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Doncic, Slovenia Advance In EuroBasket With Win Over Italy

September 7th, 2025 at 1:39pm CST by Luke Adams

Despite a mild injury scare during the first half of Sunday’s game, Lakers star Luka Doncic led the Slovenian national team to an 84-77 victory over Italy at EuroBasket 2025, securing the country’s spot in the quarterfinals.

After pouring in 22 points in the first quarter, Doncic left the court to get his quad muscle stretched out in the Slovenian locker room, a league source tells Dan Woike of The Athletic. However, he returned to the floor a few minutes later and finished the first half with 30 points, en route to a 42-point, 10-rebound performance.

It was the first time in the tournament that Doncic has scored at least 40 points in a game, but he got close a couple times during the group stage and is now averaging 34.0 points per contest, making him this year’s leading scorer at EuroBasket by a considerable margin. He’s just the third player in the past 30 years to have at least 40 points and 10 rebounds in a EuroBasket game, per Cesare Milanti of Eurohoops, joining Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki (2001) and Spain’s Pau Gasol (2015).

Shooting guard Klemen Prepelic (11 points on 3-of-10 shooting) was the only other Slovenian player to score in double-digits.

Heat forward Simone Fontecchio led the way for the Italians with 22 points, five rebounds, and three steals. Italy was a +11 when Fontecchio was on the court, but was outscored by 18 points during his time on the bench.

Sunday’s game may be longtime NBA forward Danilo Gallinari‘s last for Italy, as he has suggested he plans to retire from the national team after EuroBasket. He had 10 points and three rebounds in 12 minutes of action.

Italy’s head coach Gianmarco Pozzecco also confirmed after Sunday’s loss to Slovenia that he plans to step down from his role with the national team, as Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews.com relays.

“It’s my last game with Italy,” Pozzecco told reporters. “I want to thank my president, Giovanni Petrucci, for giving me this honor to become coach of the national team. From deep of my heart, it’s like… Maybe, for sure, the best moment of my life. It was a real honor to have this role in Italian basketball.”

Three of the EuroBasket quarterfinals have now been set. Turkey will face Poland on Tuesday, while Slovenia matches up with Germany and Finland plays Georgia on Wednesday. Lithuania, which will play on Tuesday, awaits the winner of today’s showdown between Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s Greek team and Deni Avdija‘s Israeli squad.

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Heat Notes: Riley, EuroBasket, Fontecchio, Jovic, Ware

September 3rd, 2025 at 10:16pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

With Heat owner Micky Arison set to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend and team president Pat Riley among the prior honorees slated to present him, Riley reflected on his 30 years with the organization, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

“Micky and I had that kind of relationship back and forth, but always positive about what we’re trying to do,” Riley said. “If he didn’t like something, he would tell me, ‘I don’t think we should go that way,’ and I wouldn’t go that way. If he said, ‘Go for it. Damn right, let’s go for it,’ we had the same mentality.

“But if you don’t take a risk — a big-three type risk [signing free agent All-Stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in 2010], Lamar Odom type risk or Shaquille O’Neal type risk or Jimmy Butler type risk or whatever it is — then you’re too afraid and there’s a fear of failure there,” Riley continued. “So when you make a calculated risk, he has made a lot of them with me — some of them haven’t worked, some of them have worked big time.” 

With Riley running its front office, Miami has made a total of seven NBA Finals, winning three championships.

There’s more out of Miami:

  • While playing for their respective national teams at EuroBasket this year, Heat role players Nikola Jovic, Pelle Larsson and Simone Fontecchio are all showing out in larger roles than they’ve had in Miami so far. Still, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel cautions that their production shouldn’t necessarily indicate that they’re capable of taking a leap with the Heat in 2025/26.
  • There had been “strong rumbles” last month that the Heat were looking into trading Fontecchio, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link). Stein notes that this buzz happened before Miami traded Haywood Highsmith to Brooklyn. Now that the Heat find themselves below the league’s luxury tax following the Highsmith deal, there is likely little urgency to offload Fontecchio.
  • With Jovic playing an outsized role for his native Serbia in EuroBasket, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald considers whether Miami would be served better by starting the young forward in the frontcourt next to Bam Adebayo over center Kel’el Ware. Jackson notes that shifting Adebayo to the four spot while starting Ware at the five last year proved statistically more effective than keeping Adebayo at center and starting Jovic.
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EuroBasket Notes: Fontecchio, Avdija, Sarr, Vucevic, Sengun

