Rookies get cut slack on winning — by design, the best ones go to the neediest teams — but that doesn’t absolve them entirely. And winning has many fathers, some of whom post gaudy numbers in familiar stats while others tip a game’s balance in less obvious ways.
That’s where Jaime Jaquez Jr. is making his most consistent impact for the Miami Heat and climbing to No. 3 on this week’s Ladder.
The Heat are 18-12 despite losing key pieces Gabe Vincent and Max Strus, and with Jimmy Buter, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Caleb Martin missing chunks of the schedule to injuries. Stepping into that void: **Jaquez, the No. 18 pick, aka, four spots out of the lottery.**
But the four-year UCLA product learned how to help his college team in ways big and small, training that he brought to his first job.
“It probably should be part of the NBA initiation,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They should talk about it, ‘Here’s what winning basketball is. Here’s what AAU basketball is, that doesn’t necessarily win,’ and show examples of what that actually looks like, because there’s a disconnect between what’s out there and what actually wins.”
Jaquez has done both lately. He has been a jack-of-all-trades contributing little stuff, and he has had big nights like his 31-point, 10-rebound Christmas performance against the Sixers.
Would like JJJ to get the honor but Chet and Wemby are just on another level individually-speaking. Not only that, NBA politics is real. They won’t give it to a fairly unknown player unless JJJ blows-up the media on a linsanity-type traction.
3 comments
I Still believe that Jaime can catch these 2 unicorns!
Jaime for ROTY
https://preview.redd.it/vdts31n0lv8c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=679854e338bcd79a9de0ab5b804ff880ebc08a96
Thats my Rookie
Rookies get cut slack on winning — by design, the best ones go to the neediest teams — but that doesn’t absolve them entirely. And winning has many fathers, some of whom post gaudy numbers in familiar stats while others tip a game’s balance in less obvious ways.
That’s where Jaime Jaquez Jr. is making his most consistent impact for the Miami Heat and climbing to No. 3 on this week’s Ladder.
The Heat are 18-12 despite losing key pieces Gabe Vincent and Max Strus, and with Jimmy Buter, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Caleb Martin missing chunks of the schedule to injuries. Stepping into that void: **Jaquez, the No. 18 pick, aka, four spots out of the lottery.**
But the four-year UCLA product learned how to help his college team in ways big and small, training that he brought to his first job.
“It probably should be part of the NBA initiation,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They should talk about it, ‘Here’s what winning basketball is. Here’s what AAU basketball is, that doesn’t necessarily win,’ and show examples of what that actually looks like, because there’s a disconnect between what’s out there and what actually wins.”
Jaquez has done both lately. He has been a jack-of-all-trades contributing little stuff, and he has had big nights like his 31-point, 10-rebound Christmas performance against the Sixers.
Would like JJJ to get the honor but Chet and Wemby are just on another level individually-speaking. Not only that, NBA politics is real. They won’t give it to a fairly unknown player unless JJJ blows-up the media on a linsanity-type traction.