According to NBA reporter Will Guillory of The Athletic, Jimmy Butler and Jaime Jaquez Jr. have developed a mentor-mentee relationship on the Miami Heat.
Jaquez Jr. has been attached to Butler’s hip all season.
“I loved watching Jimmy because he’s a complete player on both ends and he leaves everything on the floor,” Jaquez Jr. said. “He’s a winner, and that’s the type of player I want to be.”
Jaquez Jr. is averaging 12.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists this season for the Heat while shooting 48.6% from the field, 31.5% from beyond the arc and 80.4% from the free-throw line. He was the 18th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
“It’s cool to see because he’s super young. I picked that type of stuff up when I was 28, 29,” Butler said of Jaquez Jr.’s diverse game. “He has so much room to get better. He’s so confident. He wants to make the right play every time. It’s not like he’s (playing like) a rookie. He knows what it takes to win.”
Butler, who is averaging 21.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists this season, is one of the best players in NBA history. Getting on his good side is difficult since he’s an intense worker and competitor, but Jaquez Jr. is wired the same.
“We got after it in camp almost immediately. The younger guys get thrown in that fire early on,” Heat guard Caleb Martin told The Athletic. “With Jaime, you could tell he moved with zero fear. He was very confident in who he was and what he could do.”
The Heat are 39-32 on the season. They are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings.
Miami lost to the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals in five games. It will be fascinating to see how far the Heat go in the 2024 playoffs if they make it.
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