What now must be considered after Lowry’s comment. And Heat’s Jovic, Jaquez weigh in

A six-pack of Heat notes on a Wednesday:

▪ Kyle Lowry wants to start, and he’s the only natural point guard on the roster. Plus, a team that rarely — if ever — deals with drama or internal strife would seemingly best be served by pleasing its oldest veteran.

What’s more, the Heat’s starting point guard in the playoffs, Gabe Vincent, is gone, off to the Lakers for greater riches.

So starting Lowry should a pretty simple decision, right?

Well, not exactly.

While starting Lowry might ultimately be the best course for the aforementioned reasons, this shouldn’t be overlooked:

1). The Heat was far more successful with Lowry coming off the bench, primarily during its playoff run.

2). Lowry was far more efficient coming off the bench, during the regular season and to a somewhat lesser extent in the playoffs. He shot 46.6 percent from the field off the bench in 11 games, compared to 39.6 in 44 games as a starter.

He shot 42.5 percent on threes off the bench during the regular season, compared with 33.3 percent as a starter.

(He shot 42.5 percent overall from the field and 37.5 percent on threes in 23 playoff games, including 22 games off the bench -- better than his regular season averages as a starter.)

He had a 3.0 assist to turnover ratio off the bench, compared with 2.6 to 1 as a starter.

Of course, it’s also possible that those improved efficiency numbers off the bench could have everything to do with the fact that he had rested his knee for more than a month before returning as a reserve. And the sample size wasn’t huge.

3). Playing off the bench allowed Erik Spoelstra to monitor his minutes. He averaged 33.3 minutes as a starter, 23.1 off the bench. That probably helped preserve his knee.

All that said, the Heat needs Lowry to play bigger minutes because Vincent left and essentially wasn’t replaced.

With regard to potential starting lineup permutations alongside Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, a couple of points to consider:

The Heat outscored teams by 39 points in the regular season with Lowry and Kevin Love playing together. But that tandem was a -32 in 72 minutes when they played together in postseason.

The Lowry/Butler/Adebayo/Caleb Martin/Herro lineup was a plus 24 during the regular season, fifth best on the team.

And consider this: When Lowry and Martin were on the court together during the playoffs, Miami outscored teams by 74 points in 475 minutes; only the Martin-Adebayo pairing had a better plus/minus among all Heat two-man playoff pairings.

So starting Lowry seems to make sense. But it’s hardly a no-brainer. And the Love/Martin starting power forward decision also must factor into the thinking, if you want to draw any conclusions from the playoff plus/minus metrics.

Lowry is due $29.7 million this season in the final year of a three-year contract. He could emerge as a trade candidate before the Feb. 8 trade deadline.

▪ Nikola Jovic is now 237 pounds, about 20 more than last October. He said he believes that will help him defensively.

“I’m faster, I move better, I’m stronger,” he said.

Defensively, “I think I’ll be better this year. We’ll see.”

Players defended by Jovic shot 58.9 percent last season (56 for 95). That’s obviously way too high. Those same players shot 49.1 percent overall.

Among Heat player, only Cody Zeller allowed a higher shooting percentage (60.2 percent).

With his reshaped body and confidence from his strong play for Serbia in the World Cup, Jovic said: “I feel different. I feel a lot better. It’s easier to play.”

▪ In a starting role for Serbia, Jovic averaged 10.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game while shooting 56.6 percent from the field and 11 of 26 (42.3 percent) on threes during Serbia’s eight-game World Cup run.

At 6-10, he knows the rebounding must improve; he averaged 2.1 boards in 13.6 minutes per game in 15 Heat appearances.

“I would love to average 10 rebounds a game,” he said. “I don’t how real that is. We have some great rebounders. If I can help them, that’s probably better.”

He acknowledges the key to getting minutes is “probably just being as good as I can be on defense, being great at rebounding. That will help me stay in the game.”

▪ Even though the Heat holds Bradley Beal in high regard, we hear one major reason the Heat didn’t pursue a Beal trade earlier this offseason was because it philosophically doesn’t like the idea of inheriting a no-trade clause. Beal’s no-trade clause came with him to Phoenix.

ESPN previously reported that multiple teams asked him to eliminate his no-trade clause.

“I know for sure that at least a couple teams, if not all of them, made the ask ‘Hey, would you eliminate the no-trade clause if we got you?’” ESPN’s Zach Lowe said on his podcast. “And that was a non-starter. He was keeping the no-trade clause.”

The Washington Wizards included a no-trade clause as part of their five-year, $251 million contract with Beal that was signed during the 2022 offseason.

The Suns decided to accept Beal’s no-trade clause and a contract that will cost them potentially hundreds of millions in taxes.

The fact acquiring Beal likely would have put Miami over the second apron in future years also had to be considered, because of the onerous restrictions that the second apron triggers (including making it very difficult to make trades, not having exception money, etc.)

Beal is due $46.7 million this season, with salaries of $50.2 million, $53.7 million and $57.1 million in subsequent years.

▪ The Heat has had rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. working at shooting guard during summer workouts, Jaquez said. He also can play forward.

“It’s a flexible game — everyone is a guard or you’re a big,” he said. “It’s a two-position game at this point. Anywhere I am on the floor I will embrace that role. In college I was playing a lot of different positions. I’m very flexible and my game allows me to do that.”

Does he agree with the notion that he’s a plug-and-play rookie after four years at UCLA?

“I think college being there for four years prepared me for this level,” he said. “That’s why you go to college to prepare you for the next stage of life, which is a career and my career happens to be basketball. Who knows? We’ll see. I am very confident in my ability.”

▪ With Portland unwilling to re-engage the Heat on Damian Lillard talks after a brief initial conversation in early July, the Heat apparently never reached the point of needing to approach Oklahoma City about amending protections on the one future first-round pick that Miami must send the Thunder.

That pick is lottery protected in 2025. If Miami does not make the playoffs in 2024-25, then OKC would receive the Heat’s 2026 first-round pick.

In order for the Heat to be able to free up a third first-round pick to trade (in 2024), Miami would need OKC to accept an unprotected 2026 first-round pick instead of the current arrangement.

It’s expected that the Thunder would not be adamantly opposed to doing that; the teams have worked together before and there’s great respect between the front offices.