Getty Jaime Jaquez Jr. #11 of the Miami Heat dunks past LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers as Max Christie #10 and Kyle Lowry #7 follow.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. triumphantly returned home to Southern California with 16 points and eight assists to help the Miami Heat beat his hometown team Los Angeles Lakers 110-96 on January 3.
The Lakers passed up on Jaquez, who starred at nearby UCLA for four years. They instead picked Jalen Hood-Schifino at no. 17 with Jaquez going to Miami at no. 18 in the last draft.
The Irvine-born Jaquez holds no grudge against the Lakers. He’s even glad they did not pick him.
“I wanted to get away,” Jaquez told Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “For myself, I thought it was important for me to be able to go out of my comfort zone and experience something new. I didn’t want to be a guy that said, ‘Oh, I just stayed in Southern California all my life.’
“I wanted to go live in a different, new place. And that’s why I was very excited to go to Miami. It was new. Everyone compares it, but I think it’s very, very different.”
Jaquez still has the sunshine and beaches in Miami that California has. But he’s in a better spot than his hometown team at this point of the season.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. Dominates Jalen Hood-Schifino
In a play that became symbolic of the Lakers’ draft blunder, Jaquez blocked Hood-Schifino.
Jamie Jaquez blocking Jalen Hood-Schifino, who was drafted right before him, is poetic ✋🔥
Hood-Schifino missed all of his four shots in the game including a mid-range jumper that badly missed the rim against the Heat.
Why does Jalen Hood-Schifino deadass shoot like Flight 😭😭
Hood-Schifino is a project fit for rebuilding teams. Jaquez is the ready-made player that fits the Lakers’ timeline with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Jaquez is in the running for the NBA Rookie of the Year against Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama. At the very least, he would end up in the All-Rookie First Team as he’s averaging 13.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists while shooting 50% from the field for the Heat.
NBA Exec Says Lakers Blew Last NBA Draft
One Western Conference executive told Heavy Sports’ Sean Deveney that the Lakers blew the last NBA Draft after passing up on Jaquez.
“I know there were some people in that organization who wanted Jaime Jaquez to stay in California and be a Laker,” the league executive told Deveney. “He was the perfect role player for what they needed, he is a tough kid, he is a grinder. You could watch him last year and just tell he was ready to chip in for a good NBA team. The Lakers like to use their picks to take big swings and not the safe bet, and that is how they were looking at Jalen. But they needed guys who could play now. And look at what Jaquez is doing. They blew it, for sure.”
The Lakers saw up close on Wednesday night what they missed. They can file the former UCLA star in their “The One That Got Away” list.
Darvin Ham in Hot Water
Following Wednesday’s loss, their ninth in 12 games since winning the In-Season Tournament title, Lakers coach Darvin Ham finds himself on the hot seat, per Shams Charania and Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
“There’s currently a deepening disconnect between Darvin Ham and the Lakers locker room, six sources with direct knowledge of the situation say, raising questions about the head coach’s standing,” Charania and Buha wrote in a January 4 column. “The people spoke with The Athletic on condition of anonymity so that they could speak freely on the matter. Those sources have described that the disjointedness between the coach and team has stemmed from the extreme rotation and starting lineup adjustments recently from Ham, leading to a fluctuating rhythm for several players across the roster.”
Ham rolled out his 10th starting lineup this season against the Heat with Austin Reaves, Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. It backfired once again as their new starting lineup was minus-3.