Heat guard Kasparas Jakucionis got off to a rough start in his Summer League debut, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. The 20th overall pick struggled with his shot Saturday in a victory over San Antonio in the California Classic, going 1-of-7 from the field and 0-of-4 from three-point range. He also committed three turnovers in 22 minutes of action.
“Today was my first game and it was different,” Jakucionis said. “The game style and everything is different. But I’m happy with the team’s performance. I think we played pretty good. We had good effort, we shared the ball well and we played as a team.”
Even though he only finished with one assist, Jakucionis made several nice passes to teammates who weren’t able to hit their shots, Chiang adds. Jakucionis was one of the highest-usage guards in college basketball at Illinois last season, but Miami tried him both on and off the ball in Saturday’s game.
“I think Kas was very steady,” Summer League coach Eric Glass said. “That’s the one thing I’ve noticed about him. Even through the training camp we had, there were never really any high moments, any low moments, he was just super steady, super solid. And I thought that’s what he brought us today.”
There’s more from the Southeast Division:
- The Heat should consider trading Bam Adebayo, who’s starting to seem out of place on an increasingly young roster, contends Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Adebayo is close to his 28th birthday and is entering the final season before his extension kicks in. Winderman states that it will be tough to justify paying Adebayo $51MM during the 2026/27 season without a competitive team around him.
- The Hawks are eager to see how Kobe Bufkin looks during Summer League after recovering from January shoulder surgery, per Grant Afseth of RG. Bufkin may not play the entire schedule in Las Vegas, but Afseth hears that he’s been impressive in scrimmages since receiving medical clearance to resume playing. Sources tell Afseth that Atlanta has refused multiple trade offers for Bufkin, including one from Sacramento that was reported this week.
- Bucks assistant Joe Prunty is set to join the Magic‘s coaching staff, sources tell Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link). Prunty began his coaching career in 1996 and has spent time as an interim head coach in Atlanta and Milwaukee.
Im also hype to Kobe Bufkin this summer in his return from his shoulder injury. But I’m much more interested to see how he does when the season starts. He fits our style of long, deflection-seeking defenders perfectly. If he’s tightened up his ball-handling, decision-making & shooting then our 2nd unit can truly be the best in the league. Best case scenario would see him looking good enough as a playmaker to possibly make Trae less necessary/tradeable.
Who would trade Assets for Trae?
This is finally the end point for ira, right? When you have this little credibility after decades, and then you say something on its own level of incompetence, nothing you ever say has anything behind it, and Ira winderman has repeatedly proven to be an incompetent clown
Kaz looked exactly as expected from the scouting reports. Want to see him more off the ball, and defensively. Kind of has a little Austin Reaves to him, but not as athletic or as comfortable as a shooter, or nearly the disruptive defender
I’d be interested in seeing a lineup of Kaz, Larsson, Settle III, Keshad Johnson, Ware and seeing how that goes
His point about Bam makes sense. Heat have made a few bad choices over the years that have depleted some assets. Rozier trade was a mistake and Butler trade while necessary they didn’t get a good return. Bam trade would give them a big haul. They could use that. They draft decent and should probably get a few more picks to try and re tool this roster. Even with all the Achilles tears in the east I’d have a hard time thinking the heat finish in the top 6.
Then trade Ware with Rpzier’s expiring and try to see if Indiana will give up Siakam, dont trade Bam who should spend his entire career here, and is the carrier of the culture. Bam is the 1 guy on this team that shouldn’t be moved
It’s a tough call on Bam. There aren’t too many guys who are worth the $50M per investment. I wouldn’t blame them if they traded him.
Heat will be retooling with upper lotto pick purgatory.
How many assistant coaches do the NBA teams need? I think that Orlando has more assistant coaches than players.