While San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama, last year’s top overall selection, unanimously took home the 2023-24 Rookie of the Award voting, Miami Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez finished in fourth, the league announced Monday.
Jaquez, Miami’s No. 18 selection in the 2023 NBA Draft, also finished behind Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren and Charlotte’s Brandon Miller, this year’s No. 2 overall selection. He placed ahead of Golden State’s Brandin Podziemski, who was also picked one behind Jaquez on draft night, and Dallas’ Dereck Lively II.
Jaquez accumulated 10 of the 99 third-place votes without a second- or first-place nod.
Here are the full voting results:
Victor Wembanyama received all 99 first-place votes from a media panel, making him the first unanimous NBA Rookie of the Year since Karl-Anthony Towns in the 2015-16 season. pic.twitter.com/cWcjdXRrUD
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 6, 2024
Miami’s 23-year-old rookie 11.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists, shooting 48.9 percent from the floor, 32.2 percent from 3-point range and 81.1 percent from the free-throw line in 75 contests. Over a 31-game stretch from Nov. 11 to Jan. 14, he posted 16.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.1 steals on 51.5/37.5/84.0 shooting splits–a 56.4 effective field goal percentage and 60.3 true-shooting percentage.
Among the 34 rookies that finished with at least 500 minutes (per Stathead), Jaquez finished T-11 in VORP (0.1), T-6 in win shares (4.0), T-7 in offensive win shares (1.4), third in defensive win shares (2.7) and No. 13 in box plus-minus (minus-1.9).
He recently spoke about what he wants to improve most heading into 2024-25. Here’s what he said:
“Being able to be a lockdown defender,” he said Friday during his exit interview. “As well as (being) a consistent knockdown shooter are probably the two biggest things.”
This vote likely suggests that Jaquez will make the All-Rookie team, barring something unforeseen. The date of that announcement has yet to be announced, even though it should be in the coming days or weeks.
What do you think about Jaquez finishing fourth? Let us know in the comments!
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Congrats. He was awesome in the first half of the season on solid in PO.
It’s still early and we don’t know how good Jaime will get, but he is off to a nice start.
#4 in ROY voting isn’t bad for a #18 pick. I’ve seen a couple of 2023 re-drafts placing Jaime in the top 4-6. Congratulations Jaime. May you one day take Jimmy’s job!
Congratulations to Jaquez! He finished behind a #1 pick and 2 #2 picks. This means he finished better than 15 players who were chosen before him (Holmgren was last year’s pick)! Proving once again that Riley and the brain trust have really lost their touch, haha.
Like you said, Chet was not drafted this year. Wemby is a once every10-15 year type of freak, so to finish #4 with those two is pretty damn awesome.
maxey and booker would look good in heat unis
Maxey yes, but Booker no.
u dont like book.name one reason please,i dont watch him enough to make an opinion.