Getting Miami Heat teammates open
This is the part of Herro’s game you’ll miss if you’re only consuming the highlights you catch on Twitter. His 3-point shot is like the run game in football. Once that’s humming, it opens up the playbook for the Miami Heat in so many different ways.
There have been instances where Herro has driven toward the paint, only to see it packed. As has been mentioned, he has good size for a guard, but he still won’t be bullying his way to the rim from 15 feet out anytime soon.
In those cases, he often looked behind him or laterally for a teammate, before making quick, turnover-free (he only has four turnovers through three games) decisions. That’s a huge positive for a rookie.
In other cases, he’s found Bam Adebayo rolling off of screens in tight spots, wisely putting the ball on the ground in between moving legs for an easy bucket at the rim. That will be a replicable process for Herro and Adebayo all season long, but also for Herro and other strong rim runners like Meyers Leonard.
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Yes, Herro is certainly a walking bucket, but he makes buckets easier for his teammates, too.
It remains to be seen where Herro will be used in the backcourt primarily, but it seems as if that will all be fluid.
Herro started Monday night’s game as the primary ballhandler and looked comfortable in that role. He’s been even better off of the ball on the offensive end. The culmination of these things, though, is what makes him so lethal.
He would be a good option coming off the bench for Goran Dragic, but head coach Erik Spoelstra could plug him into either backcourt spot and see good results in adding to the dynamism of the Heat backcourt.
With fewer than five seconds on the shot clock in the second half of the Heat’s game against the Charlotte Hornets, Herro was caught with the ball in the corner and had three Hornets defenders swarming his area as he moved in toward the basket along the baseline. He was able to swing a long pass out to Dion Waiters for a wide-open 3-pointer.
A lot of times, when you see rookies in those high-pressure situations with the shot clock winding down, you’ll see them turn the ball over or take a poor shot. The poise and more importantly, the eye for his teammate along with the ability to make the tough pass in a pinch, gets the team three points on the possession rather than zero.
It goes beyond the passing ability, too.
On the break, Herro has brought the ball down and quickly handed it off to his teammates, leaking out quickly to force a quick reaction from the defense. In one instance with Duncan Robinson, Herro pulls two defenders — Robinson’s included — in transition as he leaks out to the wing after the pass, which gives Robinson a wide-open look from beyond the arc.
This doesn’t happen without Herro being the 3-point threat that he is, and without quick intentional movement after the handoff. Defenders don’t stick with Herro if he’s not hitting those 3-pointers. He already knows how to use his gravity as a lethal shooter to get his teammates open.
There is plenty of time for Herro to lethalize this two-man game with Robinson and all of his teammates, plus, Herro has already run some give-and-go action out of similar sets when defenders react differently.
Sidenote: That two-man game with Robinson can become quite lethal. Robinson’s man tends to shift over to Herro regularly and they get mixed up like they’re fruit in a blender when Herro spots Robinson wide open.
Frankly, you don’t see this two-step offensive process from some pure shooters like J.J. Redick, who was on the receiving end of a lot of dribble hand-offs in Philadelphia last year rather than the giving end. Herro’s comfort with the ball in his hands helps him set great looks up for his teammates like this.
I’m not ready to jump on the Rookie of the Year talk just yet with Herro (or any other rookie, for that matter) but we’re getting closer. Tyler Herro is way better than most thought.