Herro addresses Haslem comments about moving to bench. And what early data shows
The Miami Heat’s starting group, statistically, has been among the league’s worst in the first week of the season.
But there will be no scapegoating of Tyler Herro, who has been Miami’s second-leading scorer (behind Terry Rozier) early in the season.
Turns out, Heat president Pat Riley wasn’t the only one taken aback when Udonis Haslem said on ESPN this past offseason that Herro should move to the bench.
Herro also was nonplussed, to the point that he discussed the issue with Haslem, the team’s vice president of basketball development.
Asked by Kendrick Perkins about Herro during an “NBA Today” segment in May, Haslem said: “Tyler will continue to get better every day. For Tyler, his role, he’s great as a sixth man. When he won Sixth Man of the Year [after the 2021-22 season], that’s a great role for Tyler.
“Moving into the future, in today’s NBA, you can still be sixth man, you can still get all your money, still get All Star in today’s NBA. Tyler’s role for us, and the best role for him, is to probably be a sixth man.
“That’s taking nothing away from what Tyler does as a basketball player. But for our chemistry, we are better when we got Duncan Robinson in the starting lineup, making plays, being that trigger for us and spraying and creating for other guys.
“Tyler can come off in that second group, doesn’t have to worry about getting other guys involved. He can just play basketball, score and be who he is.”
Haslem repeated those comments in a September interview.
Herro told The Miami Herald last week that he conveyed to Haslem that he wishes Haslem hadn’t said that.
“We had a conversation about it,” Herro said. “It was a friendly conversation. I told him my concerns about why I didn’t think he should have said that. He explained why he thought he should have said that.
“At the end of the day, it’s basketball. Our relationship is bigger than basketball. If he thinks I should start, that’s cool. If he thinks I should come off the bench, that’s his opinion. Everyone has their own. It’s cool. It’s really no big deal.”
Herro is clearly happy that Erik Spoelstra didn’t take Haslem’s suggestion.
Asked if he was pleased to remain a starter this season, Herro said: “Yeah, I would say so. I was hoping to be a starter, so yeah. I thought I should start. I don’t think it’s even really a conversation anymore. It’s a narrative people create around me.
“I’m a starter in the NBA. I’m a team guy. I would love to come off the bench if that’s what was needed. But I’m a starter. It doesn’t take away from anything else that I bring, which is I’m a great teammate. I love seeing other guys have success.”
Riley said in May that he told Haslem that “he probably should have kept that [opinion] to himself. We have one voice and that voice is all of our voice. But one guy is going to distribute that information and that’s Erik [Spoelstra]. If I’m talking to the media every week, there’s going to be controversy. Spo and I argue a lot, but I don’t want to put that in the media.
“What Udonis has to understand is he works for the Heat. I think he’s really good on NBA TV or ESPN on the studio show, and he and Mike Miller are funny as hell on their podcast. Half the stories are … embellished, especially about me.”
Haslem’s TV appearances have been less frequent since then.
As detailed here earlier this month, the Heat’s three-man lineups featuring Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Herro were more productive than the groups featuring Butler, Adebayo and Robinson over the past two years.
Through three games, Herro has averaged 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists, while shooting 42.2 percent and 33.3 percent on threes.
But... the Butler/Adebayo/Herro group has been outscored by 47 points in 65 minutes, which is the worst plus/minus of any three-player combination in the NBA. The caveat is that the number was skewed by a terrible opener against Orlando, and it’s a very small sample size.
Those lineups with Butler, Adebayo and Herro have shot just 36.8 percent and 30.2 percent of threes. To blame that on Herro would be short-sighted.
Butler was held to two points on 1 for 8 shooting in the opener, before scoring 26 and 23 the past two games. Adebayo is averaging just 11.0 points on 12 for 31 shooting.
Through three games, the Heat’s starting unit of Butler, Adebayo, Herro, Rozier and Nikola Jovic has the fourth worst plus/minus in the league, a minus 22 in 40 minutes.
The Phoenix Suns’ starting group, featuring stars Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, is the worst at minus 31. But the sample size remains too small to make any definitive conclusions heading into Wednesday’s home game against the Knicks (7:30 p.m., Fanduel Sports Network Sun).
The Herro/Rozier pairing has had some good moments; the Heat is minus 11 with them on the court, though that’s better than the starting group plus/minus.
“We have some great potential,” Spoelstra said of the Herro/Rozier pairing. “That will get better after several weeks and months. But they already have a real good comfort level with each other and they’re dynamic with their skill level and their shooting ability. … We need them to be dynamic.”
As part of a reworked offensive approach that has called for more threes and layups and fewer midrange shots, Herro said Monday that coaches have “been on me a lot. Every shot I do pass up, in my head I’m like, ‘God damn it, I got to shoot it.’ But I have to shoot my open ones. It’s on me to shoot those shots and I’ll be better...
“Me and Terry are in that lineup, really on the team, as the ones that have to get the threes up off the catch. Whether it’s off each other or whether it’s off Jimmy or Bam or Jaime attacking.”
Both Herro and Rozier took 12 three-pointers in Monday’s 106-98 win against Detroit, with Herro making three and Rozier five.
NEWS NOTE
Kevin Love (out/personal reasons) and Josh Christopher (G League assignment) are the only players on the Heat’s injury report for the Knicks game.
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 1:06 PM.
