LOS ANGELES — Two offseasons ago, Tyler Herro thought his time with the Miami Heat was over.
Herro was immersed in trade rumors as the league awaited a seemingly inevitable deal sending Damian Lillard to Miami and Herro to Portland. The idea: Lillard, a perennial All-Star, would join Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo as the Heat chased their fourth NBA championship. The teams could not find a move that worked, and Lillard wound up in Milwaukee. Herro stayed in the sun.
It wasn’t easy for Herro to get over the feelings of resentment and rejection that come with returning to a team that seemed on the verge of trading you. It took some soul-searching and a few candid conversations with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and the front office to get everyone back on the same page.
That experience has come in handy this year, as Butler has created his own trade-related cacophony in Miami.
“Honestly, I think a lot of that stuff helped me. It might sound crazy. I think it allowed me to come in with a clear mindset,” Herro told The Athletic. “There was so much talk (in the summer of 2023) that there was no way I could avoid it. I couldn’t pretend like it wasn’t there. But once I just accepted that there was nothing I could do about it, it made it a lot easier to just focus on hooping. Overall, I think it helped me become a better player.”
Or as Herro’s teammate Terry Rozier said more succinctly, “Tyler don’t give a f— what nobody got to say about him.”
Herro’s play amid the Butler drama is what has so many people in the Heat organization especially impressed. Herro is putting together his best season as a pro, the main player keeping the team afloat. The jump Herro has made during his sixth season makes him a candidate to be one of this year’s Eastern Conference All-Star reserves, which will be announced Thursday night, and perhaps a finalist for the Most Improved Player award by season’s end.
While Herro’s progression to potential All-Star status might feel like a sudden transformation for some, the Heat view it as a natural progression that’s come from several years of hard work.
“Tyler is probably the hardest-working guy I’ve ever met,” Heat forward Nikola Jović said. “When I first came here, I saw the … mentality he has. He wants to be the best. He sets that example for what it’s supposed to look like in practices and in shootarounds. … I’ve never seen him take a day off.”
Erik Spoelstra knows what greatness looks like. He’s had a front-row seat to watch some of the most iconic players in NBA history during his 17 seasons as head coach of the Heat.
While Spoelstra usually isn’t a fan of comparing younger players to the greats who came before them, he concedes there is one name that pops into his head whenever he watches Herro. Whose is it?
“You have to figure that out,” he said with a coy smile.
Spoelstra gives it away, though, as he describes Herro’s strengths.
“His movement off the ball,” Spoelstra said. “The skill level. The passing. The handling. The scoring at all three levels. The ignitability. The flare for the moment in opposing arenas. All those things.”
If there was any doubt remaining, Lakers coach JJ Redick went ahead and said it earlier this month.
“You gotta treat this guy like Steph Curry,” Redick said. “That’s the way he’s playing right now.”
Considering how much Herro already has on his plate, it’s understandable why Spoelstra might be hesitant to compare his 25-year-old guard to the greatest shooter in history. It’s tough enough carrying the load as the No. 1 option for a Heat team dealing with the Butler trade drama while Adebayo has perhaps the worst offensive season of his career.
Herro is in the process of making the toughest on-court transition any player can make in the NBA: going from good to great. It’s not something that always translates through the box score. You know it when you see it.
More and more, Herro is showing the traits of a player who is ascending to a different level in his career. Whether he makes the All-Star team or not, he’s shown he can make that kind of impact nightly. Having a young leader in place makes a future without Butler more feasible for everyone in Miami.
“If you look at my numbers, I’ve always been a good player. I’ve averaged 20 (points) damn near four years in a row,” Herro said in a conversation in the visitors locker room at Crypto.com Arena. “But I’m just coming in with a different mindset. I’m not thinking ‘Score. Score. Score.’ It’s more about finding different ways to win and impact the game and knowing I don’t have to force the issue. I know when I’m taking efficient shots and making the right passes, that makes us a dangerous team.”
With Butler in and out of the lineup, it was apparent Herro’s offensive responsibilities would grow exponentially and he would be asked to score more. Often, when younger players are thrust into bigger roles, their raw scoring goes up but their efficiency goes down. That hasn’t been the case with Herro.
He’s averaging career highs in points (24.1), rebounds (5.6), assists (5.4) and 3-point attempts per game (9.7). He’s also shooting a career-best rate from the field (47.4 percent) and from the 3-point line (40).
As of now, Herro and Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokić are the only players in the league averaging at least 24 points, five rebounds and five assists while also shooting 40 percent from 3-point distance this season. Seven players have maintained those numbers for an entire season: Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Julius Randle, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.
