Tyler Herro’s shortcomings were exposed in Game 1 versus Cavs

The 2024-25 postseason is a big one for Miami Heat All-Star Tyler Herro.

Knotted between the months-long melodrama that was the Jimmy Butler situation, Herro was experiencing perhaps his greatest year-to-year growth as a pro. He modified his shot diet for the betterment of the offense (that didn’t improve relative to its placement to the other 29 teams), became a more forceful slasher and a more creative multi-level scorer. This postseason offered a prime opportunity to prove he’s taken that next step as a player.

There’s still time, but perhaps his greatest strengths have already exposed his biggest weaknesses in Game 1 of the Heat’s first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.

No other year has Herro shouldered as much of a creation as he did this year, and we saw that come together with the season on the line against Chicago in its first play-in game last week.

However, at some point, a seven-game series will highlight your weaknesses. Herro’s a below-average–albeit improved–defender, and it didn’t take long for the Cavaliers’ stout backcourt to exploit his biggest weakness.

If a player is a subpar defender, one way to negate their impact is consistently attacking said player and putting them in actions–whether they’re on- or off-ball. And that’s exactly what Cleveland did to Herro, who had a big red bullseye on his chest for the full 48.

Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell and Ty Jerome scored 29 points on 35.9 partial possessions when he was the primary defender. As a team, the Cavs scored 64 points when he was the primary defender on those three. For my math wizards at home, that’s a 178.3 offensive rating. Is that good?

In any situation where you’re giving up that many points, you must find ways to get them back. The 25-year-old didn’t do that, putting together a modest 21-3-2 stat line on 18 shots in 37 minutes.

Though outside of maybe a handful of performances that you can count on one hand, Miami’s first-time All-Star has not stacked together consistently good postseason performances over his six-year career.

The reality is that the better you are, the more you will get paid. And the more you get paid, the more of what is expected from you in pressure-packed situations against the best competition. The beauty of postseason basketball is that you see what they’re truly made of when you squeeze the life out of the best players for seven highly intense games (for a series). And it’s only going to get harder from here.

We gave Herro his well-deserved praise after he carved up the Bulls. But now we have to address the elephant in the room after he was hunted like a deer in Game 1.

Kenny Atkinson’s smart enough to have his team run actions or have his backcourt seek mismatches to exploit. Erik Spoelstra will have to find a way to prevent those mismatches–whether he has to pre-switch, hedge ball-screens or send doubles Herro’s way (depending on who he’s defending and who the player doubling is defending).

As a defense, you may be giving up one thing. But when you switch up a coverage or tailor (shade) extra help, you will give up something else–perhaps something that’s a worse outcome. Each possession is a different circumstance depending on the lineup and players involved in the action. But trying to hide Herro is something Spoelstra must contemplate over the 48 hours if he wants his defense–and best offensive player–to survive.

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