Miami Heat: Is it Niko Jovic’s time? | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: Is it Niko Jovic’s time? | Five on the Floor

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Can play props on better Edge so sign up go to better edge.com again that’s with an O better edge.com use the code five RSN or five reasons and now today’s episode all right welcome back to five on the floor here’s today’s floor plan I’m Ethan skick you follow me Ethan J

Skck and five Reon Sports I got Eternal bass you can follow him at Eternal bass you can also follow him as the host of our playback content make sure that you download the playback app for free we go every game from beginning to end and also we do off day film breakdowns not

Just on the heat but we’re starting to do them on the other sports as well so check that out again playback app is free look for the five reasons room sign up and you’ll join Eternal myself uh Ray Matt Ben Gad and of course uh Brady Alex

And uh and Gregor on there quite a bit as well and Shan Brian our crew from five reason Sports uh pops into playback today we’re going to talk about ET turtle’s favorite subject niiko yic we’re gonna have one of those hashtag Eternal was right episodes although I’m

Not gonna allow him to say it more than once otherwise I just buzz him um but I think we’re at the point now where this has to be seriously discussed because you know Brady Hawk’s been pushing forward too I mean Brady has been saying uh for the past few weeks look yic needs

To start and it seems like that’s where this is gone now there have been pieces out during this stretch when yic has been starting but I just want to give you some some of the historical significance from Miami Heat perspective because I looked up some of this stuff I

Actually did some research when I got back from my trip sorry I was away for the past couple days all right yic is not 21 yet okay he was born June 9th 203 about two and a half weeks before Dwayne Wade was drafted okay that’s how young he is now

Just for some context Dwayne didn’t start his first game for the heat until he was 21 years and a little over seven months old Michael Beasley did start as a 19-year-old for the heat uh he was born June 9th 1989 and he started his first game October 29th 2008 he actually started

The first 15 games of that season as like a 19 and a halfy old and then he got replaced with a starting lineup by former starter Udonis Haslam and he started a little bit at the end of that season Myro chers when he started for the heat was already almost 23 years old

Tyler hero started some games as a 19-year-old uh into 20 but wasn’t starting consistently and then you have to go back to sort of the pre- Riley era to find younger starters um and most of them were not actually because most of the players the heat drafted during the

Pre- rilly era was Steve Smith Glenn rice Etc they played pretty lengthy college careers so more like haime Hawkins so I just want to I want to begin there Eternal because for those who have been saying well the heat need to get him on the floor they need to see

What they have they don’t necessarily need to do that in the context of their history because they haven’t typically done that and they haven’t had a player worthy of that but now they are doing it and now when yic starts his next game he will have started more games than uh he

Started as many games as Caleb Martin as the season and he’s already started more games than Hawkins by one so for all the talk about Hawkins and we know obviously Jimmy is sort of a blocker to Hoak is on the starting lineup yic has started

More did you expect him to get more time to this point than he has no I’m just curious before we get into what he’s done I mean because to me this is exceeding my expectations if you’re asking me honestly yes and I think anybody that has watched um you know us on playback

You know um last year in the off season I said if yic was still on his team I expected him to start at some point um and he he has you know it hasn’t been exactly what I expected um I did think you know I I said if yic I think said if

He started like 50 games he could average 15 points um obviously it hasn’t reached anywhere any anywhere near that and it probably it absolutely won’t because it’s just not enough games but I did think that yic and HZ would uh contribute this season and HZ came out the gate like that immediately from

Preseason um Nico not so much he showed some flashes early in the season Ethan um if you remember against like Minnesota and Boston um just for those very very short stin and then during the during the season season before getting like a permanent start I’m not going to

Say permanent start but kind of semi-permanent start as you said we’ve seen more of the flashes I mean he he popped against the Lakers in La uh he looked pretty good against Utah um a little bit um against some other teams as well so we have seen some

Things from him and you know recently from this stretch I think about like eight nine games uh his defense has been solid you know oneon-one and also uh team team defense as well so some of that I did expect you know me and Matt stayed up watching those fever games um

And you can kind of see what was there uh with yic and and one of the things I did think that they would happen this season is they would trust him more on ball a little bit more on Ball and we have seen it we’ve seen him initiate

Some plays um we’ve seen him be a connector and in some ways um kind of set guys up he’s doing the pointing thing that KY Larry did he He Who Shall Not Be Named um’s Legacy I guess but we have we have seen some growth over the season and and honestly

That’s inspiring considering uh we heard or you heard rather that this was a red shirt uh season for yog yeah what I heard was that they came into this season thinking that their future is was bam Tyler and haime and maybe Nico and that there going to be opportunities for him to

