Heat’s Pat Riley assesses where Herro stands, but will he be needed as trade chip?
On one hand, Tyler Herro stands as a player who still very much intrigues the Heat, a 21-year-old who persevered through an uneven, injury-interrupted sophomore season and still finished fifth in scoring among NBA reserves.
But on the flip side, he’s realistically the Heat’s most appealing trade chip if Jimmy Butler and Bam Adedayo are deemed unavailable. He’s an ignitable scorer who can create his own shot, still ascending, and cheap, under control the next three two seasons for a combined $9.7 million before he’s eligible for restricted free agency.
Heat president Pat Riley on Thursday made clear that Herro remains a part of the Heat’s “core,” after a season in which he played well at times but saw his three-point percentage dip from 38.9 percent as a rookie to 36.0 this season.
Like most Heat players, he struggled in the four-game sweep against the Milwaukee Bucks, shooting 31.6 percent from the field (12 for 38) and 31.6 percent on threes (6 for 19) and averaging 9.3 points.
“He’s a core player,” Riley said. “That’s all there is to it. When we got swept by Milwaukee, that was an absolute team breakdown. It wasn’t any one individual. When you get blown out like that and you get beaten by a great team, it isn’t any one individual.
“Tyler Herro is a core player for us. You might have hit it on the head. Maybe he had a sophomore jinx or whatever. But when we drafted Tyler and KZ [Okpala] and then we signed Jimmy, that was 22 months ago.
“Over the last 22 months from the night that he stepped up on that stage with Adam Silver in that swag coat and necklace, it was a wonderful night for him and for us. And he put the Heat hat on, and then he went and electrified a lot of people in this arena and in this city, especially our coaches and this organization. So Tyler is a core player. He’ll figure it out. We’ll figure it out with him.”
Though his three-point shooting and clutch shooting dropped, Herro improved his scoring average (13.5 to 15.1), rebounding (4.1 to 5.0), and assists (2.2 to 3.4) while playing 30 minutes a game, about three more than his rookie season.
His overall shooting percentage increased from 42.8 to 43.9.
“What happened to him going down the stretch, I actually thought he got better as a player,” Riley said. “If you think about his first year or his first 35 or 40 games, he really was strictly a catch-and-shoot type of player coming off of screens and catching and shooting. The only way that he was ever going to become a complete offensive player is he had to improve his ball-handling with both his right hand and his left hand, and he did.
“He’s an exceptional ball-handler. Now he can create space and get into gaps and raise on jumpers from almost anywhere. This year was really a step up, not experimenting, but he did a lot of probing and dribbling and going into the gaps and driving baseline and dribbling back out the other side. That’s sort of the nature of a scorer.
“He and K-9 [Kendrick Nunn] are scorers, and we expect his shooting now to even get even better in those situations. As far as the other parts of his game, I think as he grows up, he’s going to grow and mature as a player and he’ll get better across the board. But he’s a core player. I’m not concerned about him.”
If Nunn leaves in free agency — the Heat has the right to match any offer — the question is whether Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will give Herro another chance as a starter. Spoelstra removed him from the starting lineup after Miami started the season 7-14, though Herro missed seven of those 21 games (five of which were Heat losses).
RILEY ON BAM
Riley revealed Thursday that Adebayo was given the opportunity last November to delay signing his contract extension to give the Heat more cap space this summer, but that Adebayo declined to wait and Riley didn’t take issue with that.
Meanwhile, Riley spoke of the need for a fresh evaluation of what players are equipped to play alongside Adebayo and how Adebayo can best be utilized.
For the most part, Spoelstra has felt comfortable playing Adebayo only alongside a power rotation player with an established three-point game. Aside from Adebayo pairings with natural centers Kelly Olynyk and Meyers Leonard, that has meant often playing 6-6 or 6-7 former small forwards at power forward (Trevor Ariza, Jae Crowder, Andre Iguodala) alongside Adebayo, often leaving the Heat at a size and rebounding deficit.
Spoelstra played Adebayo only 66 minutes with Hassan Whiteside during two seasons and played Adebayo just 13 minutes with rookie Precious Achiuwa this past season.
Asked if it’s time to revisit that approach and play Adebayo with a traditional big man, Riley said:
“Well, there’s a possibility of that,” acknowledging the Heat got outrebounded “incredibly bad” against Milwaukee.
“When you look at the results of what you’ve accomplished since Bam has been here and who he has played with during that time, his game has evolved in a lot of ways. But when it comes to what coach Spo is going to do when he pairs a frontline together, it will be situational….
“These are questions that I think can be answered later on by him as he evaluates this year and how Bam played and who he played with, and then what’s out there and what we might bring in.
“Yes, there’s a possibility that it could be big-big and there’s a possibility that it can still be similar to what you’ve seen in the past. The bottom line is that if the impact of that pairing doesn’t equal winning and you’re not winning at a high level, you can be winning just enough… That something you have to think about.”
The other option is encouraging Adebayo to develop a three-point shot, something that would expand the list of available players that Spoelstra would be comfortable playing alongside him.
Asked if Adebayo needs to add a three-point shot immediately (he’s 7 for 44 in his career), Riley said:
“No, it doesn’t need to happen quickly… To get a big that can shoot threes and rebound at the same time and defend and protect the rim, that’s a very unique player, and there’s not many of them around. So I think you get one or another…I’ll leave that to Spo, and Spo and I’ll talk about it. Those are the things that we have to think about.”
Riley also said: “I think Spo has to evaluate a little bit how he uses Bam. Bam is one of our primary ball-handlers and gets us into offense, and sometimes there is a disconnect between running offense and really being effective as an offensive player. I think all of those things will be worked out…. I do know that we’ve got one of the highest character, toughest guys in the league that really has a lot of talent, still has a lot of upside. I wouldn’t let what happened against Milwaukee in any way, shape or form [affect] what I think Bam can bring.”
The Heat would have had an additional $13 million in cap space this summer if Adebayo had been willing to wait eight months to sign his five-year, $163 million extension that begins next season.
Riley said the Heat spoke to him about it at the time, but “that was a decision that he and his agent made. We did discuss every single option in front of him. But he deserved it…. He did what was in his best interest, and we simply said, ‘Yes.’ We’d try to convince them that this could be different, but at the end of the day this is what the man deserved.”
THIS AND THAT
Riley said he has had no discussions with Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti about unlocking protections on the 2023 first-round pick that Miami owes the Thunder. That would be necessary in order for the Heat to trade a first-round pick in 2024, 2025 or 2026. That 2023 pick is lottery-protected through 2025, unprotected in 2026.
▪ Asked about the Bucks tweeting that this isn’t “the bubble” after their first-round sweep of the Heat, Riley said: “I wouldn’t have ever tweeted out something like that…. I don’t look at that as a slight. But when people want to jump on it and say something negative about it, then that’s their problem.”
▪ AmericanAirlines Arena will be renamed FTX Arena at 5 p.m. Friday.
This story was originally published June 4, 2021 at 11:13 AM.
