The four-year starter has been boosting his stock ever since leaving Westwood, making him a potential first-rounder on Thursday.
With his stock rising in recent weeks, Jaime Jaquez Jr. has punched a ticket to Brooklyn.
The former UCLA men’s basketball wing and his family have earned invitations to the green room at the 2023 NBA Draft, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony first reported Tuesday. Jaquez becomes the 25th player to pick up a green room invite, meaning the league sees him as a potential first-round selection.
When Jaquez first declared for the draft on April 6, he was widely viewed as a second-round pick. Jaquez has since shown out at the NBA Draft Combine and workouts with the Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, and Charlotte Hornets – among others – impressing scouts, executives, and insiders alike.
Jaquez has been creeping his way up the board in the biggest mock drafts as well, earning nearly universal first round grades. The Athletic and 247Sports have Jaquez going No. 19 to the Golden State Warriors, CBS has him going No. 21 overall to the Brooklyn Nets, Yahoo has him going No. 22 to the Nets and SB Nation has him going No. 28 to the Utah Jazz.
Givony and Jeremy Woo had Jaquez going No. 25 overall to the Memphis Grizzles on ESPN’s NBA Mock Draft special on Tuesday night.
Jaquez has -800 odds to go in the first round, according to Draft Kings. His former UCLA teammate, guard Amari Bailey, +500 odds. UCLA had wing Peyton Watson go No. 30 overall to the Denver Nuggets in 2022, which means the program is in prime position to produce first rounders in back-to-back years since 2017 and 2018.
There are three Bruins who are in position to get drafted Thursday night – Jaquez, Bailey and guard Jaylen Clark – plus two more who are hoping sign some form of undrafted free agent deal – point guard Tyger Campbell and guard David Singleton.
Jaquez led UCLA with 17.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game this season, and he ranked second on the team with 2.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. Jaquez put up career highs in every major count stat, in addition to shooting a career-best 77.0% from the free throw line.
third-straight Sweet 16 appearance.
The 6-foot-6 wing was towards the top of the conference leaderboards in several categories, ranking No. 2 in points per game, No. 5 in rebounds per game, No. 4 in steals per game, No. 4 in player efficiency rating, No. 1 in win shares, No. 2 in offensive win shares, No. 1 in defensive win shares and No. 2 in win shares per 40 minutes.
Jaquez was named Pac-12 Player of the Year, as well as making the All-Pac-12 First Team for the second season in a row. He also made the AP All-American Second Team, plus the Wooden All-American team.
For his career, Jaquez shot 52.4% from inside the arc, 32.8% from deep and 73.7% from the charity stripe. Jaquez finishes his career in Westwood ranked No. 8 on the school’s all-time scoring list, No. 8 on the all-time steals list and No. 11 on the all-time rebounds list after 134 appearances – which rank No. 9 in program history.
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