Maybe there's a reason why Kasparas Jakucionis fell to the Miami Heat at No. 20 in the 2025 NBA Draft. At least, there's a strong argument for that after his nightmarish two games into his NBA Summer League stint. At this point, you can't help but wonder if there's some regret from the Heat's perspective in their decision to select Jakucionis.
That may be a bit much, at least at this point. However, there's no question that Jakucionis has left much to be desired during his first two games with Miami. Through those two Summer League games, Jakucionis has a combined seven points, three assists, and eight turnovers. He's also 1-10 from the field overall and 0-7 from 3-point range.
The real concern with Jakucionis
Coming out of Illinois, the real concern with Jakucionis revolved around his inconsistent 3-point shooting and turnovers. Through his first couple of games in the Summer League, those concerns are very much on display.
Even though it shouldn't be a surprise, this is not ideal considering the Heat were hoping to land a steal with this selection. Of course, what this truly tells us is that Jakucionis is perhaps going to be much more of a project than perhaps a good portion of the fan base believed.
From what we've seen from Jakucionis through his two games with the Heat, it'd actually be shocking if he were in the game 1 rotation. Of course, much can change between now and the start of the regular season, but that's certainly how things are currently trending.
The Heat are bringing him along slowly
Despite his struggles, one of the observations that is almost difficult to block out when watching Jakucionis play is how the Heat has chosen to use him in the Summer League. Through two games, he's playing many times off-ball. I'm not sure if that's a schematic approach to bring him along slowly, or if this is Jakucionis' tactic of slowly feeling his way in the NBA game.
Either way, it is somewhat odd considering how much he played on-ball during his freshman season at Illinois. As he gets more comfortable in the Heat's system, it'll be interesting to see if that changes at all over the course of the Summer League and into the Heat's training camp and pre-season.
While it may be entirely too early to label Jakucionis a bust, there are certainly some early concerns that many Heat fans were hoping weren't there.