Jaime Jaquez Jr. was a four-year star at UCLA and was selected by the Miami Heat in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft, which is a rarity in the modern one-and-done era of college basketball.
And you know what? Jaquez’s long stay with the Bruins paid off.
He enjoyed a very impressive rookie campaign with the Heat, averaging 11.9 points and 3.8 rebounds over 28.2 minutes per game on 48.9/32.2/81.1 shooting splits while playing solid defense.
Jaquez was so good, as a matter of fact, that he finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and made the All-Rookie First Team.
As a result, there were considerable expectations for Jaquez heading into the 2024-25 NBA season, but thus far, the second-year player is off to a rather strange start.
Jaquez had posted 9.4 points and 7.6 boards across 25 minutes a night over his first five games heading into Miami’s Monday night matchup with the Sacramento Kings.
Those numbers look just fine, right? Sure, but check out his shooting numbers.
Jaquez has made just 37.8 percent of his field-goal attempts and 53.8 percent of his free throws, yet he is connecting on 50 percent of his long-range tries.
Something clearly does not add up there.
Obviously, the sample size is a thing. Jaquez has only taken 45 shots on the season overall thus far, so, chances are, the percentages will regress to the mean.
But the fact that Jaquez has been so efficient on triples and so poor on everything else — opposite of his rookie year—is definitely worthy of raised eyebrows.
The 23-year-old is also widely viewed as one of the Heat’s top trade chips, so if Miami wants to swing a significant deal by the February deadline in order to try and convince free-agent-to-be Jimmy Butler to stick around for the long haul, Jaquez would almost certainly have to be included.
Of course, the Heat can also opt to retain Jaquez in order to ensure that he is a part of their future in the event that they lose Butler — a real possibility — next summer.
But it would be nice if Jaquez started making shots other than threes for a change.
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