September 1st, 2025 at 1:36pm CST by Earnest Marshall

After shooting a rough 23.8% from the field in Italy’s first two EuroBasket games, Heat forward Simone Fontecchio rebounded in a big way on Sunday. As The Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang (Twitter link) relays, Fontecchio poured in 39 points while shooting 65.0% from the field and 70.0% from three in a win against Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also added eight rebounds and three assists across 37 minutes.

The Italian forward broke his country’s all-time single-game scoring record, surpassing Andrea Bargnani‘s 36 points in 2011. The only other modern player in Italy’s all-time top five is Danilo Gallinari‘s 33 points in 2015.

Fontecchio’s breakout EuroBasket game, which included seven three-pointers, is an encouraging sign for the Heat. Fontecchio arrived in Miami in the trade that sent the Heat’s all-time leader in three-pointers, Duncan Robinson, to the Pistons.

We have more from EuroBasket:

  • Israel pulled off an upset in Group D with a 80-69 win over France behind a 23-point, eight-rebound, five-steal performance from Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, per Eurohoops.net. According to the official French National Team page (Twitter link), Wizards center Alex Sarr missed the game to rest a minor right calf injury.
  • Bulls center Nikola Vucevic helped deliver Montenegro a huge win over Sweden in Group B, recording 23 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks. As BasketNews details, Vucevic’s performance was one of his best in a national team jersey. “It felt great, great team effort, proud of all the guys, really competed, really left it all on the floor,” Vucevic said. “Anybody that came into the game played, had huge impact at different points right throughout the game and that’s what we needed.”
  • Alperen Sengun notched 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists against Estonia and has led Turkey to a 4-0 record in Group A. According to Eurohoops.net, the Rockets center became the first player in the last 30 years to record at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in three straight EuroBasket games.
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Heat Notes: Stretch Provision, Rozier, Jovic, Fontecchio, Larsson

August 30th, 2025 at 10:58am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Heat could have created more flexibility below the luxury tax line for the upcoming season by using the waive-and-stretch provision, but they passed on that option prior to Friday’s deadline, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald notes.

The most obvious candidate would have been Terry Rozier, as his contract carries a $26.7MM cap hit. The Heat could have stretched that to $8.9MM over each the next three seasons. However, there was no real urgency to take that route once they traded Haywood Highsmith to the Nets.

Miami is approximately $1.7MM under the luxury tax threshold and around $7.2MM below the first apron. The Heat have 15 players signed to standard deals, including one training camp contract, but only 12 have fully guaranteed salaries, as our roster counts display.

Here’s more on the Heat:

  • Speaking of Rozier, it’s unlikely he’ll be part of the rotation if he remains on the roster, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. The Heat will likely go with younger players like Pelle Larsson, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and/or rookie Kasparas Jakucionis off the bench, rather than Rozier. The veteran could find his way into the mix if one of their wing scorers gets injured, suggests Winderman.
  • Nikola Jovic had another solid outing in the EuroBasket tournament on Friday. He made all six of his field goal attempts while scoring 18 points during Serbia’s win over Portugal, Chiang tweets. Jovic added six rebounds in 31 minutes.
  • Simone Fontecchio, acquired from Detroit in the Duncan Robinson sign-and-trade, continued to struggle for Italy in its win over Georgia on Saturday. Fontecchio scored four points on 1-for-11 shooting in Italy’s opening game in EuroBasket. In Italy’s second tournament game, Fontecchio scored 14 points but missed all five of his three-point attempts and committed six turnovers, Chiang relays (Twitter link).
  • Larsson missed Sweden’s second EuroBasket game on Friday due to an illness but quickly bounced back. Larsson had 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting, four rebounds, two assists and two steals with five turnovers in a 78-59 victory over Great Britain on Saturday, Winderman tweets.
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Heat Notes: Jovic, Larsson, Fontecchio, Dragic

