Miami Heat youngster Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s athleticism was on full display in a recent Instagram post. The post shows Jaquez slamming a dunk right over Heat star big man Bam Adebayo.
That post has led to some speculation regarding him and his potential participation in the next iteration of All-Star Weekend. Five Reasons Sports’ Greg Sylvander has since taken to Discord and claimed he thinks Jaquez will want to participate in next year’s Slam Dunk Contest.
“I think it’s safe to say that Jaime Jaquez Jr. is likely to want to participate in the Slam Dunk contest this year,” Sylvander wrote via Discord. “He was recently seen on IG clearing Bam Adebayo to finish a slam dunk contest style dunk at the Heat’s practice facility.”
Jaquez has participated in the Slam Dunk Contest before. He was one of four people who competed in the contest during the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis along with Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, former New York Knick Jacob Toppin and Mac McClung.
The 24-year-old was in his maiden NBA season at the time, and he didn’t win the competition. None other than McClung — the only player to win three consecutive dunk contests in league history – came out on top.
It’s evident that Jaquez can sky for some entertaining dunks, but he ultimately hasn’t been able to consistently show off his talent as a dunker at the NBA level up to this point. Across 141 regular-season games played, he’s dunked the ball just 41 times. That means that he’s averaged less than one dunk for every three games played through his rookie and sophomore campaigns.
If he competes in the Slam Dunk Contest again next year, hopefully it will have a better end result for him and he’ll win the title. But if McClung opts to suit up in the contest again and guns for a fourth title in a row, Jaquez will have no shortage of competition.
For as much as it would be great to see him win the dunk contest, he’s likely focused on getting back to playing a large role for the Heat first and foremost. He is fresh off an underwhelming sophomore season and saw his role get relegated quite a bit compared to when he was a neophyte. Jaquez averaged just 20.7 minutes of playing time as a sophomore compared to 28.2 per game as a first-year player.
