Miami Heat Rookie Nikola Jovic Already Earning Praise Among Teammates

Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler call Jovic a "hooper"

It hasn't taken long for Miami Heat rookie Nikola Jovic to get comfortable around teammates. 

He's yet to play a regular season game but already played several minutes with starters. The Heat can only hope the improvement continues. 

“Man, the thing I like about young fella, he’s a hooper,” Adebayo said. “He’s one of those guys, he figures it out as he goes. And that’s the thing I’ve learned about him so far. Like throwing him in the first unit, he looked like he was comfortable with us."

Jovic averaged 9.8 points and 5.2 rebounds on 40 percent shooting in five preseason games. The Heat have been impressed with how fast he's been able to pick up the game. 

“He knows exactly where to go, figuring it out in the flow, keeping the spacing," forward Jimmy Butler said. "He’s not running around mindless. The kid can hoop ... I think that the more reps he gets in games against so many different types of competition, the better he’s going to become.”

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Shandel Richardson is the Miami Heat writer for Inside The Heat. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA.