Why Miami’s attack will be “tricky”, says Nikola Jovic

With The Miami Heat are getting ready to start the regular seasonthe team will likely play differently come Wednesday when they face the Orlando Magic. After that The Heat went winless in the preseasonthe team looks to make some noise in the regular season as Nikola Jovic gives fans a taste of what’s to come from the offense.

Miami’s offensive rating and pace over the last few seasons have been near the bottom of the league, causing head coach Erik Spoelstra and staff to focus on playing much faster. Although it was changed last season as part of the regular season, this is the first full stretch without Jimmy Butler, plus Tyler Hero will be out, making the offense “tricks” as described by Jović.

“You know, it’s a tricky offense,” Jovic said, according to The Miami Herald. “I think we’re still trying to figure out who’s going to do what with playing more like in the open court and not a lot of pick-and-rolls and not so many plays. So it’s more like, OK, go out there and use your talent as much as you can.”

Some new pieces like Norman Powell appears to be a key part of the offense, as he said after the preseason finale loss to the Memphis Grizzlies that the offense “65 percent”, which excites him since their ceiling is high.

“I think our offense is operating at probably about 65 percent of where we can go,” Powell said. “The good thing is that we work so low, so it’s a high ceiling for us on that end of the floor.”

Norman Powell cites pace as an area he sees the Heat improving.

He would mention that he thinks the offense is at 65%, saying they have a high bar for improvement. #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/EpjU9odzkg

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) October 18, 2025

The Heat’s Norman Powell and others want to fit into the new offense

While it is the Heat newcomer’s comfort level in Powell will be vital, the role each player will play in this new attack will be important to understand. Jovic mentioned how he feels “it’s definitely not going to be easy to get the offense going,” which excites him because they can be better, but it would give insight into what the team wants to figure out.

“What we’re still trying to figure out is that right now you have three guys — when Tyler comes back, four — that are in a similar point-per-game range,” Jovic said, via the Miami Herald , referring to Bam Adebayo, Powell and Andrew Wiggins. “So these three somehow had to figure out what the profile of the shot was going to look like. That’s all I’m going to say.”

“Us other guys like me, Jaime (Jacquez), Pelle (Larsson), Drew (Smith), Davion (Mitchell), we just kind of had to find a way to be nice guys,” Jovic said. “Will we get the ball a lot? Probably not. But the way we play offensively, we’ll be able to get open and get some shots.”

It remains to be seen how the offense will look, but the first chance will be Wednesday against the Orlando Magic in the regular season opener.