With Jaime Jacquez Jr.’s summer-league experience limited to one full game and 16 minutes of another, the Miami Heat are looking at it as a learning curve interrupted, but not stalled, for their 2023 first-round pick out of UCLA.
Sidelined since the Heat’s second summer-league game on July 5 in Sacramento by a shoulder injury, Jacquez has been reduced to spectator at the NBA2K24 Summer League in Las Vegas, a run that comes to an end for the Heat at 8 p.m. Eastern Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers’ summer roster.
The initial glimpse of Jaquez in Heat colors was heartening, the 6-foot-7 forward closing with 22 points in the Heat’s first game of summer league, a victory over the Los Angeles Lakers at the California Classic. Then came the shoulder injury in the second outing, a loss to the Sacramento Kings.
Now it is a waiting game until the Heat resume summer school at Kaseya Center.
All the while, Jaquez becomes trade eligible on July 31, 30 days after signing his rookie contract. That part of the equation comes with the Heat linked to the desires of Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard to relocate to South Florida.
For now, the Heat continue to take the long view with the No. 18 pick last month, as Heat general manager Andy Elisburg expressed during an interview on WQAM during the Heat’s 112-81 loss to the Denver Nuggets’ summer roster on Friday night.
“I think he’s our type of guy,” Elisburg said. “I think he comes from the same kind of ethos that we think we value, with players that we value. He has that kind of competitiveness and the work ethic that you want to see.
“But I think he also has an understanding of the game of basketball. I think we have a certain type of player that we like and a certain type of player we wanted to get, and I think he brings a lot of those kinds of things. And you’re looking for people who fit what it is you do, and he fits really what we do.”
Hoping to show even more once he moves past the shoulder issue.
“I unfortunately got this injury against Sacramento, nothing too serious,” Jaquez, 22, said during the WQAM broadcast. “We’re going to do what we can to try to make it heal as fast as possible, taking it slow, listening to the training staff, do just whatever it needs.”
Jaquez said he is anxious to show more from his NBA bag.
“I would just say my ability to play defense and playmake,” he said. “I think those are going to be the two things that I want Heat fans to take a look at. My ability to hit shots, too. If I hit shots, then my ability to create is going to expand.”
While summer league is the public face of the Heat developmental program, the offseason program on the practice court ahead of the October 3 start of training camp is often when some of the most tangible gains are made by the team’s neophytes.
“You’re excited to see what he’s able to do as he takes his game and grows it,” Elisburg said. “At this point in time, he’s got things he does well, things he can do better at. And the great players take the things that they can do better at, and become better at that.
“And if you could do that, you’d be able to do more. So excited to be able to see what his growth is going to look like.”
As for shutting players down, Elisburg said there is a basic approach.
“If the body is not letting you play, you’re not able to play the way you’re able to play, or you’re putting yourself at significant risk to be able to play, then it just becomes simple,” he said. “It’s a matter of fact you’re not able to play, and so it doesn’t make sense to put yourself out there at greater risk to do something else. You really have to look at the long view of where it is. And that’s sort of the nature of it.”
