The Miami Heat’s season will go down as one of the most tenuous in franchise history. The falling out between Jimmy Butler and Heat president Pat Riley became so toxic that people should’ve been walking around the team in hazmat suits. In the end, Butler and the Heat had a bitter divorce, one of the top performers in franchise history traded to the NBA’s most recent dynasty team.
However, in the backdrop were uncharacteristic performances from many of Butler’s teammates. On the plus side, Tyler Herro and Nikola Jovic had career seasons. Herro was especially good, averaging 23.9 points per game and making his first All-Star appearance.
It was a different story for Bam Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Terry Rozier.
Heat’s Erik Spoelstra Dives Into Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s Demotion
Adebayo remains a versatile player and defensive force but seemed to lose his touch. Though he averaged 18.1 points per game, he shot a career-low 48.5 percent from the field, a low number for a big man. He also failed to earn an All-Star selection for the first time since 2021-22.
Rozier has held different reputations for different teams. With the Boston Celtics, he was an aggressive defender with easily recognizable offensive skills. With the Charlotte Hornets, he was primarily seen as a volume scorer. His time with the Heat has seen him become regarded as one of the most overrated players in the league.
Jaquez’s situation was different though. A first-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, the 6-foot-6 forward is just getting his feet wet. However, he looked pretty promising as a rookie, even coming in fourth-place in the Rookie of the Year race. Taken under Butler’s wing, there were relatively high expectations for the him.
Maybe the California kid had just crashed into the sophomore wall. For him to be taken out of the rotation completely was unfathomable. Nonetheless, it happened repeatedly.
After playing at least 10 minutes in every game of his rookie season, he played fewer than 10 minutes in eight games this season. In the 2024 NBA Playoffs, he played 30.8 minutes per game. In the 2025 NBA Playoffs, he was glued to the bench, playing 19 total minutes across three games.
Bad Luck, Bad Timing
On Wednesday, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra explained what went wrong for Jaquez this season.
“He’ll work on everything,” Spoelstra begins. “He had a really good summer last summer, but then he sprained his ankle right before training camp. These are not excuses, but it led to some of the inconsistency…”
“The first time I thought he started to play well (was) after the Mexico City game and that led to four of his stomach issues and sometimes you just can’t control that. But that was three or four instances where he was taken out of the lineup and then three sprained ankles. So every time he started to get rhythm, one of those events would happen and then his ramp-up coming back, the team would change.
Asked Erik Spoelstra about Jaime Jaquez Jr’s year of regression, what led to it, and how to bounce back.
“He had a really good summer last summer, then he sprained his ankle right before training camp. These are not excuses, but it led to some of the inconsistency…” #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/aXtyRXJmK0
— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) April 30, 2025
We already had four or five different changes within the team anyway and then his role would have to change and that’s a lot for a young player. What you want more than anything as a young player is consistency and clarity. You know, ‘what’s my role, what’s expected of me.’ And that changed through a lot of those events.
But clearly he has to work on some things, which he will.”
Thank to Spoelstra’s thoughtful evaluation of Jaquez’s season, it’s now easier to understand what derailed it. It’s also worth noting that Spoelstra was genuinely empathetic towards his situation. From the sounds of it, he’s hopeful that Jaquez will take a jump over the summer.
The detail-oriented general revealed just how he can do that.
“He will work on defending in open space, defending situationally in our system,” Spoelstra says.
“Outside shooting will be key again — he worked on that last summer. A think a full summer again, you will see big progress. He was coming out of training camp shooting great. So I think we can fast track that.
And ultimately the hardest one is decision-making. Schemes have changed against him and he has to be aggressive, but now there’s going to be different schemes and you graduate to different levels to this.”
© Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
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