Show it but that they weren’t necessarily going to rush it and that’s why I characterizes his red shirt season in part because they have so many other guys who seem like they’re in the way of what yic does best and and that’s this gets back to the conversations that we

Had and that I had with him in Brooklyn I mine was not the one that got him into trouble it was his interview that same night after the game uh with a reporter where it got translated in a weird way uh where it seemed like he was you know

Really angry he wasn’t uh he was frustrated he expressed that frustration to me and it was mostly about playing the five and that you know whenever he went to sou Falls he played the five and it seemed like at the time that SPO was trying to put him in the spot he thought

There may be minutes uh that that that’s essentially you get him in the five spot but it’s just not a comfortable spot for him and and I know our our Sea Rochester and others argue against you know positions and all the rest of that stuff and you know it’s basically who you

Guard more so than what position you play on offense and and all of that but there was a frustration level for sure and I think where where it gets complicated is on paper he is exactly what they need next to Babo like they they’ve been searching for something and

They found kind of a prototype which is you know the undersized power forward who can switch right like and you know and and do dir work stuff so that you know bam can grab the rebounds and you know they obviously started you know it was Jay it was unsuccessfully you know

Mo harkless it was somewhat unsuccessfully the you know the corpse of Trevor arza it was uh you know you know now it’s it’s been Martin it’s been heith uh it was Tucker right so it was been that Proto but ideally ideally you would have someone more like

Yich someone more like say Kelly o Lin who if you if you looked at the Twan combinations of bam and Kelly the numbers were always excellent uh even though Kelly is not a good rebounder like it just Kelly’s ability to stretch the floor um and do those kind of things

Create space for bam was instrumental uh in a lot of their lineups and and is one of the reasons Kelly was a valuable piece for them and and so if you would and then there’s Kevin Love who if you had the Kevin Love from five six seven years ago perfect he’s the perfect

Player next to B right as it is you’re getting more out of Kevin than I think any of us anticipated but so that’s the thing TT is that yovic on paper is the perfect for next to Bam but it’s the rest of the lineup that makes it tricky I think

Because he is at his best you made the point on ball he’s at his best creating he’s at his best pushing in transition he has his head up on the break with which first thing not a lot of Heat players do and certainly not a lot of

Bigs around the league do okay we talked about the Heat’s troubles in transition yovic makes their transition game better he just does um but also he is a guy who can make plays for in the half court and when you have Jimmy and you have Tyler

And you run stuff through bam and even though Duncan is an off the- ball player you’re running actions for Duncan and now you have Rosier right um It’s Complicated I think to find the right lineup that he can sit in permanently offensively we’ll get into the defense

Part in a second because that’s really the key okay but it’s offensively I’ll ask you this when a hero comes back whenever that is okay and we don’t know at this point he’s going to be inserted into the starting lineup We believe We believe if it’s gonna be Rosier and hero

And Bam and Jimmy is there a role for yic offensively other than spot up Corner threes which by the way his numbers are good there but it doesn’t maximize his skill set I think so and I think if you commit to having Tyler be more off ball

I mean we’ve been talking about that all season just have Tyler be more off ball and I I’m not saying like play more like Duncan I think you can use him in some cuts you know I can I think you can use him in as a way of a decoy and have some

Other op um options on the other actions excuse me on the other side of the floor they kind of get Tyler going get some movement and things of that nature where maybe you don’t just get him some long range shots maybe you got to get him in

The floater as much as we hate the floater it works for Tyler and sometimes you just got to go with what works and so maybe you can get some inverted pick and rolls between yic and Tyler um maybe you can get some things that it starts

With yic and Bam right you know and you kind of create some mismatches or you get some things going with Yin and Jimmy there’s just so many options Ethan where you can run pick and roll options with Nico Jimmy uh Terry’s own ball pick and roll options and maybe

You can kind of get something going for Tyler and use him in that kind of way I think it is something that you can use um where you can maybe use in some cas against different match ups you could probably use Jimmy and Nico as more on Ball and Terry and Tyler

As more off ball you know if you can get a quicker offense going causing the defense to have to shift and react instead of playing set then maybe it can look uh a lot more fluid than you know and maybe it’s something that gives you a different option um obviously we’ll

Get to the defense later but yes I do think there are avenues for it to work if just all about how you get guys to buy into that but also making use of guys basketball iy I here here’s the the point that I want to make as an

Overriding point before we get back into the defense is that whenever you have a young player like this on a contending team it’s different if if you’re on if you’re on a bad team you throw him out there he probably develop some bad habits that may take him years to clean

