Gabriela Jaquez Preseason Scouting Report
Gabriela Jaquez Preseason Scouting Report
Evaluating the UCLA forward's play for the Mexican national team to look forward to her NCAA and possible WNBA future
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UCLA is loaded for next season. It returns two of the best players in the country in playmaking 5-foot-11 point guard Kiki Rice and 6-foot-7 back-to-the-basket scorer Lauren Betts. It also returns two other starters in Londynn Jones, who shot 7.0 3-point attempts per game and made 36.6% of them last season, and Angela Dugalic, who was part of Serbia’s post rotation at the Olympics after starting games for her country at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in February. Then, it welcomed three of the top transfers in the country, all of them serious WNBA prospects: Washington State’s Charlisse Leger-Walker, Texas A&M’s Janiah Barker, and Oregon State’s Timea Gardiner. It also added three freshman recruits in ESPN’s top 30 - Kendall Dudley, Avary Cain, and Zania Socka-Nguemen - and a fourth freshman, Finnish playmaker Elina Aarnisalo, who averaged 12.3 points per game playing professionally in Belgium last season alongside teammates Cate Reese and, for part of the season, Rae Burrell. UCLA simply does not have room in its rotation for all of that talent.
In fact, there is yet another crucial player who is missing from that rundown and crowds that rotation even further. Gabriela Jaquez may not have started regularly for UCLA, but she did average 10.0 points and 25.2 minutes per game while ranking in the 90th percentile in points per possession and an assist-to-turnover ratio in the 78th percentile. In her first two years in Westwood, Jaquez has made a name for herself as a complementary wing who can do a little bit of everything, with her biggest questions surrounding her outside jump shot.
This August, fans and scouts had the chance to watch her in another context, as she suited up for the Mexican senior national team for the first time at a World Cup Pre-Qualifying event hosted in Mexico City. This afforded onlookers the opportunity to see her in another context with two critical changes compared to last season: her taking on a leading offensive role and spending significant time in a 5-out system. Coached by former WNBA No. 1 overall draft pick and 2023-24 NBA G-League Coach of the Year Lindsey Harding, Jaquez was able to showcase her skills against professional competition, notably against mid-level European national teams Montenegro and Czechia. She did not disappoint, leading her team with 21.8 points per game while averaging 0.94 points per possession. This tournament presented an excellent glimpse of the state of her game and how it can grow, even assuming that she will not absorb such a commanding role either at UCLA or, down the road, in professional club competition.
Offensively, Jaquez is at her best when she uses her driving game to pressure the rim. One of the most exciting elements of Jaquez’s game is her versatility as a finisher, the most important feature of which is her ambidexterity. She is clearly more confident with her right hand, but that does not prevent her from attempting - and making - even contested lefty layups, like this one out of the post.
Here, she jets out of a dribble hand-off, makes a nifty spin move, and generates enough momentum for another lefty finish.
She also has shown the ability to make exceptionally difficult floaters. Here, she attacks from the left corner in a late-clock situation, lifting the ball with her right hand over former Los Angeles Sparks draft pick and 6-foot-4 center Julia Reisingerova while 6-foot-1 Natalie Stoupalova remains near her hip.
She also has a clear penchant for backing down opponents in the paint. While this is not necessarily a preferred option - doing so effectively depends on having a strength advantage over her defenders and is often employed after being unable to blow past her primary matchup with her speed and ball-handling - she is selective enough that she usually turns her back while still in range to take an efficient shot. Here, she does so in cramped confines after receiving a hand-off at the elbow, lofting a pretty shot over Bojana Kovacevic.
And even when she does face away from the basket seemingly prematurely, she possesses enough skill that she will sometimes can a difficult turnaround jumper anyway, or, in this case, draw a foul on a closeout from a somewhat panicked help defender.
While she does not necessarily seek contact in every scenario, she certainly is willing to absorb a bump and earn a trip to the free-throw line for her troubles.
However, there are some cases where she shortarms layups or is deterred from attempting a shot altogether because she is trying to avoid help defenders rather than finish through them. Take this example where she jump stops past Milica Jovanovic - a notably taller, but not necessarily a much stronger, defender - and misses the floater short as a result.
Furthermore, while Jaquez has a decent repertoire of ball-handling moves, she does not always generate as much space from these moves as one might hope or expect. For example, here she gets walled off in the paint by Eliska Hamzova, a wing who Czechia generally plays as a point guard, and loses the handle. When her teammate recovers, the play turns into a nice, snug pick-and-roll, but Jaquez gets blocked at the rim by the low rotating defender, power forward Natalie Stopualova.
Here, she needs several moves to break down Jovana Pasic - who is admittedly a rather stout wing defender - and is ultimately not able to generate enough momentum from her spin move to loft the ball over the rim on this banked layup.
On this other play, she spins on Stoupalova when her foe is giving her a wide berth, meaning that she really only spins into Stoupalova and has to abandon the drive.
That being said, she does a nice job of reading the cutter and turning the stagnant opportunity into a hand-off which gets her teammate running toward the rim.
