Forward Nikola Jovic agreed to a four-year, $62.4 million rookie contract extension with the Miami Heat, agents Jeff Schwartz, Sean Kennedy and Jared Mucha of Excel Sports Management told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Wednesday night.
The contract is fully guaranteed.
Jovic, 22, has played 107 out of a possible 246 games with the Heat since they selected him with the No. 27 pick in the 2022 NBA draft.
He averaged a career-high 10.7 points last season, although was limited to only 46 games after breaking a bone in his right hand on Feb. 23. Jovic did return in the playoffs, playing all four games of a first-round loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, when he averaged 9.5 points in 18.5 minutes. That included a 24-point outing in Game 4, his most points in any game last season (regular season or playoffs).
Jovic is coming off a strong summer working with the Serbian national team, and the Heat expect that his role is going to continue to grow this season.
“He’s becoming more mature, more professional,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said earlier this week at media day, when asked about Jovic and how his time with the Serbian team has helped in recent summers. “And if you’re hanging out with players much older than you, it just naturally happens. I’ve seen growth from him over three years because of that standard that they’ve had in that program.”
Jovic made his debut at 19 years, 139 days old, and is the second-youngest player to play for the Heat in franchise history, trailing Dorell Wright in 2005.
Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.