The eye-opening details on where Tyler Herro’s injury absence has hurt Miami Heat
A six-pack of Miami Heat notes on a Tuesday:
▪ There are myriad reasons for this ongoing 2-6 stretch: a road-heavy schedule, Jimmy Butler’s absence for four games, far too many defensive breakdowns and opponents shooting threes against the Heat at a much higher clip than earlier in the season.
But here’s another reason that should be in the top five: Not having Tyler Herro around to play the fourth quarter.
Herro — who has missed eight games with an ailment that Herro says is a foot problem but the team calls an ankle injury — was second on the team in fourth quarter minutes at the time of his injury, having played only seven minutes fewer than Bam Adebayo’s 399.
What’s more, Herro has been the Heat’s best shooter among wing players in the clutch, defined by the NBA as the final five minutes of games with a margin of five points or fewer.
Herro is shooting 52.2 percent overall in the clutch (12 for 23) and 53.3 percent (8 for 15) on clutch threes, both figures ranking very highly among NBA shooting guards. His 34 clutch points are third on the team, behind only Jimmy Butler’s 72 and Adebayo’s 59.
And with Herro on the court in the clutch, Miami has outscored teams by 14 points — the best plus/minus on the team among Heat players.
And consider this: Before Herro’s injury, Miami was 14-8 in games that included clutch minutes and a plus 3 in clutch minutes.
Since Herro’s injury absence starter, Miami is 0-3 and a minus 23 in the clutch and shot just 1 for 13 on clutch threes.
Overall, the rookie guard is averaging 13.1 points and 4.0 rebounds in 46 games.
So yes, the young man is missed. So is center Meyers Leonard, who has also missed these eight games with an ankle injury.
▪ That three-pointer that Butler took in crunch time against Atlanta last Thursday? Probably not the best choice of shots.
Butler is now 3 for 18 on clutch threes this season. Among players who have taken as many clutch threes, only the Lakers’ LeBron James (4 for 27) and Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie (2 for 22) are worse.
Butler is hopeful of being able to play Wednesday against Minnesota after missing two games with a personal issue. The Heat listed him as questionable.
▪ For Heat fans wondering about DeMarcus Cousins, who was released by the Lakers this week to make room for Markieff Morris, keep in mind that even though the Heat likes Cousins and pursued him last summer, there’s no indication he’s looking to leave Southern California.
Cousins, who hasn’t played this season because of a torn ACL in his left knee sustained last August, continued rehabbing with the Lakers at their facility on Tuesday, and there’s nothing to preclude the Lakers from signing him before the playoffs if he’s healthy.
What’s more, The Athletic said Cousins and the Lakers have expressed interest in Cousins resigning with Los Angeles this summer. Last summer, he chose a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Lakers over an offer from Miami.
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said Cousins will use the Lakers facilities to continue rehabbing but will not sit with the team at home games nor travel with them.
Cousins, 29, has played in only 78 regular-season games in the past three seasons. He was rusty in last year’s Finals for Golden State after a very long layoff and recently told Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their Showtime podcast that he probably shouldn’t have come back for the Finals off a torn quadriceps.
▪ In negotiations before the trade deadline, the Heat was never quite convinced that OKC forward Danillo Gallinari wanted to come here, and that was reinforced this week when Gallinari told Thunder.com that “I really wanted to stay to stay here. [It would be] tough to leave such a great atmosphere, great teammates, a group that is winning… I wanted to stay.”
The proposed trade was scuttled when Gallinari declined the Heat’s request for a two-year extension that included a team option for 2021-22.
Gallinari will be a free agent this summer, and the Heat could have $40 million in space if Kelly Olynyk opts out and if Miami were to renounce all its free agents (Goran Dragic, Derrick Jones Jr., Meyers Leonard, Jae Crowder, Solomon Hill).
Unless the Heat can land Anthony Davis (considered highly unlikely), it’s likely that Miami will keep its looming free agents on its cap (thus maintaining their Bird Rights) and try to re-sign some of them to one-year deals.
Gallinari said he hopes to stay with the Thunder beyond this season. The Heat, of course, has no interest in clogging its cap with additional guaranteed money in 2021-22.
▪ From the ex-Heat file: Dion Waiters remains unemployed after being released by Memphis but has spoken with the Lakers and will meet with them March 2, per TNT’s Chris Haynes; James Johnson is averaging 11.5 points and 4.2 rebounds in six games for Minnesota; and Justise Winslow remains sidelined indefinitely by a mysterious back injury.
I found it interesting that Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman told The Athletic that Winslow “is a very strong fit on the court and off the court, a player that I think really embodies a lot of the things that we’ve talked about from Day 1 in terms of having an incredible work ethic, basketball IQ, nasty defensively and has a low ego. He’s a really unselfish guy, as well.”
All of that appears true except the low ego part. A team official said Winslow expressed interest last summer in being a face of the Heat’s franchise, despite the addition of Butler and the presence of Bam Adebayo. That simply wasn’t going to happen here.
▪ Quick stuff: It’s going to take time for Andre Iguodala to round into form; the Heat has been outscored by 60 points in his last 82 minutes on the floor.... ESPN dropped a Boston-Utah game and added the Heat’s March 6 game at New Orleans to replace it. That decision was motivated partly by the fact that ESPN is carrying a Celtics-Jazz game this week, on Wednesday. That is the only remaining Heat game scheduled for ESPN; TNT has one more - the April 14 finale against Toronto...
The premiere of Dwyane Wade’s documentary on ESPN -- D. Wade: Life Unexpected on Sunday from 9-11pm -- averaged a 0.47 household rating and 705,000 viewers. During the same time frame on ESPN2, programming including a documentary on the 1980 US Olympic hockey team did a 0.13 household rating and 206,000 viewers.
Here’s my Tuesday 6-pack of Canes nuggets. And please check back later today for a Miami Dolphins piece.
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 4:52 PM.
