Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. moving forward after ‘extremely humbling’ second NBA season
After establishing himself as one of the NBA’s top rookies last season, Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. was just looking to build on that momentum last summer. But after enduring a shaky sophomore NBA campaign, Jaquez is just looking to learn from what went wrong this season.
“I think it was an extremely humbling experience,” Jaquez said on exit interview day. “Sometimes things don’t go your way. And sometimes only after do you realize why that had to happen to you. So I’m taking it all with me in the summer. I’m just going to get right back to work.”
Jaquez has plenty to work on, as his production dipped across the board this season after being named to the NBA’s All-Rookie first team for his impressive work last season.
Jaquez averaged fewer points (8.6 per game this season compared to 11.9 per game last season) while shooting a worse percentage from the field (46.1% this season compared to 48.9% last season) and three-point range (31.1% this season compared to 32.2% last season) this regular season than last regular season. He also averaged 4.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.9 steals per game in 66 regular-season appearances (17 starts) in his second NBA season.
“It was a very humbling year,” Jaquez, 24, again emphasized. “You can take that and learn from it or you can take it and get worse. So there’s so many things to do. But I’m taking the approach to just learn, dive into the film, continue to work on my game and just continue to get better and come with a different ferocity next year.”
Along with dropping out of the Heat’s rotation after playing in each of the first 45 games he was available for this regular season, Jaquez also missed five games this regular season because of a stomach illness and three games in March because of a sprained right ankle.
Jaquez then logged just 19 minutes of playing time during the Heat’s short-lived four-game run in this year’s playoffs that mercifully ended when the Cleveland Cavaliers swept Miami in the first round.
“He’ll work on everything,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Jaquez at the start of this offseason. “He had a really good summer last summer. Then he sprained his ankle right before training camp. These are not excuses. But it led to some of the inconsistency of his play or his role.
“The first time I thought he started to play well was after the Mexico City game and then that led to four of his stomach issues. And sometimes you just can’t control that. That was three or four instances where he was taken out of the lineup and then three sprained ankles. So every time he started to get a rhythm, one of those events would happen. And then it was ramp up coming back and the team would change, and we already had four or five different changes within the team anyway. And then his role would have to change. That’s a lot for a young player. What you want more than anything as a young player is consistency and clarity. What’s my role, what’s expected of me? And that changed due to a lot of those events.”
But Spoelstra also knows being available for more games is just part of the battle for Jaquez. The bottom line is Jaquez also just needs to get better ahead of his third NBA season.
“Clearly he has to work on some things, which he will,” Spoelstra continued on Jaquez, who has been working with NBA skills trainer Chris Brickley early this offseason. “He’ll work on defending in open space, defending situationally in our system. Outside shooting will be key again, but he was working on that last summer. I think a full summer again, I think he’ll see big progress. He was coming out of training camp shooting the ball great. So I think we can fast track that. Then ultimately the hardest one is decision-making. Schemes have changed against him and he has to be aggressive, but now there’s going to be different schemes and you graduate to different levels to this. When there’s a second defender, making the right read and finding open guys when he’s in a crowd.”
Becoming a more reliable three-point shooter will be among Jaquez’s top priorities this offseason. Not only did Jaquez shoot just 31.1% on threes this regular season, but NBA tracking stats say that 111 of his 119 three-point attempts this regular season were either open or wide open (defender at least four feet away) with teams consistently helping off of him and daring him to take outside shots.
“A lot of repetition, a lot of mental work, a lot of film,” Jaquez said of his plan to improve his three-point shot. “Just understanding where I need to put my hand on the ball, understanding the cadence of my shot and just reps really. Just reps, staying in the gym and living in it.”
Jaquez also wants to become a mentally stronger player this offseason.
“I think the mental part of the game is almost more important than the physical,” said Jaquez, who was taken by the Heat with the 18th overall pick in the 2023 Draft. “That’s something that I’ve learned this year. You have to be mentally sharp at all times and never have any lapses. Because the second that that happens, teams are taking advantage. So that was one of my biggest lessons this year. So taking that into this offseason, it’s something I’m going to work on extremely hard. I’m looking forward to just learning and getting better.”
Jaquez is due $3.9 million next season in the third year of his rookie contract. If Jaquez is not moved in a potential trade this offseason, one of the Heat’s top priorities will be to get him back on track after a rough second NBA season.
“Sometimes you need that in your life, to just be humbled and get set back to propel you forward,” Jaquez said. “So that’s what I take it as and I’m excited for this offseason. I’m excited to get back to work.”
This story was originally published May 27, 2025 at 10:32 AM.
