The Miami Heat have gotten off to a great start this season and it’s been a total group effort. A huge part of that group effort is the flamethrowing Tyler Herro.
The Miami Heat have somehow managed to get off to a 20-8 record to start the season. While it isn’t that hard to figure out how they’ve gotten this accomplished, taking a look at just how they’ve done it is fascinating.
As they went out to sign the hardnosed yet enigmatic Jimmy Butler, they thought that they were getting a two-way superstar who embodied the Miami Heat way and who would give maximum effort every night. It turns out that they were absolutely right.
While they knew what they had in returning guys, such as players like Bam Adebayo, Justise Winslow, and Goran Dragic, what they were bringing in and allocating more opportunity to in their first and second-year guys was a huge surprise! Kendrick Nunn has been stellar. Chris Silva has been an absolute beast whenever he has seen the floor.
Duncan Robinson has come out and started to look like one of the absolute best shooters in the NBA. Even with all of the stellar play of all these first and second-year guys though, none have impressed quite like Tyler Herro.
While all of their contributions have been equally important, what separates Herro has been his contribution all across the board for the Miami Heat. Whether it be his shotmaking, his shot-creating, his orchestration, his distributing, Tyler Herro has done it all and with great proficiency over the past few weeks.
It is with these things in mind, that we would like to ask a question. Has Tyler Herro turned the corner? The answer is simply no, but the reasoning may surprise you.
If you follow the league closely, then you heard, saw, or were aware in some fashion of what Tyler Herro was able to do in this past NBA Summer League. He was the talk of the summer, turning out to be one of the best players in the entire league. If you believed that what you saw there wasn’t a facade, then there was never really a corner to turn.
You always hear about the “speed and physicality” of the following levels, from high school to college and from college to the NBA, that are to be the major adjustments that need to be made by any player making the transition. Herro’s looking more and more like that guy from Summer League with every game that he plays, as he adjusts to the jumps up in both the previously mentioned factors.
As mentioned earlier, when thinking about the things you saw from him during the Summer League, it’s still all there. The orchestration, the creation, the crafty finishes in the paint and around the tin, the jumpers from anywhere and any which way you want it, it’s all there.
Defense was and will always be the hardest thing for him, but he tries, plays hard and gets his hands on enough balls to always be suitable enough there. He is legit, most would say the steal of the draft. No other team got better value at their selection.
So, to reiterate and to clearly answer the question, no, he isn’t turning the corner. There was never a corner to turn, just adjustments that had to be made and he is doing just that. We look forward to continuing to see the rookie with the most drip, raining in wet jumpers like water.