August 28th, 2025 at 5:49pm CST by Luke Adams

Heat forward Nikola Jovic got off to an excellent start at the EuroBasket tournament in Latvia on Wednesday, as Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. Jovic was Serbia’s leading scorer – with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting – and was an eye-popping plus-36 in just 16 minutes of action in a blowout victory over Estonia.

As impressive as Jovic was a scorer and shooter (3-of-4 on three-pointers), his passing was perhaps even more noteworthy — he racked up six assists while committing just one turnover. The 22-year-old has averaged 2.2 assists per game in 107 regular season outings through three NBA seasons.

A pair of Jovic’s Heat teammates who are also competing at EuroBasket weren’t as productive in their respective 2025 debuts. Pelle Larsson battled foul trouble and scored just 10 points while missing all four of his three-point tries in Sweden’s loss to Finland on Wednesday. On Thursday, Simone Fontecchio made just 1-of-11 shots from the field and was a minus-11 across 34 minutes in Italy’s nine-point loss to Greece.

We have more on the Heat:

  • In a mailbag for The Sun Sentinel, Winderman explores the Heat’s expectations and projected roles for Jovic and Larsson in 2025/26, suggesting that Jovic will likely be a top frontcourt reserve while Larsson would be doing well to show he can be a “quality ninth man.”
  • Although former Heat point guard Goran Dragic may one day take on a more formal role with the club, there’s no indication that he’s joining Erik Spoelstra‘s coaching staff at this point, despite social media posts that showed him in attendance at practice, Winderman writes for The Sun Sentinel. For now, it appears Dragic is just informally “looking to pass on knowledge to the next generation,” including rookie point guard Kasparas Jakucionis, Winderman explains.
  • With the deadline for teams to use the stretch provision on 2025/26 salaries now less than 24 hours away, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald hears from a league source that the Heat are “leaning against” stretching anyone’s salary on Thursday or Friday. A waive-and-stretch move likely would’ve received more serious consideration if Miami hadn’t moved under the luxury tax line by trading Haywood Highsmith to Brooklyn earlier this month.
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28 Current NBA Players Competing In FIBA EuroBasket 2025

August 27th, 2025 at 7:07am CST by Luke Adams

On the heels of the FIBA World Cup in 2023 and the Paris Olympics in 2024, the 2025 NBA offseason doesn’t feature a major international tournament in which the United States’ top stars are competing.

However, several of the league’s biggest names – including three-time Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, and five-time All-NBA first-teamer Luka Doncic – are taking part in FIBA EuroBasket 2025, which tipped off on Wednesday.

The tournament, also known as the European Basketball Championship, takes place every four years and features 24 European countries vying for a gold medal. The 24 teams who qualified for EuroBasket are split up into four groups and will face the other teams in their group across five games from August 27 to September 4.

At the end of group play, the top four teams from each group will advance to the knockout round, which is a single-elimination tournament featuring the remaining 16 countries.

By our count, 28 active NBA players are taking part in EuroBasket 2025, along with 30 former NBA players and several more who were selected in an NBA draft but have yet to play in the league.

Here’s the full list of current and former NBA players set to compete in EuroBasket, sorted by group and country:

Group A

Czechia (Czech Republic)

  • Current NBA players: Vit Krejci (Hawks)
  • Former NBA players: None

Estonia

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: Henri Drell

Latvia

Portugal

  • Current NBA players: Neemias Queta (Celtics)
  • Former NBA players: None

Serbia

Serbia’s roster also includes Nikola Milutinov and Vanja Marinkovic, who are former NBA draft picks but have never played in the league.