On that note, Jaquez may have only recorded five assists across four games in Mexico City, but that does not make her a bad passer. In fact, this depressed number of assists was partly related to her teammates’ poor finishing abilities. Jaquez’s teammates collectively shot 33.6% on 2-point field-goal attempts and 27.0% on 3-point field-goal attempts. The following play represents an example of a good Jaquez pass going begging. After flashing to the middle against this zone defense, Jaquez gets an opportunity to attack in the post. Her attempt to move middle is shut off, but she realizes that Alexia Lagunas is hammering to the corner while the Montenegro defender is looking the other way. Jaquez reads the situation and slings the pass to the corner. Unfortunately, Lagunas simply misses the shot.
Here is a play where Jaquez was able to use a series of moves to break down her defender, draw help, and make a nice pass that did not net her an assist in the box score but did benefit her team as a “hockey assist.”
However, she can also deliver her passes inaccurately, especially when executing higher-level reads. This play, where she does a nice job of keeping her dribble alive on the baseline and reads the kickout to the weakside wing, serves as an example as she airmails the pass for a turnover.
Overall, Jaquez’s passing is solid for a wing but not good enough to play a point forward role. The same can be said for her handle overall. In this play, she drives on Eliska Hamzova and loses control of the ball.
As impressive as these moments with the ball in her hands were, Jaquez still projects to play more of an off-ball role moving forward. Once Charlisse Leger-Walker recovers from the ACL injury she suffered in January while still at Washington State, UCLA profiles to have an All-American candidate running the point guard at all times. Furthermore, the Bruins will also spend a fair share of time running sets to get Lauren Betts touches in the post. Consequently, Jaquez will have to continue to prove that she does not need the ball to make an impact. Playing with the ball so much at this tournament, Jaquez did not have as many opportunities to operate off the ball, but she did have some. That is where her cutting comes into play. In this situation, Ramos finds herself stuck on a drive that is going nowhere. Jaquez cuts behind her, receives the ball, and spots a wide-open lane to the cup, making a layup before Pasic can get there to help.
An area for growth that remains critical for Jaquez as she profiles to play an off-ball role is her outside shot. Last year at UCLA, she converted only 25.9% of her 3-point attempts, which she attempted 3.8 per 40 minutes - 55th percentile across the NCAA as a whole but below average for a perimeter-based player. She shot slightly more often in Mexico City, going 6-for-15 (40.0%) in the four games, translating to 4.7 attempts per 40 minutes, although that difference probably does not translate to a significant difference over such a small sample. The good news is that she can and will shoot confidently off various relocations, even if the shot does not always go in the basket.
That looks like a designed play meant to set up various opportunities, of which a shoot off the catch was just one. By contrast, this baseline out-of-bounds (BLOB) play seems drawn up with a Jaquez movement three-pointer as the intended outcome.
Not only does she run right into the shot, but she does so after taking a relatively unconventional route to the corner which takes her momentum away from the basket. Furthermore, this attempt looks smooth and quick despite its difficulty.
However, in more spontaneous situations when she has to decide between various options, her shot prep takes a notably long time, which can prove especially problematic when she ultimately elects not to shoot after all. A slower shot process grants defenses time to recover, leading to shots being better contested and closing opportunities elsewhere if she elects to pass or to drive. In this pick-and-pop, Jaquez’s read is not clearly favored toward shooting or driving, and her shot prep is slower and almost feels like going through the steps of an instructional manual. She also misses the less fluid attempt.
On this offensive rebound, Jaquez is standing at the wing with a clear passing lane when teammate Myriam Lara grabs the board. However, Jaquez retreats away from the 3-point line, seemingly in an attempt to reset the play instead of preparing to shoot. However, when she sees Emma Cechova closing out far away, she pump fakes and drives. Cechova is fairly mobile for either post position, both of which she plays consistently at the club level, and she also has a comfortable defensive cushion, so she has little trouble containing Jaquez’s drive. As a result, Jaquez is not able to gain much of an advantage.
If Jaquez had remained near her original position, she probably could have gotten a reasonably open look or had a better opportunity to drive. Some of the decision-making in this particular instance may be the product of her knowing that her role is as her team’s primary offensive engine. However, making sure that she is wired to shoot would open opportunities for her driving game and help her team maintain advantages, regardless of her role.
Some of this may also be a factor of her preferring the drive and looking for a lane to attack before considering shooting as a secondary read. Nevertheless, she remains at her best when she can make a move right away. This play showcases her taking a quick step off the ball to pull herself away from the defender and create an opening for a shot, then she immediately sprints into the drive off the catch when she draws the closeout.
While she can make an impact from the mid-range, defenders are not necessarily scared of her pulling up from those areas of the court. Instead, they can sag off her, as former Wisconsin wing Julie Pospisilova does here, and still cut her off in the paint.
Of course, Jaquez also deserves credit here for spotting her relocating teammate, Karla Martinez, for what could have been an open 3-pointer and ultimately still resulted in free throws.
