Heat’s Pat Riley addresses Tyler Herro extension possibility: ‘We haven’t committed to it’
Last year, Miami Heat president Pat Riley used his season-ending news conference to challenge Heat guard Tyler Herro by labeling him as “fragile” because of his injury issues. This year, Riley used his season-ending session with the media to show his appreciation for Herro.
“He’s one of the most ignitable guys offensively in the league and we’re happy to have him,” Riley said when asked about Herro during his 43-minute season-ending news conference on Friday in the Kaseya Center media room. “He’s 25, 26 years old. He’s coming off an All-Star year. He was voted in by the coaches and that means something. And so he’s pivotal for us as an offensive player. ... Tyler is a player, and I hope he can stay here the rest of his career and that we can build a team that he’s a part of.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean Riley and the Heat plan to offer Herro an extension when he becomes eligible for one at the start of October. In fact, Riley hinted the Heat may wait until next offseason to address a potential Herro extension.
“Pay me now or pay me later, whatever it is,” Riley said. “We’ve already talked about it. I talked about it with Tyler, and so we’ll see what happens as we plan. The numbers are getting pretty big for a lot of guys. Max salaries in this league, who do they go to? I mean, who do they go to and who is really? If you’re going to make $70 million a year, who are those five or 10 guys that deserve that? But Tyler definitely is deserving of the thought of an extension. But are we going to do it? We haven’t committed to it, but we’re going to discuss it and I’ve already talked to him about it. He’s cool.”
Starting Oct. 1, Herro is eligible to tack on a three-year, $149.7 million extension to the two seasons ($31 million for the 2025-26 season and $33 million for the 2026-27 season) he already has left on his contract.
If an agreement is not reached on an extension by Oct. 20, Herro would be eligible to sign a four-year, $206.9 million extension during the 2026 offseason. He is supermax eligible (five years, $380 million) if he is selected for an All-NBA team during the 2025-26 season.
“We will see what happens,” Herro, 25, said April 30 on exit interview day when asked about the possibility of signing an extension with the Heat this offseason. “If it doesn’t get done in October, then we can get it done next summer. It will just be a little bit higher of a price.”
Riley appreciated the fact that Herro didn’t put public pressure on the Heat to offer an extension this offseason.
“I think he answered that question perfectly last week,” Riley said. “He’s OK.”
Herro is coming off the best season of his six-year NBA career, averaging career-highs in points (23.9 points per game) and assists (5.5 per game) while shooting a career-best 47.2 percent from the field this regular season. He was selected for his first NBA All-Star Game this season.
Herro also responded to Riley’s “fragile” label by playing in a career-high 77 games this regular season after never reaching the 70-game mark through his first five NBA seasons.
But Herro struggled to play as the Heat’s No. 1 option in this year’s playoffs following the mid-season trade of Jimmy Butler. With the Cleveland Cavaliers face-guarding Herro for the final two games of their first-round sweep of the Heat, Herro totaled just 17 points on 23 field-goal attempts over those two contests.
“It’s a whole other world that he’s in now,” Riley said. “So people will sacrifice so much on defense just to wear him out that sometimes it’s strange for your other four players to say, ‘God, we can’t even get him the ball.’ So those are the things that coach is very good at and has to really identify and reconcile. And then Tyler simply has to learn how to be a great player like Steph [Curry] is when he gets that treatment and to be able to still score. There are going to be nights when he’s going to have those 4-for-20 games, he’s just one of those guys. But I’m glad that we got him.”
While Riley knows there must be changes to the Heat’s roster after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, it appears he’s also ready to move forward with the the leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Herro. The question is can the Heat add a star this summer to make it a leading trio.
“We got [Herro] and Bam at the right time and we’re going to move forward with them,” Riley said.