Turkey

Group B

Finland

Germany

Great Britain

Lithuania

Lithuania’s roster also includes Rokas Jokubaitis, a former NBA draft pick who has never played in the league, and Azuolas Tubelis, who was on a two-way contract with the Sixers during the 2023 offseason but was waived before the season began.

Montenegro

Sweden

  • Current NBA players: Pelle Larsson (Heat)
  • Former NBA players: None

Group C

Bosnia and Herzegovina

  • Current NBA players: Jusuf Nurkic (Jazz)
  • Former NBA players: None

Cyprus

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: None

Georgia

Greece

Italy

Italy’s roster also includes Matteo Spagnolo, Gabriele Procida, and Saliou Niang, who are former NBA draft picks but have never played in the league.

Spain

Group D

Belgium

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: None

France

France’s roster also includes Isaia Cordinier, a former NBA draft pick who has never played in the league.

Iceland

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: None

Israel

  • Current NBA players: Deni Avdija (Trail Blazers)
  • Former NBA players: None

Israel’s roster also includes Yam Madar, a former NBA draft pick who has never played in the league.

Poland

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: Jordan Loyd

Slovenia

  • Current NBA players: Luka Doncic (Lakers)
  • Former NBA players: None
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Heat EuroBasket Notes: Jovic, Spoelstra, Larsson, Fontecchio

August 24th, 2025 at 6:02pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Heat should have several prominent roles available for the taking this fall. While Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins, and Bam Adebayo all seem to have their starting spots locked up and Davion Mitchell and Kel’el Ware made strong cases for themselves last season, there are still plenty of regular minutes in the rotation to be won.

Nikola Jovic could get a head start on staking his claim during this summer’s EuroBasket competition, writes Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Winderman writes that head coach Erik Spoelstra wants to see Jovic step into a leadership role as one of the Serbian team’s leading men.

Last season, Jovic saw his responsibilities dip as Ware came on strong. The Serbian forward started just 10 games after making 38 starts the season before, though he was still productive, averaging 10.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists while shooting 37.1% from three. A strong EuroBasket could help Jovic hit the ground running next season and carve out a key role with the Heat.

In a recent exhibition win against Slovenia, Jovic scored 18 points on 7-8 shooting with Spoelstra in attendance.

We have more from the Heat’s EuroBasket players:

  • Speaking of Spoelstra, the Heat head coach has been on a European tour, checking in on his international players, Winderman writes in a separate article. Prior to watching Jovic help lead Serbia to a 34-point victory over Luka Doncic‘s Slovenian squad, Spoelstra dropped in on Pelle Larsson as Larsson and the Swedish squad battled Estonia.
  • EuroBasket offers Larsson a chance to spread his wings and show his complete skill set to the Heat, who already like the approach he takes to the game. “What he does are the things that we value,” Spoelstra said of Larsson, per Winderman. “He’s so tough. He makes winning plays. He’s a great role player. He fits around guys, the best players. And he will continue to get better, because he has a great work ethic.” Spoelstra has been interested in watching how the second-year guard fares as a ball-handler, but declined to put Larsson in a box as far as his role, citing the variety of ways in which the 6’5″ wing can impact the game. Winderman adds that Spoelstra’s comments seemed to indicate that Larsson had already won himself a role in the rotation for this coming season.
  • EuroBasket is also a chance for new addition Simone Fontecchio to bounce back and show what he can bring to the Heat after he followed up a strong 2023/24 performance with a disappointing ’24/25 in Detroit. With the long-tenured Duncan Robinson heading to the Pistons this offseason, Winderman notes that there’s hope Fontecchio can get back to the 40% three-point shooter he was two years ago in an effort to replace some of what Miami lost.
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Heat Notes: Jones, Jakucionis, Burks, Powell, Preseason

August 12th, 2025 at 3:06pm CST by Luke Adams

Kai Jones‘ workout with the Heat on Monday wasn’t just a one-day affair. According to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, the free agent center is actually spending four days working out at Kaseya Center this week as the club considers whether to sign him. No decisions have been made yet, but a source tells Jackson that the Heat have “long shown an appreciation” for the former first-rounder’s skill set.

