In his first NBA season, Miami Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr is already looking like a proven veteran. He has become a key part of coach Spoelstra's rotations and clearly exceeds expectations.
In today's basketball, finding a rookie who has done all four years of college is pretty hard. Seniors are increasingly a rarity, and few make it to the NBA.
Many of the most experienced players at the college level often end up going on to play in Europe or other parts of the world. The most interesting prospects often leave college after two years at most.
With the presence of new alternatives such as the Overtime Elite or the Ignites in the G League (a team specifically built to make room for some of the best high school prospects), going to college is no longer even such a stringent necessity for those who want to make it to the NBA.
This is precisely why it is so impressive to note the impact Miami Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. is having in his first year in the NBA.
Selected with the 18th overall pick in the last draft, Jaquez Jr. was also a departure from the usual plan for the Heat.
In recent years, the Florida franchise almost always chose players who had been freshmen in college or were the equivalent age of a freshman, thus focusing more on their long-term potential than on their ability to make some kind of impact from their first year.
Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, Nikola Jovic, and Precious Achiuwa all responded to this trend. The last senior the Heat had chosen at the draft was Josh Richardson in 2015, almost a decade ago now.
The former UCLA player has already been honored as November's best rookie of the month and, according to Hoopshype's global ranking, is currently the second-best rookie by performance behind only Victor Wembanyama with a score of 11.62.
Jaquez Jr. just seems to be the kind of player who can make himself useful on the court in many ways.
He is a
