With Jaime Jacquez Jr.’s summer-league experience limited to one full game and 16 minutes of another, the Miami Heat are looking at it as a learning curve interrupted, but not stalled, for their 2023 first-round pick out of UCLA.
Sidelined since the Heat’s second summer-league game on July 5 in Sacramento by a shoulder injury, Jacquez has been reduced to spectator at the NBA2K24 Summer League in Las Vegas, a run that comes to an end for the Heat at 8 p.m. Eastern Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers’ summer roster.
The initial glimpse of Jaquez in Heat colors was heartening, the 6-foot-7 forward closing with 22 points in the Heat’s first game of summer league, a victory over the Los Angeles Lakers at the California Classic. Then came the shoulder injury in the second outing, a loss to the Sacramento Kings.
