Following a disappointing second season in the NBA, Heat guard Jaime Jaquez is already focused on turning things around, he told Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
“When the season ended, I took some time away just to decompress, gather my thoughts, really get to a place of peace,” Jaquez said. “Now I’m full steam ahead. I’ve been in the gym every single day, working on my mind, body, spirit, my jump shot, defense. Really just getting my body and mind in tune to get ready for this next season.”
Jaquez averaged fewer points (8.6 per game compared to 11.9 as a rookie) while shooting a worse percentage from the field (46.1% this season compared to 48.9%) and three-point range (31.1% compared to 32.2%). Jaquez’s offseason goals include developing a better mental approach.
“I’m working with a mental coach to try to just help myself become present in the moments, try to tune out all the noise and just really focus on what’s important,” he said.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Miami does indeed have interest in trading for Suns forward Kevin Durant, as ESPN’s Shams Charania stated on Wednesday, but only at the “right price,” Chiang and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald report. Miami has tried to trade for the 15-time All-Star in the past. The Heat have two assets that could grease the skids for a trade — a skilled young center in Kel’el Ware, the type of big man Phoenix reportedly covets, and Duncan Robinson’s partially guaranteed contract. It’s unknown whether the Heat would offer Ware in a Durant trade. The Herald duo maps out possible trade scenarios that would work financially for both sides.
- Do the Heat have too many young players? That’s an unusual dilemma for a team that has been criticized in the past for relying on too many veterans, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel notes. The Heat hold the No. 20 pick draft and they’re considering all options. “It’s a good question, certainly having a lot of young players,” said Adam Simon, the Heat’s vice president, basketball operations and assistant GM. “We’ve been here on the other side, where we were told we were told we didn’t have enough young players.”
- A potential Tyler Herro extension presents complications for the front office, Chiang writes in his latest mailbag. Beginning on Oct. 1, Herro is eligible to add a three-year, $149.7MM extension to the two seasons he has left on his current deal. If an agreement is not reached on an extension by Oct. 20, Herro would be eligible to sign a four-year, $206.9MM extension next offseason. With Bam Adebayo already signed to a max extension, giving Herro that type of long-term security would hamstring the club’s efforts to fit in another high-salary star player.
- In case you missed it, Luke Adams offered his comprehensive offseason preview of the Heat to our Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers last week.
Good point!
Kel’el Ware, the type of big man Phoenix reportedly covets, and Duncan Robinson’s partially guaranteed contract, which would save the Suns more than $20MM and help get them under the second apron.
How would Robinson’s contract be an asset? Non-guaranteed salary does not count towards salary matching, so they’d have to guarantee all or as much of his contract as needed to equalize (along with other Heat contracts) Durant’s salary. This seems like a common misjudgment of Robinson’s “value”.
Yeah, I wrote about this here: link to hoopsrumors.com
The gap between Robinson’s partial guarantee ($9.9MM) and full salary ($19.9MM) is small enough that Miami could meet the 125% salary-matching requirement (using the partial guarantee outgoing amount) without requiring the Suns to take back more than 100% of Durant’s salary (accounting for the full incoming amount).
But even in that scenario, Robinson’s is only valuable relative to a player on a fully guaranteed contract $19.9MM contract. Any player on a $9.9MM deal essentially has the same value that he would, and in most cases that sort of player would have MORE value because the Suns wouldn’t have to waive him to realize the savings. (Even a player on a guaranteed $19.9MM deal might have more value than Robinson because he’d count for more outgoing salary and might actually be a player worth keeping.)
That’s why it sounded familiar! Yes agreed
Which of these trios would you rather have on your team for the next 5yrs?…
Tyler Herro/Bam Adebayo/Kel’el Ware
Desmond Bane/Jaylen Wells/Jaren Jackson Jr
Tyrese Haliburton/Jarace Walker/Pascal Siakam
Dyson Daniels/Jalen Johnson/Onyeka Okongwu
Terrence Shannon Jr/Jaden McDaniels/Naz Reid
Jared McCain/Tyrese Maxey/Ace Bailey
Shaedon Sharpe/Deni Avdija/Donovan Clingan
Ochai Agbaji/Brandon Ingram/Scottie Barnes
Rank a top3 if possible…
1. McCain/Maxey/Bailey
2. Daniels/Johnson/Okongwu
3. Haliburton/Walker/Siakam
Nice! My ranking favors proven stars over potential. I want stars and superstars.
1. Indiana (2 Top 20’s; no other trio is close)
2. Memphis (2 top 30’s: JJJr potential superstar)
3. Miami (2 top 35’s + HiPo rookie)
4. Toronto (2 top 40’s; Barnes potential superstar)
5. Philly (1 top 30 + 2 HiPo’s)
6. Atlanta (high floor + medium ceiling; lacks scoring)
7. Minnesota (high floor + low ceiling; yawn)
8. Portland (low floor + medium ceiling)
No other trio is close to Indy’s top2? Bane/JJJ, BI/Scottie, Bam/Herro? Over the next 5yrs all those duos would be comparable to the Pacers duo if not better.
Lol I’m a lil confused about the yawn to the Wolves tho. Jaden & Naz just got thru helping their team win 4 playoff series the past 2yrs & in the West that everyone is so scared of.
“yawn” on Jaden and Naz not because they aren’t great players, but because they pale in comparison to the better players on your list, some of whom are perennial All-Stars and future MVP candidates
Naz has never been a starter. Jaden is in the same category as Dyson Daniels: elite defenders, but they’ll never be Top 25 players, like 10 other guys on your list are (or will be).
Naz has never been a starter because he played on the same team as max contract earning KAT his whole career. It’s been obvious for years that he’s a starter level guy in the league. Tyrese Haliburton didn’t play all during the Olympics, he’s still clearly a great player. I agree Jaden & Dyson will never be seen as top25 guys in the league but that’s bc we don’t factor in defense very much if at all when coming up with stuff like that. I guarantee most people on this site especially would say Austin Reaves is better than Jaden rn but we just saw how that worked out… link to m.youtube.com
I’ll stick to my guns: no GM in the league would trade Halliburton and Siakkam for the best 2 of any of the other trios. Any team in the league with Halliburton and Siakkam is winning at least 1 playoff series and probably two. That’s not the case with your other pairs.
I group the best players on your list into 4 tiers.
I. Proven franchise player
1. Haliburton (elite PG, proven winner)
II. Emerging franchise player
2. Jackson Jr (will be a Top 15 player)
3. Barnes (will be a Top 15 player )
III. #2 guy on Championship team
4. Siakkam (with ring to prove it)
5. Adebayo (elite 2-way, proven winner)
IV. #3 guy on Championship team
6. Maxey (poor defense)
7. Bane
8. Hero (poor defense)
I feel like recency bias (as well as a lack of foresight) is definitely coming into play a bit here but I’m not too mad at it. But let’s all remember how great Haliburton is if he doesn’t win the title & doesn’t come back this far again.
With “lack of foresight”, are you, once again, presuming some knowledge of the future?
When a young player elevates his team to a Championship level, that forever raises his value. It proves something that most talented players won’t in the course of their career. Halliburton is now viewed as a winner. A true franchise player.