think about it a little bit. But I feel like this might be the first summer that I actually have some time to improve my game.”
Gary Harris is no stranger to adapting to changing roles for the Magic, writes Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel. Dealing with injuries throughout the year, Harris found himself as the veteran mentor of a young, up-and-coming Magic team. His contract has a 2025/26 team option for next season that Orlando must decide on by June 29. “… All I can do is control what I can, continue to put the work in [and] stay ready for whatever the future may hold,” Harris said. “But I definitely love my time here in Orlando, so we’ll see if it continues.”

Florida Notes: Anthony, Bitadze, Ware, Heat

May 16th, 2025 at 10:00am CST by Rory Maher

Guard Cole Anthony had an up-and-down fifth season with the Magic, writes Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. While the 25-year-old had some big performances, including a team-high 26 points in Orlando’s play-in victory over Atlanta, he wound up averaging career lows in multiple counting stats, including points (9.4), rebounds (3.0), assists (2.9) and minutes (18.4) per game during the regular season.

After taking some time off to recuperate both physically and mentally after a long season, Anthony says he plans to work on all aspects of his game this summer, with one particular area of emphasis.

“I just want to continue to become a better defender,” Anthony said. “That’s a big one for me. And just keep polishing my game, keep working on my jump shot, tighten up the handle, get stronger. … I don’t think there’s any part of the game I don’t want to improve. I’m just going to have a good summer and just lock in.”

Here a few more notes from the two Florida-based teams:

Although Magic center Goga Bitadze posted career-best numbers in several categories in 2024/25, he was out of the rotation by the end of the regular season and in the playoffs, Beede writes in another story for The Orlando Sentinel. Bitadze says he’s “super proud of himself” for the way he helped the team amid role changes and injuries, and he wants to continue to take strides in the offseason. “My shooting is going to be the first I’m going to work on,” Bitadze said. “Because it’s already there, it’s got to be a different mindset. All I’ve got to do is just trust in it and it’s going to help this team moving forward offensively. I’ve just got to keep working.”
Heat center Kel’el Ware will likely be named to one of the All-Rookie teams after a solid debut season, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. The 21-year-old big man says he gained confidence over the course of the season and learned from Miami’s first-round thrashing by Cleveland, but he knows he needs to add more muscle to his frame this summer. “I would say definitely the strength part of it,” Ware said. “That was really the main thing for me. That’s probably going to be the main thing I continue to work on during the offseason, to get better and get stronger. I would say that, definitely that.”
Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) previews the Heat‘s offseason, including whether the team can trade for a star, how Davion Mitchell‘s restricted free agency might play out, and potential extensions for Tyler Herro and Nikola Jovic (the latter Gozlan views as unlikely). Gozlan also discussed the team’s offseason on a YouTube stream with Ethan Skolnick of 5 Reasons Sports.