Up I mean you look at what’s happened in places like Detroit and other places that have been bad for a long time I don’t know if some of those picks would have panned out if they’ had a better support system in terms of veterans and terms of coaching in terms of playing

Meaningful games Miami’s not in that situation we talked about this a lot with hakz and the fact that he fit right in now he’s having to make some adjustments to the adjustments that have been made to him but I think everybody thinks that he’s going to come through

It but you have to balance these things and and and the things that you’ve got to balance are you’ve got the development of the player him being able to play through mistakes without losing confidence at the same time is not hurting the team and it took me about 60 games to

Come to this but I tweeted this the other day it’s time to live with the mistakes I I’m I’m at the point and and and I and I know that again those of you who were pushing for this earlier among your you know you being among them will

Make the point well you should have done this earlier I I always come back to this when it comes back to the Heat’s development okay there are things that I don’t NE so agree with what they do organizationally your players they go for don’t go for whatever I don’t

Challenge them at all on the developmental stuff because my view of it is that when whenever Heat fans have been pushing for a guy to play sooner and they wait to play the guy or put the guy in a certain position and he performs well when they put him in the

Conclusion that fans jump to is well see look I was right he should have been playing earlier the conclusion I jump to is well see look they waited until he was ready and they made sure that he could handle the situation before they put him in and I

Know sometimes look every situation is a little different and so maybe I’m I’m being I’m I’m casting too broad a brush on all of that okay maybe it’s not the case with every single guy but I I’ve been through this a million times with Heat fans they always want the young guy

To play okay and when the heat wait there’s usually a reason and I’m going to go back to the Beasley example okay because this goes back a long way but this is before they became really a developmental organization okay 2008 they have a horrible season in 0708 they weren’t planning on tanking

But everybody got hurt even UD D okay CRI uncle right and they sat him the rest of the year they don’t get the number one pick so that’s Rose Pat really doesn’t want Beasley they tried to trade down others in the organization did want Beasley okay you haven’t really heard from those

Folks in a long time they wanted they wanted Beasley it was hard to argue with The Pick of Beasley because he was the consensus number one college basketball player that year and he had a skill set there’s no question his his defense I me excuse me offensively Elite okay I mean kind of

Guy could beat anybody in one-on-one get his shot off from anywhere anywhere had Carmelo Anthony like offensive Talent okay they threw him in there right away it was obvious they weren’t comfortable with it he didn’t know where the hell to go okay I was at his first

Summer league I was in Orlando when they used to do in Orlando before they went out to Vegas I watched him against a guy named Shawn Williams not that Shawn Williams ended up playing for the heat but the Sha Sean who was playing for the

Nets at the time bees had 13 fouls they wouldn’t let you fou out he had 13 fouls and probably that many turnovers by by the way Mario Charmers played really well in that game we’re like okay that might be their starting point guard he ended up starting 82 games Beasley was

Not ready to be a starter on a team with any kind of aspirations and again they were coming off a 15- win season Dwayne was a rookie so they didn’t have huge aspirations at the time they sat him down after 15 games they went back to UD and then finally Beasley started the

Last last five games of the season and again my point on that is all I heard was during that period of time why isn’t Beasley starting why isn’t Beasley starting why aren’t they going to Beasley why aren’t they featuring Beasley well there was a reason okay because they were by playing

Him or starting him they were rewarding him for bad habits that he never got out of all right and they tried two more times with him they brought him back two more times okay and almost a third so I guess where do you come down on this

Because he fans are like well SPO should have realized yic could have done this stuff earlier and I’m like you think SPO doesn’t realize what yic can and can’t do I I just think he was waiting for the right opportunity where he thought the kid could actually handle it and had

Developed enough defensively where he wouldn’t Dr Dro you know his own shoulders and cause the team to get frustrated because he wasn’t in the right place I think the thing with Nico is just like how you ended it he is a really big confident person if you

Remember when you guys went um to training camp one of the things Jimmy talked about was like you could see Nico walking around with his chest puffed out you know coming off of the the feea play um and him you know kind of really playing well in FEA um and you know

Playing a big part of his his home country you know making it to the finals um which they ended up losing into Germany who his his like uh comparison NBA comparison which was across from him was France Wagner um I think the thing with Nico is you know like you talked about with

Opportunities um you know when they drafted him um and I I remember him talking about you know him coming from overseas and playing more in the guard position you know so you get thrown in you’re thrown in as a four and you’re thrown in as there a five like it’s totally

