Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. was unquestionably one of the best rookies throughout the 2023-24 season, especially prior to his groin injury in January.
But the former No. 18 first-round pick wasn’t perfect. In an interview with the Miami Herald, Jaquez opened up about one particular skill that he wanted to improve most heading into his sophomore NBA season.
“My three-point shooting, that’s an area that I really wanted to improve,” Jaquez said. “I feel like I needed to improve if we wanted to, as a team, make the strides and jumps that we need to try to win a championship. And just really honing in on mechanics and getting a bunch of reps up.”
Jaquez, 23, averaged 11.9 points on 32.2 percent shooting from beyond the arc last season, where he took 29.0 percent of his attempts. It was reasonably low volume, but he shot 35.3 percent from deep pre-groin injury.
He finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and ninth in Sixth Man of the Year voting. He will likely be one of the players in consideration for one of the final three starting spots, though Jaquez operates in similar areas to both Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
Should he share a lineup with both, becoming a more efficient (spot-up) 3-point shooter is paramount for that lineup to fully function properly–also dependent on the context surrounding them otherwise. Without Caleb Martin the fold, Jaquez will likely be asked to play a bigger role.
He was an excellent cutter off-ball. He also operated well in the mid-post with beautiful footwork offensively and showed he was a capable on- and off-ball defender. His 3-point shooting form wasn’t always consistent. Though he flashed the confidence and willingness to get the attempts up when he was asked to, which is important.
How do you project his 3-point shooting this year? Let us know in the comments!
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In his rookie season, 23 year old Jaime averaged: 11.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg and 2.6 apg. If Jaime’s overall game can continue to develop and his 3 point shooting improves to 35-36%, or more, he should be able to average 15+ points per game in 2024-2025.
By comparison, in Butler’s sophomore season, when he was also 23 years old, he averaged 8.5 ppg, 4.0rpg and 1.4 apg. In his third season, at age 24, Jimmy averaged 13.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg and 2.6 apg. In his fourth season, at 25, Jimmy averaged 20.0 ppg, 5.8 rpg and 3.3 apg.
In essence, with continued development, within the next two seasons, Jaime may develop into Jimmy 2.0, or close to it at 16-20 ppg. If that is the case, it doesn’t make sense to extend Jimmy for $100+ million dollars when the money can, instead be used to bring in a younger player (Kuzma, Sengun, Bane, Kuminga, ?) and draft pick(s) or possibly a whale.
There is talk that Golden State is very interested in Jimmy. A trade involving Butler and Richardson for Wiggins, Kuminga, Payton and draft pick(s) could work. Trades involving multiple teams (e.g., Golden State, Houston, Washington) could also get quite interesting.
I don’t see any case that makes sense to give Butler another $100+ million. He is a very good skilled player who is on the downside of his career. The Heat can, as you point out, get younger without losing ground in the East, and be better prepared to surge in the near future.
For discussions sake.
We’re going to have a team that is much younger, and with less experience in the crucible of the playoffs. Yet, the younger players don’t come with the expectations that top 3 picks do.
We’ve seen teams with more heralded talent struggle to learn how to win at a high level and sustain those performances.
We have also seen teams with similar recent success as ours, that may have a down year or two and draft higher than they usually do. Yet appear to be able to tap into their experience and win at a high level, in some instances despite the younger players.
Perhaps, signing Jimmy would be as much about his on court performance as it is about his ability to ensure a baseline of expected success and teach younger players the habits that allow for that success. While also allowing Bam to have a “co-conspirator”, someone else with the resume and respect to instill accountability.
The only way I would keep Jimmy around past the deadline is if he comes in with a deadly serious attitude and the rest of the team gels around him and performs as the level of a top 4 Eastern Conference team. Otherwise, I’m looking to trade him by the deadline for the best young(er) talent and draft picks I can get. If this guy shows up to camp, fogetaboutit!