The Heat have 14 players on standard contracts and could make Jones their 15th man, but the club is just a little over the luxury tax line and may not fill that final roster spot to open the season. The big man is also ineligible to receive a two-way contract.

While Jackson suggests an Exhibit 10 deal could be a possibility, Jones has reportedly drawn serious interest from the Italian team Virtus Bologna, who could offer him guaranteed money and a more significant role, so it’s unclear if a non-guaranteed camp contract would appeal to the 24-year-old.

We have more on the Heat:

  • Within that same Herald story, Jackson spoke to a veteran Eastern Conference scout to get his take on the Heat’s place in the Eastern Conference hierarchy, their offseason acquisition of Norman Powell, what they can expect from Simone Fontecchio, and his impressions of first-round pick Kasparas Jakucionis. On that last subject, the scout wasn’t especially enthusiastic. “NBA people I talked to in Las Vegas were killing him, didn’t have anything nice to say about him,” the scout said of Jakucionis. “Quickness and shooting were my concern. Can he beat [skilled NBA players] off the dribble? He better be able to make shots. His play was disappointing, but I’m not ready to judge. He’s [very young at 19].”
  • While Alec Burks expressed interest at the end of last season in returning to the Heat, a reunion with the veteran guard no longer makes sense after the club added Powell and Fontecchio, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required).
  • The Heat have no shortage of players benefiting from international competition this summer, with Powell, Fontecchio, Nikola Jovic, and Pelle Larsson all representing their national teams, as Winderman writes for The Sun Sentinel (subscription required). Powell led Jamaica to the two wins they needed in order to advance out of the World Cup pre-qualifying round before sitting out the third and final game of this competition window, Winderman adds (via Twitter).
  • The Heat and Magic announced on Tuesday that they’ll open their preseason with a game in San Juan, Puerto Rico on October 4. In total, the Heat will play six preseason games, as they outlined in a press release.
  • Heat Hall-of-Famers Dwyane Wade, Alonzo Mourning, and Pat Riley will be the presenters when longtime team owner Micky Arison is inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame next month, per a press release.
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Heat Notes: Westbrook, Powell, Bridges, Herro, Fontecchio

August 4th, 2025 at 8:21pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Signing free agent guard Russell Westbrook wouldn’t make much sense for the Heat, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. Winderman anticipates that Westbrook would rather sign with a team that has a stronger chance to contend.

Bringing in any free agent at this point creates salary cap and luxury tax issues for the Heat, according to Winderman, who also notes that Westbrook would likely to have to accept a role as the fourth guard in the rotation behind Tyler Herro, Norman Powell and Davion Mitchell.

We have more on the Heat:

  • Powell, who was traded to the Heat by the Clippers last month, is training in South Florida but not with the Heat. He’s working out with the Jamaican national team, which is holding its training camp at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton to prepare for the FIBA World Cup 2027 Americas pre-qualifiers, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, “I was expecting training camp to be in Jamaica, but then I learned that it was in Boca. And then being traded to the Heat, being so close to where I’ll be playing and being able to go down there and go to the facility, look for a place to stay. … It’s definitely cool,” Powell said.
  • Mikal Bridges‘ extension with the Knicks provides an interesting comp for future negotiations between the Heat and Herro, Winderman writes. While Bridges has never made an All-Star team or won an NBA award, unlike Herro, he’s a better two-way player. Bridges’ average of $37.5MM per season in his four-year extension still might not be enough to lock down Herro to a long-term agreement, notes Winderman.
  • Also at The Sun Sentinel, Winderman explores whether it would make sense for the Heat to utilize the stretch provision before the Aug. 29 deadline, pointing out that they could move below the luxury tax line by shedding some salary. The primary candidate, in Winderman’s view, is Simone Fontecchio, who was acquired in the Duncan Robinson sign-and-trade with Detroit. He has an $8.3MM expiring contract which could be stretched at $2.7MM over each of the next three seasons.
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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.
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