Why rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. believes he will thrive in NBA and how he’s impressed Heat coaches
.JPG "The Miami Heat’s first-round draft pick Jaime Jaquez, Jr., left, and Miami Heat President Pat Riley talk to reporters during a press conference at Kaseya Center.")
Jaime Jaquez Jr. accomplished a lot during his four-year college career at UCLA.
Jaquez led the Bruins to one Final Four and two more appearances in the Sweet 16. He finished his college career with 1,802 points (eighth on UCLA’s career scoring list), 178 steals (eighth on UCLA’s career steals list) and 842 rebounds (11th on UCLA’s career rebounding list).
But Jaquez believes his game is better suited for the NBA because it’s a “more free game.” That’s positive news for the Miami Heat, which drafted the 22-year-old forward with the 18th overall pick in last month’s draft.
“I think the freedom of the NBA game is a lot different than college because in college you always got to run a lot of sets in the flow of the offense,” Jaquez said. “I think in the NBA because of the shortened shot clock, there are so many opportunities for broken plays and things to not go as planned. You got to think on the move.
“To me personally, that’s where my game really elevates because that’s the game I like to play. I like to play free, I like to make fast decisions and quick decisions and try to get guys open. I think my game is going to grow a lot when I get to the NBA just because of all the freedom and the spacing and there’s just a lot of opportunity within the game.”
Jaquez took advantage of those opportunities in his summer league debut, finishing Monday’s win against the Los Angeles Lakers’ summer squad at the California Classic with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting from three-point range in 22 minutes. The Heat closes its two-game schedule at the California Classic on Wednesday against the Kings in Sacramento (10 p.m., ESPN) before moving on to Las Vegas summer league.
Jaquez’s well-rounded offensive skill set was on display in his first summer league game. He was effective with the ball and without the ball in his hands, spinning around defenders in the paint to create space, hitting spot-up threes and also dunking over defenders in transition.
That diverse offensive package is what Heat assistant coach and summer league head coach Caron Butler noticed immediately when he watched Jaquez in the team’s first summer league practice this past weekend.
“We started off one of our drills 4-on-0, where I just wanted to see what guys can do, going left, going right, pivot, back to the basket, you name it,” Butler said. “His versatility was amazing. Not even using him as a screener yet, but just using him just handling and getting downhill in his reads, seeing. I didn’t even tell him the coverages. I just wanted to see what type of reads, his basketball IQ, just testing it.”
Butler missed Jaquez’s pre-draft workout, so that summer league practice was his first real glimpse at the rookie.
“I just wanted to see what it looked like,” Butler said. “And he was just off the charts. And I knew that he was immediately someone that I could pair with Niko [Nikola Jovic] and get him out there and he can just figure it out. Because they just have high basketball IQs.”
But like every rookie entering the NBA, there are things Jaquez needs to work on. The Heat has spent the first few summer league practices focusing on Jaquez’ defensive techniques in his player development work.
“I think defensively, it’s really just breaking the old college habits,” said Jaquez, who can’t be traded for 30 days after signing his rookie contract on July 1 amid the Heat’s ongoing pursuit of Portland Trail Blazers star guard Damian Lillard. “Like closing out, not chopping your feet, making sure you get there and just make sure you run guys off the line. The defensive three seconds, how long I can be in the key and not just staying there forever like you can do in college. So I really think the biggest point for them is trying to break some of those old college habits that you have because it’s an advanced game.”
An advanced game that Jaquez expects to thrive in. It’s just one summer league game against other players trying to earn a role in the NBA, but it’s hard to argue with him after his summer debut.
“College, it’s a much different game,” Jaquez said. “A lot more fast breaks in the NBA, I think I’m really going to flourish in this type of style. College is a lot slower pace. I played at a school, we didn’t have the fastest pace and we went up and down a little bit. But nothing like it is in the NBA. So I think I’m going to have a lot more success in my future and I’m very excited to continue to play.”
This story was originally published July 5, 2023 at 10:12 AM.
