Heat moved into their offseason<\/a>. \u201cHe was very mature for his years, but he\u2019s a diligent worker.\u201d<\/p>\nAnd a bit two-faced . . . in a good way.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he is the nicest guy off the court,\u201d Spoelstra continued. \u201cAnd he is an animal on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
That had Spoelstra again, as he had through the course of the season, drawing a comparison to former Heat guard Goran Dragic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not trying to make any friends in this league,\u201d Spoelstra said of Jakucionis. \u201cThat\u2019s where he\u2019s Goran-esque. The contrast on the court between the lines and his personality off the court, I love that about him, and he\u2019ll have a great summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of which the Heat will make sure, often pouring into players between their first and second seasons to maximize their rookie-scale value.<\/p>\n
That is, unless the opposition took notice, as well, which yet could have Jakucionis as a potential plus-one in a trade.<\/p>\n
For now, the affable (of the court) Lithuanian is eager to show even more, with a hat tip to Dragic, who had been around Kaseya Center often enough this past season to offer a few tips.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to watch him a little bit when I was younger, too,\u201d Jakucionis said of the 39-year-old former All-Star. \u201cSo it means a lot, and when I met him for the first time he gave me a lot of advice, too. So he helped me to start this season, start getting better, and I\u2019m just grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then Jakucionis shot like Dragic, if not actually a bit better, closing at a team-best .423 from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say just work I put in this summer,\u201d Jakucionis said of last summer\u2019s work, when he bypassed playing for the Lithuanian national team at Euro Basket. \u201cThere was a lot of focus on that, on shooting. So I just worked on that, and then little by little I probably gained more confidence and started feeling better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
All while staying attentive with a willing smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I wanted to do, learn as much as possible,\u201d he said of his rookie experience. \u201cAnd still keep learning now, keep growing, try to listen as much as possible from the coaches, the players, and just try to dig it all in.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust learning and growing, I think that was the key, and that is the key for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 6 feet 5, Jakucionis offers the type of length to play either backcourt role, which could come in handy with Norman Powell an impending free agent and Tyler Herro a possible trade chip.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever Coach needs from me, I\u2019ll do it,\u201d Jakucionis said. \u201cWhatever situation I\u2019m put in, I\u2019ll do my best in that, and I\u2019ll just give 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, so, soon enough back in the gym, and then likely back to summer league.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say just get stronger in the weight room,\u201d he said of upgrades sought. \u201cAnd then on the ball or not the ball, just working on my handles, try to get tight in my handles, get into the paint, two feet, try to make the right read from there, get some more paint touches for sure. And off the ball, just about, like, spacing, shooting, and running, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A year ago this week, the Miami Heat\u2019s luck could not have been any worse. Or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-243271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-miami-news","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}