The Miami Heat have continued with their plan to build a youth movement, and it was announced last night that forward Nikola Jovic was going to receive a four-year, $62.4 million contract extension that is fully guaranteed.

The biggest knock on Jovic during his time with the Heat has been his health. He has missed over half the games he’s been eligible for since being drafted in 2022.

But it’s one particular pairing that also needs to get better when Jovic is on the court if this extension is going to pay off for the Heat.

Nikola Jovic, Bam Adebayo, and Tyler Herro need to sync up better in 2025-26

Jovic and Bam Adebayo were paired together last season for 688 minutes. Outside of Tyler Herro, this was the most Jovic was on the floor with any other player in 2024-25.

The issue is that the duo finished the season with a plus/minus rating of -24. Of the eight players Jovic spent at least 200 minutes on the floor with in 2024-25, this was the third-worst +/- pairing Jovic was with.

Now, during the 446 minutes all three of Jovic, Adebayo, and Herro were on the floor together, the trio did just barely break into the positive for the season and were much better than the trio of Adebayo, Herro, and Kel’el Ware, who finished at -58 for the season.

What gives?

The issues for this pairing seem to be on the defensive side of the ball, and what’s ironic is that the three was actually well defended with this pairing.

Jovic, Adebayo, and Herro had the best three-point defense of any trio on the Heat who played at least 400 minutes together last season. Despite that, that same trio gave up the 2nd most points per 36 minutes of anyone on the Heat.

At the core of the issue was the utter lack of rim protection that the pairing provided. Of the 460 trios in the NBA that played at least 400 total minutes together, Jovic, Adebayo, and Herro finished dead last in blocks per 36 minutes.

No, blocked shots aren’t a perfect indicator of rim protection, but Miami was also 3rd to last as a team on opponent shooting percentage inside six feet, so where there is smoke, there is fire.

So, if Miami’s vision is to create rotations with Jovic and Adebayo together while Ware sits on the bench, the rim protection needs to improve in the long term.

Otherwise, this pairing is just going to get run over by some of the larger teams in the NBA, and it won’t matter what offensive upside Jovic might provide.