While Miami Heat fans were busy waiting for Nikola Jovic to break out or Kel'el Ware to put everything together, third-year forward instead turned the early portion of the 2025-26 NBA season into his comeback tail—and flipped the hierarchy of young Heat players on its head.
Jaquez's turnaround has been, frankly, jarring to see. Sure, he popped as a rookie in 2023-24 (ultimately earning All-Rookie first-team honors), but he fell so flat in his sophomore season, it felt like his hype train might be permanently out of service. That clearly isn't the case, but where is this story going next?