Heat not represented among 2025 All-Star starters. Tyler Herro’s All-Star fate rests on coaches
As expected, the Miami Heat did not have a player voted into the 2025 NBA All-Star Game as a starter.
New York’s Jalen Brunson and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell are the two Eastern Conference guards who were voted in as starters, with New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Boston’s Jayson Tatum as the three East frontcourt players who made the cut. The All-Star starters were announced Thursday night on TNT.
The Heat’s top candidate for the Feb. 16 All-Star Game, which will take place at Chase Center in San Francisco, is guard Tyler Herro. Heat center Bam Adebayo and forward Jimmy Butler (despite currently serving his second team suspension this month and pushing for a trade out of Miami) have also received All-Star consideration this season.
The Western Conference All-Star starters are Phoenix’s Kevin Durant, Los Angeles’ LeBron James and Denver’s Nikola Jokic in the frontcourt, and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Golden State’s Stephen Curry in the backcourt.
To determine the All-Star Game starters, fan balloting represented 50 percent of the vote, with all current NBA players and a media panel each accounting for 25 percent of the vote.
Among East guards, Herro finished 10th in the fan vote, 10th in the player vote and eighth in the media vote.
Among East frontcourt players, Butler finished eighth in the fan vote, 20th in the player vote and fifth in the media vote. Adebayo closed 16th in the fan vote, ninth in the player vote and fifth in the media vote.
After all votes were tallied, players were ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups — fan votes, player votes and media votes. Each player’s score was calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes.
When the final score was calculated, Herro finished ninth among East guards. Adebayo and Butler closed 14th and 11th among East frontcourt players, respectively
The next question is: Will Herro make this season’s All-Star Game as a reserve?
Head coaches will select the seven reserves from each conference, which will be announced on Jan. 30 on TNT. The seven reserve spots usually include three frontcourt players, two guards and two additional players regardless of position.
Herro, who is hoping to make his first NBA All-Star Game appearance this season, has the strongest All-Star case among Heat players based on the combination of his play and availability this season.
Herro, who turned 25 on Monday, entered Thursday’s game averaging career-highs in points (24 per game), rebounds (5.7) and assists (5) while also shooting a career-best 47.8 percent from the field and a career-best 40.7 percent from three-point range on a career-high 9.6 three-point attempts per game while missing just one game this season.
Not only did Herro enter Thursday ranked third in the league in three-pointers made this season (160 threes made) behind only Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and Detroit’s Malik Beasley, but Herro is also one of only two players in the league who’s averaging at least 24 points, five rebounds and five assists per game while also shooting 45 percent or better from the field and 40 percent or better from behind the arc this season. The only other player in the NBA currently meeting those thresholds is three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.
Among Herro’s top competition for one of the East’s All-Star guard reserve spots are Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks, Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons, Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers, Darius Garland of the Cavaliers, Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers and LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets.
This season’s All-Star Game will look a little different. The NBA announced in mid-December that the 2025 All-Star Game will feature a new format. Next month’s NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco will feature a mini-tournament with four teams and three games for the first time.
Two teams will meet in one semifinal (Game 1), and the remaining two teams will meet in the other semifinal (Game 2). The winning teams from Game 1 and Game 2 will advance to face each other in the championship (Game 3). For each game, the winner will be the first team to reach or surpass 40 points.
Each team will have eight players and be named for a TNT NBA analyst. The 24 NBA All-Star selections will be divided evenly into three teams, with the rosters drafted by TNT’s “Inside the NBA” commentators and honorary team general managers Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith. The three analysts will make their respective picks for Team Chuck, Team Shaq and Team Kenny live on TNT in the NBA All-Star Draft, which will be conducted on Feb. 6.
The fourth team will be the winning team from the championship game of the Rising Stars event on Feb. 14 during All-Star Weekend. Rising Stars is the annual showcase of top first- and second-year NBA players and G League standouts, opening the door for Heat rookie Kel’el Ware and Heat second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. to possibly play their way into this season’s NBA All-Star Game mini tournament if they’re selected for the Rising Stars event.
The four teams participating in the NBA All-Star Game will compete for a prize pool of $1.8 million. Each player on the championship-winning team will receive $125,000, each player on the second-place team will receive $50,000 and each player on the third- and fourth-place teams will receive $25,000.
Adebayo was the only player to represent the Heat in last season’s All-Star Game, getting in as an East reserve.
This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 7:47 PM.