That combination of overall production and efficiency from the outside is rare, especially for a player of Herro’s slighter build. If he can maintain those numbers, Herro would become the youngest player to join that list.
All the while, Herro has enhanced a strength he already had: the volume of 3s he takes and the different ways he can get those shots, both necessary for an offense that lacks individual dynamism elsewhere. Herro is third in the NBA in total 3-pointers (175), behind only Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and Detroit’s Malik Beasley. Prior to Wednesday’s games, he was the only player so far this season to make at least 75 catch-and-shoot 3s and 75 pull-up 3s. Two catch-and-shoot 3s away from joining him? Curry.
Herro constantly puts pressure on the defense, whether he has the ball or not. When he doesn’t have the ball, Herro is generally moving, which makes defenders have to communicate a lot to prevent him from creating openings for himself and others.
When it’s time to put his head down and attack, he’s comfortable getting to his spots and creating space to get off his shots.
One of the crucial aspects of becoming a great player is knowing the difference between putting up numbers and making winning plays. Herro hasn’t only sharpened his offensive skills. As Spoelstra alluded to when describing Herro’s game, the guard has improved his overall feel as well as his understanding of when he needs to pick up his aggression. He’s learning how to maintain a mindset that’ll allow him to remain dominant every time he steps on the floor.
“That’s been the most impressive part of what he’s done this season to me. You can tell he’s approaching the game with a different mindset,” Adebayo said. “He’s always been a confident guy, but you can tell he’s got a different kind of belief in his game now. They can throw anything at him and he knows the right counter to go to. And he’s doing it all with great efficiency. He’s becoming a phenomenal player.”
One of Spoelstra’s mantras during Herro’s time in Miami has always been, “People overestimate what you can do in a day, and underestimate what you can accomplish in several years.” The Heat view Herro as proof of that concept.
Herro was lauded early in his career for how much he contributed at a young age. A season or two later, it felt like his development stagnated. The public sentiment around his game wasn’t nearly as positive as it was when he was snarling at the cameras in the NBA bubble.
But the steady work he did behind the scenes helped him refine his game. The coaching staff regularly pushed Herro to change his shot profile and improve his efficiency. It wasn’t an easy transition for a player who felt comfortable creating shots in the midrange.
Herro said with a laugh that it was “annoying” at times to hear so often from coaches about where his shots were coming from and how he would be better off focusing on 3-pointers and shots around the basket. They spent time with Herro this offseason pouring over tape of Curry and pointing out how aggressive he was hunting 3s. Herro studied Curry’s play at the 2024 Summer Olympics and all the little things he did to create shots while playing with other great players.
Things finally started clicking for Herro this season. His shot selection has changed, and he’s aware how that has helped him and the Heat. Per Cleaning The Glass, 44 percent of Herro’s shots came on midrange jumpers last season. That number has dropped down to a career-low 28 percent this season. Meanwhile, a career-high 53 percent of his field-goal attempts have been 3s.
“It took me some time to really adjust and get comfortable with where my shots were coming from. But once I really worked on it over time and locked in mentality, it all started flowing really easy,” Herro said. “It feels more natural now.”
That development has been crucial in a bizarre year in Miami. As much as everyone within the organization has tried to ignore the $48.7-million elephant in the room, it’s impossible to oversell how omnipresent the Butler drama has been. That burden has been especially heavy for Herro and Adebayo — the roster’s leaders who are most often asked to face the media and answer questions about the ongoing soap opera.
Herro said part of the reason he’s been so successful at tuning out the distractions this season is because he had to overcome so many mental hurdles following the summer of 2023.
“I had a pretty good feeling in my mind that something was going to happen this summer,” Herro said in October 2023. “Just based on the run we made (in the 2023 playoffs) without me, I thought that was enough for me to not be here anymore.”
Well, he’s still here. Herro’s presence isn’t just a crucial part of keeping the Heat’s season on track. He’s helping lay a foundation for what it’s going to look like in Miami once Butler finally moves on to his next destination.
The Heat will likely never commit to a full rebuild, but they’ve slowly integrated more young players into the rotation and allowed them to grow on the court together. Jović, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Pelle Larsson have all carved out meaningful roles in the rotation. Rookie center Kel’el Ware recently moved into the starting lineup.
The future in Miami isn’t about finding the next big star, such as Butler or Lillard, to save the day. Miami’s path back to prominence in the Eastern Conference is through developing young players and allowing them to take the next step.
“That’s what I want,” Herro said. “I love being the guy who can come in and set the example for anybody. We’ve got a bunch of young guys who come in and put in the work, and that’s what I’m all about. I’m in an organization that values that and it’s important we all have that same vision as the young guys start to grow up.”
(Photo illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Lynn Sladko/AP Photo; Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)
