It's easy to forget that the Miami Heat's biggest splash move from the summer, drafting Kasparas Jakucionis with their late first-round pick, has yet to play a minute so far in the regular season. At this point, you can't help but wonder when Erik Spoelstra may unleash him.
Sure, Norman Powell may be making the biggest early-season impact for the Heat, especially with Tyler Herro still sidelined with an injury. However, looking back at the summer as a whole, there was much more intrigue surrounding the Heat selecting Jakucionis with the 20th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft than any other move the team made
Jakucionis was a draft prospect that many expected to be selected in the lottery, if not in the top 10. For one reason or another, though, Jakucionis fell out of the lottery entirely and fell into the Heat's lap at No. 20.
When he was officially made the selection, word quickly spread about how the Heat got the steal of the draft and how he landed in a perfect situation. Despite his hot and cold summer league showing, the overwhelming opinion was that he was still going to be a good player for the Heat.
In his lone preseason showing, Jakucionis showed much of that promise that was preached bout. In his only full game appearance, Jakucionis finished with eight points, 10 assists, and two steals. Unfortunately, he suffered a groin injury four minutes into his second preseason game.
That resulted in him missing the remainder of the preseason and the start of the regular season. However, now he's cleared and should be ramping his way up to a potential debut.
The ramp up is starting for Kasparas Jakucionis
One sign that Jakucionis' debut could be coming is the decision to send him to the G League to get his feet wet. With the move, Jakucionis will likely get some run with the G League before Spo even gets a chance to integrate him into the eventual rotation.
Even though many fans are looking forward to seeing Jakucionis on the main roster rotation, it's probably best that he gets his start in the G League. It makes seven more sense when you look at how crowded the backcourt rotation is at the moment. And that's before Herro's return.
If I had to guess, I'd expect Jakucionis to get his debut when either there's another big injury to the backcourt (*knock on wood*) or when Spo gets a handle on things with the current rotation once the Heat is back to full strength.