Different um from that and so there’s a learning curve and it was just a learning curve all last season um even with you know him having the backs SP of him growing and so that that being thrown off and so coming into this season um still having that learning

Curve of how to play in the power rotation as we call it uh there wasn’t I guess there was really no opportunity for him to be on ball like that to begin with you know you had kyar who said I if expect to be the starter so you had Kyle

You had Drew Smith you had Josh Richardson um unless Nico showed like something very very spectacular in training camp if he even got the opportunity to be on ball in training camp that just wasn’t going to happen regardless of what I felt sioban shout out to Miami Heat be or anybody else

Unless Nico had the opportunity to show what he could do on ball you just weren’t going to see it um but I think what changed Ethan which I think played a really really big role besides just the opportunity I think Jimmy taking Nico on his arm and really pouring into

Him um kind of mentally emotionally from a big brother standpoint kind of brought out that fire that you saw from feba you know um and I think that played a big role and kind of tighten some things up I mean Jimmy Butler is one of the best players in the

League and we all lament that um just for how you know his high IQ and the way he goes about you know about the game and so having somebody that you know Iron sharp and iron against I think they played a big role and then you know obviously being able to utilize those

Things and practice and having more of those live game um experiences and I remember you saying in one of the podcast some guys learn better in live games than they do in g-league games or they do in practice and so I think Nico is probably one of those players and I

Think we have seen that you know here and there and kind of more consistently especially with his defense want to ask when we come back uh from break I want to ask a more philosophical question here because I think this does play into it with you mentioned Jimmy

And obviously they’re in the Jimmy window right now they’re also in the Jimmy season timeline which means with 22 games left uh you know Mr 22 is expected to keep hiking his play and he’s playing at a higher level now uh than he has throughout the entire season

But it does lead to an important question when we’re talking about playing these young players in games that matter before we do want to mention and a great sponsor the five reason Sports Network they’re also big fans of this podcast and they’re big Miami he fans and you can find them at shopt

Culture.com shop tuub culture.com these are bath and beauty products and these are naturally made and it’s just great stuff I ordered some the great for significant other if you have one of those I’m I’m telling you this stuff will go over very well I mean if I mean

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Miami Heat fans and get great gifts as well again is shop tub culture.com so here’s the question um Boston beat Golden State by about 300 today oh man that score that score was crazy okay all right uh I’m throwing it out there right now and i’ I’ve said

This that I mean give me the field um because I this is this is stacking up right now where everybody’s building up Boston to be inevitable and invincible and I I understand there it’s a it’s a Well constructed roster um I said at the time of the Drew trade that I thought

That Drew would be more impact act ful for Boston than Dame would be for Milwaukee the heat believed that as well and I think that that’s played out so far this season and certainly the porzingis trade has worked out that’s worked out better than I anticipated and

That is a real problem for Miami uh we’ve seen that in the matchup so far uh but I don’t think they’re inevitable I don’t um I I think uh you you if you if you tell me you that you’re giv Jimmy and and joic a crack at them this year I

Think that they crack against one of those two teams I just I I’ve seen it happen on their home flooor um I’ve seen the way jayen Brown performed when it mattered and I don’t trust Tatum as a onea in those situations but with that said they’re

Not going to be easy to beat and it’s one thing to say okay we’re gonna go with guys that we’ve seen do it Caleb Martin others like that playing heavier minutes or we’re going to play the guys like yic and hakz who they’ve not seen in those situations but also the Heat

Have not seen in those situations because I this is Pat Riley’s phrase this is mine playoffs tell you don’t know until the guys get under those lights particularly on the road how they’re gonna perform are you comfortable with the idea and we’ll throw haime into this one as well are

You comfortable with the idea of those guys playing heavy minutes one of them now it looks more like yic than hakz we thought it might be hakz one of them even starting maybe one of them even closing that would be more likely I think to be hakz than yic based on spos

Tendencies this season are you willing to to let them grow and throw the curveball at a team like Boston in the playoffs even though again they may not have the experience and you may be more likely to lose I I’m not scared to be honest with

You and you know one of the things I was thinking about as you was talking about Boston being this um you know this team of Destiny or whatever do people remember the early 201 bulls or the Indiana Pacers like if you go back both were seated higher than big three eight

Right and they were talked about like oh they’re going to be the one to unseat Miami they’re going to be the on to go make it to the finals like you remember those morning shows of them being picked before the season or through the season and things of that nature and they never

Made it you know it never got they never got it done and I think uh no you know on no hating um kind of agenda towards Boston always respect because anybody has a punch of chance I think Boston is more in line with those Patriot teams with those Bull teams because I don’t