Jaquez’s touch in the mid-range is far from perfect, so it should definitely remain a secondary or tertiary weapon for her. The previously mentioned concerns about her handle maybe hold her back from getting to the rim more often, including in this end-of-quarter possession when she faces first Kovacevic and then another, admittedly quicker post player in Ksenija Scepanovic.
More positively, Jaquez can also generate offense from her defense off rebounds and steals, alike with her ability to handle the ball and make decisions in transition. On this play, she shades Reisingerova’s post-up while her teammates double. She covers the cutter- albeit perhaps a hair late to stop a well-timed pass - and is in position to grab the ball when her teammates poke it free. Then, she sends the ball up the floor with a well-timed outlet, which creates a runout layup that simply is left unconverted.
Here, she reads that this post entry pass has been deflected way over its intended recipient’s head, so she catches the ball for a steal before it goes out-of-bounds. Then, she attacks in transition, knifing through the lane for yet another contested, left-handed layup.
She also knows how to run the floor hard and in her lane even when she is not the main ballhandler. This play acts as a strong example, where she starts by running wide but cuts to the rim itself when she sees the open lane.
It is also worth noting once again that she finishes the play with a left-handed layup with her defender directly behind her, demonstrating her ability to use either hand to score as the situation dictates.
The following steal serves as a highlight of her ability to understand her defensive scheme and anticipate. Jaquez starts this play guarding Zivkovic on the weak side, the offensive right wing. Claudia Ramos gambles for the steal on the entry pass, leaving Kovacevic with a clean post catch and prompting Mayra Gil to rotate over. This leaves Jaquez to “zone up” the weak side, playing in between Zivkovic and Gil’s matchup in the corner in order to guard both until her team’s defense regains its shape or the offense swings the ball that way. Kovacevic reads the help and turns to pass to the corner, but Jaquez knows that next move, shifts to the baseline, and snags the pass in the air for the steal.
This serves as an excellent example of Jaquez making a pro-style read on the fly and earning a stop for her team.
Defending Zivkovic one-on-one, Jaquez had moments where she seemed to take a casual approach. Here, she gets under the ball screen but seems somewhat lackadaisical, gives her a cushion of space, and ultimately contests the elbow pull-up in an almost blasé manner.
Some necessary context is that Zivkovic is a strong player with a very weak 3-point jumper, and she is also a fairly strong passer. Ultimately, one’s first priority when guarding Zivkovic is to prevent her from getting to the rim without giving her too much of an opportunity. It is also worth crediting Jaquez for getting around both a screen and a rescreen.
Against a deadlier off-ball threat, Jaquez can turn up the intensity. Here, she is guarding Milica Jovanovic, a versatile shooter who even at 6-foot-3 feels comfortable launching stepback threes and attacking defenders off the bounce. When Kovacevic sets an off-ball screen for Jovanovic to flare to the corner, Jaquez sprints around it to prevent Jovanovic from getting a clean look.
While jumping at the end of that play is not necessarily ideal, there are two points in Jaquez’s favor for that decision. For one, Jovanovic is a more dangerous shooter than driver, so running her off the 3-point line is a positive for the defense. Furthermore, this is not a wild leap that sends Jaquez out of bounds and out of the play; instead, it is a short, controlled jump that deters the shot while only briefly keeping her in the air.
On this play, she has switched onto Jovanovic after a two-player action. When Jovanovic posts her up and receives the entry pass, Jaquez possesses the strength to push her to the baseline. Once the double team comes, Jovanovic tries to force through a pass, resulting in a turnover.
Veronika Sipova is slightly smaller than Jovanovic but is also wired much more like a post player. Here, Jaquez does a credible job of containing Sipova down low as well.
While the biggest post players can certainly bury Jaquez, it is valuable to see that she can not be targeted physically by most routine matchups, even at the power forward position that Jovanovic and Sipova both regularly play for both club and country at high levels.
To a much lesser extent, Jaquez’s strength is also visible when Jaquez gets hit by screens. Her screen navigation is not always perfect, but being able to stay in plays even when the screener makes contact is important for avoiding major breakdowns. In this case, the setter of this off-ball screen, Maja Bigovic, stands 6-foot-5, yet Jaquez manages to recover quickly and prevent her matchup from gaining a step on her.
She can use her quickness to stay with fellow wings on the perimeter while possessing enough strength to force difficult shots when players do get into layup range. Both of these are evident on this possession against Pospisilova as she forces her opponent to eat clock on her first foray and ultimately stays connected and forces her to miss a finish through contact, albeit from closer range than one might hope.
The varied nature of Jaquez’s defensive highlights while playing an outsized offensive role definitely presents serious optimism for her prospect profile at that end of the court. She should be able to defend most wings at the next level.
Even if UCLA’s loaded squadron of talent keeps Jaquez out of the regular starting lineup once again, the talented playmaking wing should at least be one of the most impactful bench players in the country. The question then becomes whether she can carve out a role for herself in the WNBA. As tremendous of a driver as she is, she probably falls short of being an All-Star level driver of team offense, rendering her shooting ability all the more critical. However, as long as she can prove at least passable from deep range, which is not out of the question, her cutting and defensive abilities provide her an excellent chance of adding value on a professional court.
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