Coming in at four in our Ranking the Roster series is the second most accomplished of the four players the Bucks got in the Giannis trade: Jamie Jaquez Jr. The former UCLA Bruin is one of the league’s most unique young players. Jaquez likely won’t develop into a star, but he’s become one of the NBA’s best glue guys. It’s rare for a player his age to be mature enough to not only understand his role, but excel at it the way JJJ has. To borrow a phrase from my friend and fellow Brew-Hooper Finn Kuehl’s
blog, he’s a “Bench-Mob All-Star.” Not in the same vein as the more end-of-the-bench guys Finn generally focuses on, but in the sense that Jaquez has been an All-Star in his role in Miami. The question now is: how does he fit on a rebuilding team?
But before we answer that, let’s look back at what Jaquez has accomplished over his three years in the association. Following in the footsteps of other middle first-round picks the Miami Heat have made, Jaquez made an immediate impact, finishing fourth in Rookie of the Year voting. Remarkably, he also added a top-10 finish in Sixth Man of the Year voting in the same season (!), averaging 11.9 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 2.6 APG, and 1.0 SPG while shooting .489/.322/.811. That said, the following year (2024-25) was a step back for Jaquez, as he played only 66 games while dealing with an ankle injury. That injury played a key role in his scoring numbers dipping into the single digits (8.6 PPG), and his shooting dropping marginally to 46.1% and 31.1% from three-point range.
As much as the 2024-25 campaign was a rocky one for Jaquez, he came back strong last year, setting a bunch of career highs, including scoring (15.4 PPG), rebounding (5.0 RPG), assists (4.7), assist percentage (24%), shooting percentage (50.7%), minutes per game (28.3), and field goal attempts (12.2). He also finished the season with strong shooting from beyond the arc, shooting 39.0% on 3.5 attempts over the final 20 games. Those improved numbers propelled him to a second-place finish in the Sixth Man of the Year voting behind the Spurs’ Keldon Johnson.
Now, the question for Jaquez is: can he replicate that type of success in a totally new environment? Or, for my baseball fans, will Jaquez become the proverbial San Francisco Giants of the mid-2010s and only be good every other year? While this Bucks team has many moving parts heading into the season, Jaquez should be one of the more consistent and reliable players. Over the last few years, I’ve felt like Jon Horst has brought in too many players at important spots whose performance can vary widely from game to game (Kevin Porter Jr. and Kyle Kuzma are prime examples). Jaquez will be a steady, reliable option for the Bucks, and they sorely need that.
To answer the initial question, though, I reckon head coach Taylor Jenkins will find plenty of ways to utilise Jaquez. He’s already coached other versatile players like Jaylen Wells in Memphis. While the starting lineup will likely take the whole of training camp to figure out, I predict Jenkins will keep Jaquez where he’s most valuable: off the bench as a fantastic sixth man. How long he’s actually a Buck will be another question. Jaquez becomes a restricted free agent at the end of this season, and if he puts up a good first half, I can imagine Horst moving on to pick up more future pieces, especially if the team isn’t tracking well. Otherwise, Jaquez could be a long-term piece for the next good Bucks team, considering he’ll only turn 26 this February.
Who is next up at three?
