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With the Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra promising a much better year than last season's frustrating campaign, there is no doubt that fans and players alike have confidence in the legendary head coach. As the Heat's 2025-26 season is nearing closer to the opener on Oct. 22, one star who has praised Spoelstra is up-and-coming player Nikola Jovic.
Spoelstra has been making the rounds recently, traveling to watch his players compete in exhibition games for EuroBasket as besides checking out Pelle Larsson represent Sweden, Thursday saw him watch Jovic play for the Serbian team. It is also likely that he will watch Miami's new addition, Simone Fontecchio, acquired via the Duncan Robinson sign-and-trade with the Detroit Pistons, play for Italy.
Jovic would be asked by Mozzart Sport about Spoelstra being in attendance for the 106-72 win over Slovenia, and would talk about his boost in play, even saying that he's “perhaps the best coach in the world.”
“I was motivated. He's perhaps the best coach in the world,” Jovic said, via Basket News. “He traveled such a long way to see me, and I wanted to show that I can be even better next season.”
Nikola Jovic said he was motivated to perform well in the preparation game because Erik Spoelstra traveled all the way to see him 🗣️🇷🇸 #EuroBasket
Read more: https://t.co/vA4yRdeyqp pic.twitter.com/eZKoTtkSM4
— BasketNews (@BasketNews_com) August 22, 2025
Jovic would have a great game in front of Spoelstra, as he scored a game-high 18 points to go along with seven rebounds, making eight of his 10 field goals attempted.
Niko vs. Slovenia with Coach Spo in attendance:
🔥 Game-high 18 PTS
🔥 7 REB
🔥 8/10 FGMSerbia win 106-72 🇷🇸 pic.twitter.com/GKahNzeQvd
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) August 22, 2025
Erik Spoelstra on the Heat's expectations this upcoming season
As Jovic looks to be a breakout candidate on the Heat among other players, it's easy to predict that this upcoming season will favor the team better. Last season displayed on and off the court drama with Miami that mostly dealt with the situation of Jimmy Butler, as he was eventually traded before the deadline to the Golden State Warriors.
The biggest addition made was in trading for Norman Powell, giving the team a much-needed gutpunch on offense along with Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, and others. Spoelstra would speak about the team's prospects this season, predicting that they will “be a lot better than last year,” according to The Sun Sentinel.
“Well,” Spoelstra said. “Hopefully, we’re going to be a lot better than last year. We had to really navigate quite a few things during the season. But we did make the playoffs. The playoffs did not go how we wanted it to go, but the league is tough.
“We pride ourselves on finding a way to compete for a championship every single year, so that’s what our standard is, that’s what we’re aiming to do this year, and I think we have a good group. We have an exciting group of young players like Pelle. And we have experience, and have that competitive drive that we look for. So it’s a matter of putting it together and getting out there and competing for it.”
At any rate, Miami looks to improve after finishing 37-45, which put the team 10th in the Eastern Conference.