Think they have enough and I don’t say it a talent-wise I don’t think they have enough um mentally of an edge in the game of basketball on between those lines to make it enough I don’t think that the way Jaylen um Brown plays basketball or the way Jason Tatum plays

Basketball is enough to get the job done um on that note um as far as niiko yic having um kind of the mental fortitude to perform in the playoffs I think he already shown it I think it’s much more pressure for those players borign to play for their home country in those

Feea games in those Olympic games where it means a lot more for them that’s where they grew up that’s where everything is built up and that means a lot more to them than I think you know coming over here and playing America I mean we just had a pod or a playback

Talking about yage Luca in the allstar game you know and like what that meant even joic when he won the championship like he just wanted to get back home but I think playing for that country on the front of your team means a lot more and

I think Nico showed uh some very strong mental fortitude in those fever games and I don’t um expect any less for anybody out there doubting whether or not Nico will show up or be you know sharp enough to show up what did he do against the Hornets when when Thomas

Bryant was on the sideline oh no that that’s the thing there have been a lot of I think reassuring moments oh lately and and so and some of it is uh offensively some of it’s defensively some of it’s just interaction with teammates some of it is

Is you know even guys like Tyler saying that you know they’re starting the niiko yovic fan club or uh or Jimmy obviously being the big one and it does seem like there’s a comfort Level Playing with bam so I mean there’s been nothing so far that’s like okay you can’t play him and

Again I come back to the beginning of the podcast here it is a it is a process right and it it’s and there there are these steps that I think they wanted to see him take and I think part of the process was frustrating him not intentionally but frustrating him by

Playing him out of position sending him back to sou Falls and yes he can play the a little bit um I mean even like I said even to me which I hopefully I translated correctly because it was in English uh but he was frustrated but it didn’t seem to affect

His work oh no not at all that’s ultimately what they care about they don’t care they don’t have an issue with the frustration they have an issue with the frustration bleeding into the attitude bleeding into the work and I don’t think they’ve seen that I think with others they did see that with

Hassan is the sort of the prime example of the one that they saw that with uh Dion towards the end others um I don’t think that they’ve seen it with him so I think that that that toughness I think will lend itself well and he is in a lot

Of ways an exactor in a series against Boston because he allows them to play differently against porzingis and Horford if they’re going to go with the two bigs so I just thinking I’ll let you close here but I I I think there’s been enough and it’s taken me a while to get

Here but I think there’s been enough to say you leave him at the four if it’s going to be Rosier and herro in the back court you know you’re G to live with some things defensively right but if you’re bringing off on the bench and then we’re going to do a

Separate episode on this this week but if you’re GNA have a bench core that includes Kevin Love Duncan Robinson Caleb Martin and haime hwz primarily featured I’ll take that fourman bench against any bench in the league and that does not include what you may get in specialist situations from on right uh

From Haywood heith and potentially from others but I I think that they’ve set this thing up now where Caleb could come off the bench and play the way he played against what we just what we just saw in this last game against Utah and give you

24 to 26 minutes like that he’ll still have a role it doesn’t mean he necessarily needs to start so I I I again taking me a while to come around to it but I’ve come around to it also I think another thing Ethan as you talked about like

Them trying to see will he break or does he show heat culture um what they really care give a damn about he scored 25 points and you know what SPO said in the Press like postgame presser Nico is back on the court like working with the staff like that’s some Mumble mentality

And so I just think there’s more of him um as we talked about on playback like how may H replicates Jimmy on the court with his play style but you can kind of tell that Nico is like really eating up what Jimmy is feeding him from a mental

Standpoint and I think that’s really going to pay dividends for them not only on court but off Court as well because he like you said a guys really like Nico um his joyful personality and things of that nature but he is also a high IQ player and you can never have too much

Of that um and even them trusting him with the ball in his hands and kind of orchestrating things or connecting things and I think um the defense that he did show against Brook Lopez um you know and other guys that’s some battle wounds that you need for him to get because that’s going

To pay dividends later um in the playoffs I also think having Kevin Love Around is not a bad thing because uh Kevin has has had a lot of the skills that uh that yic is trying to develop right thanks to Eternal you can follow that Eternal bass check out the rest of

Our podcast this week I’ll be back at the arena on Tuesday night probably going to do a bench related podcast earlier in the week as we always mentioned sign up for the Discord at off the floor check out the new q&as have a good one everybody

Nikola Jovic has been starting lately — and performing well in usually limited minutes. Should it continue? And is he ready for more, even leading up to the playoffs? Ethan Skolnick discusses with Eternal Bast, the Five Reasons Sports Playback host.

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