Heat’s Kasparas Jakucionis plan revealed for Summer League

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Heat’s Kasparas Jakucionis plan revealed for Summer League

Zachary Weinberger · ClutchPoints

Sun, Jul 6, 2025 ·

3 min read

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The post Heat's Kasparas Jakucionis plan revealed for Summer League appeared first on ClutchPoints .

After the Miami Heat Summer League debut of Kasparas Jakucionis, it was no doubt a frustrating one for the rookie as he scored three points on making one of seven from the field, which included missing all four attempts from three-point range. As Jakucionis was taken by the Heat with the 20th overall pick in the NBA Draft, the plan for how the team will use the 19-year-old has been revealed.

While Jakucionis was held scoreless in the first half of the win against the San Antonio Spurs in the California Classic on Saturday, he also recorded a single assist and rebound. Miami Summer League head coach Eric Glass would speak on wanting to "pace him accordingly" when talking about Jakucionis and how the goal is for him to learn the team and vice versa, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

"We're going to pace him accordingly to what he can do out there," Glass said. "We're not going to overwhelm him and put a bunch of pressure on him. Right now is about him learning us and us learning him, him feeling comfortable in our system. We're not just going to throw him into the water with a bunch of sharks. We're going to set it up, hopefully, for some success."

Besides the physical traits, Jakucionis seems to also have the mental part down as he understands this is a "learning experience."

"It's a lot of learning experiences. It's a process," Jakucionis said. "I'm excited to be in that process, to be in this moment. I'm trying to take everything I can, trying to learn as much as possible from other guys, trying to listen to everybody who gives me advice and just get that experience to make me more ready."

Heat's Kasparas Jakucionis showed promise despite a down outing

Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

The Heat rookie has said before he's excited to improve in many areas, but there is no denying that the 82-69 win over the Spurs had Jakucionis playing differently. Jakuciois would start the game and be used on and off the ball, which is a different change of pace, as he was a high-usage rate player with the University of Illinois.

Still, the game did show some spark of his play-making and ball-handling skills, which were huge positives coming out of the draft, as some potential assists were taken away by teammates missing shots. Still, Glass saw massive promise in Jakucionism despite the shots not falling.

"I think Kas was very steady," Glass said after the team's Summer League opener on Saturday. "That's the one thing I've noticed about him. Even through the training camp we had, there were never really any high moments, any low moments, he was just super steady, super solid. And I thought that's what he brought us today.

"Obviously his shots didn't fall today, but nobody's did. So we're not holding that against him. I thought he competed, I thought he ran the offense when we had him in those positions, I thought he made pretty good pick-and-roll decisions. So we were pretty happy for him, it being his first game.

At any rate, Jakucionis can quickly redeem his debut from Saturday afternoon, as Miami faces the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday during the California Classic festivities.

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