The Haywood Highsmith trade is a genuinely curious move by the Miami Heat. And it doesn’t tell us much. Not anything good, anyway. But it does represent a big bet on Jaime Jaquez Jr.
This is among the lone reasonable interpretations of the trade. The Heat struck it in order to skirt the luxury tax, even though they had other ways of doing so, and far more time to do it. Defending the logic behind this salary dump—which included shipping out a 2032 second-rounder—is all sorts of difficult.
There are only two ways in which it begins to make some sense. Either Miami has another move lined up, or it believes Jaquez is headed for a breakout, and offloaded Highsmith now to clear the way for him.
Haywood Highsmith was not necessarily expendable
No one should underestimate Highsmith’s importance to the Heat’s on-court product. Especially on defense. He routinely guarded four positions, a job description that also demanded he check opposing stars.
None of Miami’s other wing alternatives can fill that void while also downing 38.2 percent of their three-pointers. Andrew Wiggins comes closest. He is a higher-volume scorer, and has the bandwidth to inflate his on-ball defensive workload. But he should not be tasked too often with scaling down to smaller, quicker, twitchier ball-handlers.
Davion Mitchell can handle those defensive responsibilities. He just doesn’t provide the offensive punch. Simone Fontecchio and Norman Powell bring the offensive juice, minus the defensive utility.
Pelle Larsson and rookie Kasparas Jakucionis aren’t experienced enough for the Heat to count on, and both are more intriguing for the value they provide on offense. Keshad Johnson might turn out to be another diamond in the rough. Asking him to shoot north of 30 percent from deep, let alone above the league average, is also a tall order.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. is Miami’s best all-around
This leaves Jaquez. He is the best bet Miami has at deploying a two-way wing who stretches the floor, and can tackle many of the toughest defensive assignments.
Living up to the latter billing shouldn’t be much of an issue. Jaquez’s versatility has shined through his first two years. He split defensive possessions almost evenly last season against shooting guards, small forwards and power forwards, while still logging almost 17 percent of his reps versus point guards, according to BBall-Index. His ability to check shiftier on-ball threats will be tested, but Miami has wiggle room to fudge around with the matchups thanks to Mitchell and Wiggins.
Jaquez’s offensive utility is more of an adventure. At his peak, he provides physical drives, connective passing, strong transition decision-making, and even a dab of nastiness in the post. Most of his issues lie on the perimeter.
Fewer of his looks last season came from three-point range than during his rookie campaign, and his efficiency on all jumpers plummeted. The 36.4 percent clip he posted on wide-open triples isn’t nearly good enough, but along with his career 78.5 percent free-throw percentage, it’s proof he might have better touch. The volume is a bigger problem.
Highsmith didn’t get ‘em up at an absurd rate himself. Jaquez is even worse. Among 217 players who have taken as many treys as him over the past two seasons, his 3.3 attempts per 36 minutes rank 214th. Any breakout is largely predicated on his significantly nudging up that mark.
Whether he’s capable of doing so remains to be seen. The Heat, however, are clearly betting that he is.