Life moves at a rapid rate in the NBA. Just ask third-year Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., who's already gone from being an apparently obvious building block to the forgotten face in this young core.
For those who had been running out of hope for Jaquez, though, this preseason should properly propel you toward getting back on his hype train. The Heat have given him every opportunity to solidify his place in the rotation, and so far, he's doing everything he can to make good on this chance.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. has been one of Miami's most productive players this preseason.
Tack on all of the "It's only preseason" qualifiers that you want, but Jaquez is contributing in a lot of ways that can help the regular-season squad.
He is second on the team in both points (60) and assists (12), and he's hitting those marks while putting together a highly encouraging 50/50/88.2 slash line. Shooting has always been a big swing skill for the swingman, but he quietly made big strides in that department late last season.
If he's even a viable threat from three, that could open up so many other layers of his game. And he's got plenty of branches stemming out from his skill tree.
With the right room to work, he can be a connective playmaker, a crafty show-and-go downhill attacker, and a skilled enough post scorer to punish perimeter defenders who get switched onto him. He can be, in other words, the same kind of jack-of-all-trades type of player who earned All-Rookie first-team honors just two seasons back.
He is at his best when he attacks off the dribble. Drawing defenders further out to the perimeter gives him enough breathing room to get into his bag.
Granted, he'll need more than a few sweet-shooting preseason outings to really demand coverage away from the basket, but all skill improvements start somewhere, right? Maybe this is something we all forget in a month or two if he's back to laying bricks, or perhaps this gets remembered as his springboard to an expectation-shattering third trek through the 82-game marathon.
He looks healthy, determined, and just better in all aspects than he appeared last season. He isn't reinventing his role; he's just playing it more convincingly.
It's anyone's guess how long this holds up. Should it sustain, though, that would quietly give a huge—and, frankly, unexpected—boost to this bunch.
While the Heat have a chance to make noise in the depleted Eastern Conference, they need everything to break right for that to happen. Jaquez getting back on track would clearly qualify as such, so hopefully that's really what we're witnessing right now.