OPINION: Is Miami Heat's Nikola Jovic's Contract The Worst In The NBA?

With the Miami Heat's sluggish start to the regular season, many are beginning to point fingers and determine what the team's issues are. The fit between shiny new acquisition Giannis Antetokounmpo and franchise center Bam Adebayo has looked questionable at best, the team's perimeter shooting has been shaky and Miami is also struggling to close out games. However, arguably one of the biggest issues of the team at the moment involves a player's salary.

On the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Bill Simmons released his latest power poll, ranking all the NBA teams into tiers following the first week of the regular season. While talking about the struggling Heat, Simmons mentioned how Nikola Jovic's extension has been one of the worst decisions made by the franchise.

"The [Nikola] Jovic extension from last year was one of the dumbest extensions anyone's given in the last five years," Simmons said. It's been a disaster. He's unplayable."

The Heat handed forward Jovic a rookie contract extension prior to last season. Miami gave him a four-year, $62.5 million contract extension that is now kicking in. Jovic was the team's first-round pick from 2022 and Pat Riley really liked what he had to offer for the foreseeable future. However, it seems the team is already regretting that contract decision as Jovic was basically a non-factor down the stretch of last season, only appearing in eight games post-January.

Now, he entered this season as a role player making around $15 million a year. Through the first four games of the season, he has only surpassed the 20 minutes played marker once with the three other games coming in under 13 minutes. He is averagin 3.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.8 assists while shooting 41.7 percent from the field and an abysmal 25 percent from three-point range. Again, it's early in the season but he is certainly on a short leash given his disappointing season last year as well.

This got me thinking: Is Jovic's current contract the worst in the league at the moment? I did a little bit of digging and determined that he is not quite at that point. There are some players making more money on an annual basis that may be in a worse contract situation than Jovic.

Gary Trent Jr. of the Milwaukee Bucks is one of them. Once viewed as a strong role player, Trent was with the Bucks in 2024 and 2025 on cheap contracts. He played well enough to earn a four-year, $64 million contract this past offseason and now, the NBA has been investigating Milwaukee for potential salary cap circumvention. He has only appeared in one game so far this season and has one three-pointer made.

As good as he is, Joel Embiid's contract with the Philadelphia 76ers can be considered one of the most difficult to manage in the league as well due to his consistent injury woes. In 2024, he signed a three-year, $193 million extension, which would keep him under contract through the 2028–29 season. He has not played more than 40 games in a season since his MVP campaign three years ago.

While Jovic's contract seems like something the Heat may regret, he still is young and has room to grow. That youth could also still make him a sweetener in a trade at some point this season if another team wants to take a chance on the young forward. Some of the worst contracts in the league have to do with players' availability but Jovic has been healthy. He just needs to take a step forward.