(Photo via Getty Images)
This has been a nightmare season for the Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro. And it hasn’t even fallen onto his performance, which has included poor defense and a few inefficient outings in the whopping six games he has appeared in.
Instead, it’s the injuries. Which has been the story of Herro’s seven-year career in Miami.
The 25-year-old combo guard missed his 13th consecutive game for the Heat during Sunday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans, despite being upgraded to available before the start of the game. The team listed him as “available as part of his ramp-up but is not expected to play.”
After already missing the first 17 games recovering from offseason ankle surgery, it didn’t take long for Herro to almost instantly get sidelined with yet another injury after he returned. Now he has been dealing with a toe injury, and the way that he and the Heat have handled it has been odd. Surely his conditioning may benefit from the “ramp-up” that the team disclosed after being out for so long. But they are still listing him as day-to-day.
Clearly, missing 13 straight games was never a day-to-day situation.
All these missed games for Miami has evidently made building chemistry as a team more difficult to stack together wins. Herro is such an important piece to the offense, and his absence has made for rotations and roles on a game-to-game basis inconsistent for the rest of the roster.
The former 2024 All-Star is already ineligible for any All-NBA honors. He is all but guaranteed to not be returning to All-Star status, either. And after all of these absences on the court, it only makes Herro’s looming pay day seem that much more out of reach.
Tyler Herro has missed 30 of the Miami Heat’s 36 games so far this season.
When healthy, Herro has proven that he is an All-Star caliber talent. He remains a legitimate three-level scoring threat that can get the Heat a bucket anywhere on the court. In his brief six appearances this season, he is averaging 23.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and one steal per game on 50.5/40.5/92.3 shooting splits. Seems impressive, right?
The reality is that the best ability is availability, and that’s something Herro has failed to do this year and majority of his time on the Heat.
He was due for a three-year $150 million extension this October, but Pat Riley and the Heat front office opted to hold off. That decision has already proven to be a brilliant one.
The idea of giving an injury prone player a $50 million annual promotion in the midst of his most injury prone campaign yet, is just gross to think about. It could be a financial commitment that could heavily limit Miami’s ability to re-tool over the next several trade deadlines and/or offseason.
Herro and the Heat could revisit extension talks at the end of this season, but even that appears unlikely after the season he has put together. He is still under contract throughout all of next season for $33 million before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2027.
This is also coming from a front office who refused to pay Jimmy Butler a max extension, despite leading overperforming rosters to multiple NBA Finals runs. Herro hasn’t even proven to be a reliable playoff player yet, nonetheless carrying a group all the way like Butler did. If players got paid based on stats alone, maybe there is a case that Herro’s numbers do show a $50 million caliber player.
But the inability to just stay healthy will always trump any performance on the court, especially to the eyes of an old-school team president like Riley.
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Tyler Herro for Naz Reid + Conley
Herro and Johnson for Reid and Divincenzo. Conley is too old (38) and 5.1 ppg. Don’t need another PG. A starter for two rotation players. Otherwise, gonna need a pick.
I just want Naz. Conley was just to match Tylers money. But yeah i think Reid and Divi is a good deal.
Also Hawks shopping Trae and some Heat fans are advocating for Young in south beach. i dont think Pat would do that and i dont like it lol.
The Miami Heat are now 12-3 when Pelle Larsson plays at least 26 minutes. When Pelle Larsson plays, the Heat are 18-10, without him, they are 2-6 (all 6 losses by 10+), and with Larsson as a starter the Miami Heat are 12-6.
Incredible story
That is why I think that playing Herro with the second unit and using Rozier’s expiring contract (which will cost the team nothing if he is convicted) to bring in DeRozan or a big, the Heat’s second unit would be formidable.
if only Tyler will be ok coming off the bench. Spo can do that. numbers don’t lie and the record. if it happens and Ty is not happy then Pat will have a really big reason to shop boy wonder.
That’s an amazing stat. There is something about him.
