In their first full season without Jimmy Butler since 2020, the Heat are counting on some of their young players to help bridge the gap to the new era.
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes that head coach Erik Spoelstra has faith that Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic are up to the task.
Spoelstra has been impressed with the growth in approach from Jovic during his nascent career with the Heat.
“If you look at where Niko was as a rookie to where he’s becoming right now, it’s night and day, the work ethic and it’s a consistency of approach every single day,” Spoelstra says. “I think the last two summers have been really good because it’s been a strong balance of the Miami Heat player development program and then going to play for his national team.”
As for Jaquez, Spoelstra is unconcerned with the 24-year-old’s below-average shooting numbers and is more focused on how Jaquez reads the floor.
“He’s clever, when he gets into all of his spins and fake spins and putting the shoulder down. Now it’s about making the paint-decision reads when you get in there,” Spoelstra said*. “But I don’t want it to be his whole game based on whether he’s making a 3-point shot or not. That’s not him at his best. Him at his best are these plays that are unscripted, getting downhill*.”
Another Heat neophyte who is set to make an impact for the team is their 2025 first-round pick, Kasparas Jakucionis. Jakucionas recently shook off a brutal start to Summer League, exploding for 24 points on 7-12 shooting and 5-9 from three on Friday against the Hawks.
However, he’s not satisfied with the performance, writes Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
“It felt good, yeah,” he said. “But eventually we still lost. I didn’t do a great job on the other side like rebounding, getting out on transition defense.”
Jakucionas said that he’s been watching a lot of film and talking a lot with Heat legend Udonis Haslem and the rest of the coaching staff. Spoelstra has remained encouraged with the 19-year-old’s production, and thinks that the early struggles could be a positive thing long-term.
“He had a lot of turnovers, some mistakes,” Spoelstra said. “All the intangibles — the defense, the hustle plays, the passing, all of that he was able to do while having some uneven offensive play. Sometimes that can take a spirit or confidence away from a player, but he found a way to impact the game, impact winning.”
The Heat have a solid guard rotation in Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, and the newly-acquired Norman Powell, among others, but none of them bring quite the same skillset that Jakucionas projects to provide. Given the rookie’s size and playmaking, his ability to play alongside any one of those guards could help unlock different lineups for Miami.