Heat’s Spoelstra explains why he ‘really would like to see Tyler Herro become an All-Star’
Campaigning for his players to be voted into the NBA All-Star Game isn’t Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s strong suit.
“This is probably one of the weaknesses I have as a head coach,” Spoelstra said ahead of Tuesday night’s matchup against the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena. “I need to pay more attention to that.”
As expected, the Heat did not have a player voted into the Feb. 20 All-Star Game as a starter. But there’s a real chance at least one Heat player will be selected as an All-Star reserve in part because of its position as one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
The head coaches determine the seven All-Star reserves from each conference, which will be announced Thursday at 7 p.m. on TNT. The seven reserve spots include three frontcourt players, two guards and two additional players regardless of position.
The Heat’s top All-Star candidates are Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Kyle Lowry. Who does Spoelstra hope gets voted in by the coaches as a reserve this season?
“I have a hunch about our veteran players. They probably feel the same way as their head coach about the All-Star experience this year,” Spoelstra said, alluding to Butler and Lowry and his own desire to not end up as the All-Star head coach from the East. “I would love to see Bam as an All-Star. I don’t know how that works out, whether he has had enough games. But he’s the heart and soul of what we do.”
The issue with Adebayo’s All-Star case is that he has missed 25 games this season, including 22 straight because of thumb surgery.
“And I really would like to see Tyler Herro become an All-Star,” Spoelstra added. “I think he has had an All-Star year and I think it would be great just for the narrative that you can still accomplish individual things if your team is successful and even if you’re coming off the bench. There are a lot of strong opinions and narratives out there that you have to be X, Y, Z to be considered a great player. I just think it’s a bunch of BS. It’s about impacting winning and Tyler has been able to do that. We view him as our sixth starter anyway. But I get it, how everybody else views it.”
Herro is the NBA’s leading bench scorer, as he entered Tuesday averaging 20 points per game as a reserve while shooting 43.7 percent from the field and 40 percent on threes this season. When including the 10 starts Herro has made, he has averaged career-highs in points (20.1), assists (4) and minutes (33.1) in 42 games this season.
Butler has already made the All-Star Game five times during his NBA career. Lowry is a six-time All-Star and Adebayo made his lone All-Star appearance in 2020.
But Herro, 22, is still looking to be voted into his first All-Star Game.
“It would be cool,” Herro said. “But who knows what’s going to happen. We’ve got four or five guys who you can argue should be in the All-Star Game. ... If they nominate me, obviously it would be a dream come true for me.”
Butler may have the strongest All-Star case among Heat players, as he’s one of only four NBA players averaging at least 20 points, six rebounds and six assists while shooting better than 48 percent from the field this season. The other three players on that list are Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, who were all voted in as All-Star starters.
Butler, 32, is also ranked No. 8 in the NBA in win shares (an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player). The only real blemish on his All-Star resume is the fact that he has missed 19 games this season.
“I hope Tyler gets in,” Adebayo said. “I really think Tyler is having an All-Star caliber year. That’s my opinion. The whole organization thinks it. Him and Jimmy and Kyle. I think I missed too many games, but we’ll see what happens. But yeah, those three for sure. I feel like they’ll get that nod and the No. 1 nod is T.”
This season’s All-Star Game will take place at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
Spoelstra is in the running to be one of the two head coaches in the All-Star Game, with the Heat entering Tuesday just percentage points behind the Chicago Bulls for the top spot in the East.
The two All-Star head coaches are chosen by a best-record scenario, meaning the coach of the teams that are first in their respective conference two weeks before the All-Star Game (games played through Sunday) earns the honor. Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams has already clinched the job for the Western Conference.
“I think we have four guys who have earned it, quite frankly,” Heat forward Duncan Robinson said, referring to Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Lowry. “At some point, you got to look at the records and reward winning. Those guys have missed time, but when they’ve been on the floor, absolutely I think they’ve earned it. So we’ll see. A lot of that stuff is outside of our control in that sense. We just got to see where the chips fall.”
THIS AND THAT
▪ Butler will be available for Tuesday’s matchup against the Raptors, which marks the Heat’s fourth game in five nights.
Butler missed Monday’s 122-92 road loss to the Boston Celtics because of right big toe irritation. But the fact that it was the front end of a back-to-back, the Heat’s third game in four nights and just 48 hours after Butler played 52 minutes in Saturday’s triple-overtime loss to the Raptors were also factors.
Heat forward P.J. Tucker will also play in Tuesday’s game after missing Monday’s loss with left knee irritation.
But the Heat remains without Lowry (personal reasons), Markieff Morris (return to competition reconditioning), KZ Okpala (right wrist sprain), Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) and Omer Yurtseven (health and safety protocols) on Tuesday in Toronto.
▪ Max Strus set a new career-high with nine made threes in Monday’s 30-point loss to the Boston Celtics. He finished one three-pointer shy of tying the franchise record of 10 made threes in a game set by Brian Shaw in 1993 and tied by Mario Chalmers in 2013 and Robinson in 2019.
It marks the ninth time in franchise history that a Heat player has hit at least nine threes in a game. Miami is 7-2 in those games.
▪ Heat strategic advisor and former player Shane Battier and his wife, Heidi, hosted Cabernet with Battier at Byblos Miami on Saturday. The event raised more than $200,000 for the Battier Take Charge Foundation, a non-profit organization established by the Battier Family to fund college scholarships and educational opportunities for underprivileged youth.
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 10:14 AM.