He’s a glue guy like Josh Hart. With Smith, Larsson and Jaquez (3 pit bulls) on second unit plus Herro (20 ppg) and new & improved Jovic, Miami could have a big edge when the starters are off the court. I can see them running and gunning all over opposing teams’ second units.
4 vanillas with a big advantage u might be right although herros d nobody to protect that out there.thats a small team sun could get outrebounded though
Heat can still rotate Bam and Ware in and out. For example, Bam 34 minutes, Ware 32 and Jovic 30 out of 96 minutes total for C & PF. Can have two of the three on the floor at all times, unless small ball is more appropriate. This will work while Jovic adjusts to playing PF and/or until a legit PF/C is brought in.
I hope Herro and Jaquez are both available for T’Wolves. It might be an entirely different outcome. It might also be an opportunity for Minn to take a look at Herro for a possible trade. We sure could use Naz.
I don’t think Riley can trade Herro until he has an opportunity to demonstrate what he can do AND has a chance to increase his trade value. The trade deadline is only 4 weeks away. If Herro comes in like gang busters and there isn’t a killer trade out there for him, Heat should keep him until summer and try to make a run in the playoffs. . Meanwhile, Riley just needs to find a solid big.*
I understand Jusuf Nurkić (Utah Jazz) may be traded or bought out and released before the deadline. Utah is still in the rebuilding process (currently in 13th place in the west). Nurkic, who is an expiring contract, is having a good year, 9.9 ppg, 9.5 rpg and 33% 3 pt. shooting in 25 minutes per game. He’s had 7 double figure games in his last 8. In two of them he scored over 20 points. If Utah trades Nurkic now, they should have a better chance of tanking and getting a higher lottery pick.
Nurkic’s salary is $19.4M. Rozier’s salary is $26.6M.The advantage of Utah taking Rozier over another player is that 1) he won’t be eligible to play this year and 2) As with Miami, Utah won’t be out any money they place in escrow if he is ultimately convicted.
id like to see the twin towers bam ware start playing toether alot and i think thats the way to get the most out of the team..they themselves have to figure out the best way to play off each other sort of like when bron and dwade had to figure it out.i like nikos game lately but hes not really a 5 hes more of a finesse player so nurcic and him would be a nice backup big lineup.with the development of pelle and u have norm ty is 2g 3.herro for nurcic makes us better.dont think a derozan is needed i would like a really athletic player(duncan robinson type) to stick on the other teams ss to kind of shut him down a little bit better than current guys.
hes got the it factor does winning things
yeah dan majerle jr quite an all round player.tough as nails strong fairly athletic.reliable shooter can take it to the hoop.what else u want him to do .like to see him square up with a bro they seem to hit him in the face alot.worried about his availability he plays a rugged style.
His defense is at least B. He still fouls about much but he’s getting better. Like Mitchell, Bam and Jaquez, he gives everything he has. I remember Thunder Dan with Phoenix when I was a big Suns fan. Those were some good teams in those days.Nash, Stoudemire, Marion, etc.
Good writing. It’s a good, fair assessment of the dilemma Tyler Herro’s pending contract presents. The durability issue hurts his trade value too. And coupled with his contract situation, it’s likely that the returns for Ty may be underwhelming. And, it also may be hard to justify resigning him, as it seems like a low percentage move right now. So far, the Heat are being very patient in this scenario, which is prudent. But, what happens next still depends on whether he will soon get back in there and regain some of his value.
As I have said before, it seems that his trade value is close to zero right now unless there is another team who also is looking to unload a player they no longer want. Memphis might fall into that category. At this point, he is not worth the money he is making now, nonetheless an increase. I would not offer him more than $25 million per year. If he is unhappy with that, and no trade happens, I would just let the contract expire and allow his money to get off the books.
The only way he will be able to increase his value is to do well with the second unit until he gets into the swing of things and eventually earn a spot with the starters. Every day he is out, he is confirming his reputation of being injury prone and losing extension and trade value.