Miami Heat star Jaime Jaquez Jr has revealed how the team are blocking out the noise amid a number of off-court issues that have threatened to derail their season.

The Heat – who are currently eighth in the Eastern Conference – had their first setback in October after guard Terry Rozier was arrested amid an FBI investigation into a Mafia-led gambling ring that shocked the league. He has since plead not guilty but remains on unpaid leave.

Then, just weeks after his arrest, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra suffered a devastating house fire at his $6.6million, five-bedroom, six-bathroom home in Miami, in yet another twist to the team’s turbulent season.

Despite all these issues, Jaquez Jr has produced his best NBA season to date and, in an interview with the Daily Mail in partnership with Raising Canes, insisted that the team have remained ‘focused on basketball’.

Addressing the unexpected challenge of losing Rozier, Jaquez Jr said: ‘We’ve just kind of got to wait for all the information to come out. There’s a lot of things that we don’t know.

‘You never want to see that happen to a teammate. But at the same time, we got a season that we have to worry about. Thoughts and prayers are with him but when one man goes down, other guys have got to step up. So that’s kind of our mentality.’

Jaquez Jr. also provided an emotional account of the team’s reaction to learning that Coach Spoelstra’s house had unfortunately burned down.

‘We found out the news [after] we had just gotten back from a game. Obviously, everyone was devastated, we all reached out,’ he recalled. ‘We got him and his kids some gift baskets, full of things that you just don’t have anymore.’

Jaquez Jr. revealed the fire was particularly devastating as many players had only recently been at the home.

‘We had an early Thanksgiving get-together – it was only like a week and a half, two weeks earlier [that] we were there. And then, to hear that news, it was obviously so devastating.’

He noted the home was a ‘pretty new house’ that Coach Spoelstra had been working on building for a while and he may not have even lived in it for a full year.

Despite the loss, Jaquez Jr. praised his coach’s strength and focus on family. ‘For him, it was more about the people. He was just happy that his kids and his family were all safe.

‘And that just goes to show the person he is, not about the material things. For him, it’s about relationships and connections.’

He noted that throughout all the outside noise and the drama, the team’s focus has remained simple. ‘It’s always just been about basketball’.

Jaquez – who is playing in his third season in the NBA – has produced his most impressive campaign to date and has

Jaquez Jr’s third season in the league has seen him turn in some of his best individual performances to date however, the 24-year-old insists he’s ‘still not satisfied’.

‘I just wanted to get off to a good start. I think there’s still a lot of work that can be done, a lot of things I can improve on,’ he explained. ‘The end goal is to obviously win a championship, and doing whatever I can help this team win is what I’m always willing to do.’

He also shared that the management’s main request for him this year was to take on a larger creative role.

‘I think they just wanted me to be a creator, whether that be for myself or the team, and just really cause defenses to overreact and collapse and trust me to make the right play.’