The Heat have exercised their 2025/26 team options on wing Jaime Jaquez and forward Nikola Jovic, the team announced (Twitter link via Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press).
Jaquez is now guaranteed to earn $3,861,600 in ’25/26, which will be his third season, while Jovic will earn $4,445,417 during his fourth campaign. Jovic will also become eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2025 offseason.
As our tracker shows, Miami is the first NBA team to make decisions on its rookie scale team options for the ’25/26 season. The outcome was a mere formality after both players had strong seasons in ’23/24.
The No. 18 overall pick of the 2023 draft, Jaquez averaged 11.9 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 2.6 APG and 1.0 SPG in 75 regular season contests for the Heat (28.2 MPG). His excellent play earned him a spot on the All-Rookie First Team.
Jovic, who is two-plus years younger than Jaquez (21 vs. 23) despite being drafted a year earlier (No. 27 in 2022), spent the beginning of last season in the G League before emerging as a rotation regular down the stretch. In 46 regular season games (19.5 MPG), Jovic averaged 7.7 PPG, 4.2 RPG and 2.0 APG. The Serbian won a bronze medal this summer at the Olympics in Paris.
The deadline for teams to pick up 2025/26 rookie scale options is October 31, 2024.
Big year for both incoming – Jovic in particular has the tools to break out big time, provided Miami trust him to take some shots.
Jaquez has already shown he’s a rotation guy. Jovic needs to step up this yr. Ware also can make an impact imo. These three young guys become rotation players. Then this Heat team can contend.