The Miami Heat are in a very tricky situation. When it comes to one of their better young players, there has been much to say about his situation and standing on the team.
On one hand, Tyler Herro is, absolutely, one of the better young guys in the league. On the other hand, however, he can be as polarizing, volatile, and enigmatic as they come.
With that though, the Miami Heat must make a decision and it would seem more sooner than later. At least, that’s the notion you get when you hear the reports.
According to Ethan Skolnick of Five Reasons Sports Network the Miami Heat might be all set to move on from the scoring guard. Here is what he had to say on the topic recently.
"“I have now heard that there’s a 75 percent chance ore better that he’s traded this offseason and in fact, when I’ve thrown out 75 percent to several league sources, they’ve told me that’s low”,"
Well, that seems informative, right? When talking about the reasons for such a proclamation, Skolnick referenced several, however, specifically noting that one of the larger is simply the fact that Herro and his development don’t match up with Jimmy Butler‘s timeline.
Jimmy Butler is definitely in win-now mode and Tyler Herro’s best ball won’t come during his remaining prime window, is the thought. However, what is to be made of it all?
The Miami Heat might be looking to move on from Tyler Herro this offseason, but why?
When you hear rumors like these, the first thing you think is that they must consider him a bad player or a regressing player. Neither of those are true though.
When you look at most of the numbers, he improved in almost every category, though with a slight dip in efficiency. Even still though, with the improvement, the slight efficiency slip wasn’t anything of major note.
If you were comparing him to other players in a similar situation, experience, team, fit, and among other things, then he would still be among the best. However, in this situation, he’s losing or viewed as depreciating because he’s being compared to himself.
Though the numbers are better, the trajectory seems to be going the other way based on his rookie season. While he improved his numbers, because he didn’t take the type of leap that his rookie year indicated that he could, should, or would, you have some viewing that as a sophomore slump.
Again, only if you compare Tyler Herro to Tyler Herro, would you look at this past season as a failure or regression. Though he wasn’t as electric, timely, or big in clutch moments as he was last season, to be fair, who on the Miami Heat was?
Now, if you are going to say that his personal life and certain things surrounding that are questionable and, at times, too much to take, that can be bought but is also a completely different story. From a basketball perspective, he didn’t suddenly just become such a bad player that you have to move him.
So, what’s really happening then? Here are the running thoughts.
If the Miami Heat do move on from Tyler Herro, it won’t be because he’s a bad player.
As stated by Skolnick, he may not fit the timeline of the Miami Heat’s two main guys. Though he and Bam Adebayo are very close and could fit each other’s timeline, Bam apparently is “closer” to being on Jimmy’s timeline and they wouldn’t dare trade him, so Tyler is the guy here.
So, there is that. Is it more than that though?
Perhaps it just a situation where the whole thing has reached a peak. Perhaps, Tyler peaked to early in Miami?
One would imagine that the major question at hand among most is this. Should they consider trading him, in any scenario?
Well, that answer isn’t a simple and clean-cut one. This is the best way to answer that though.
Being that he seems to be their only real asset, if there is a deal the definitely makes you better or where one of those kinds of guys is involved, a can’t-miss guy like Damian Lillard in example, then you do it. In another example, if there was a deal for James Harden last season and though whether you want James Harden on your team or not is a separate issue, when it comes to the nature and makeup of a deal, you make ones like that.
Again, with whether Harden is your taste or not being irrelevant for these purposes, he is one of those guys, if that makes sense. On the other hand though, you don’t do a deal just for the sake of doing it.
You don’t do a deal with Tyler Herro, simply, to shake things up. If a deal doesn’t lead to or seemingly appears to lead to a a clear improvement, it shouldn’t be made.
The fact of it all is this. Herro is still very talented, still has a high floor, and a very manageable contract. At worst, he’s a key rotational guy right now on a manageable deal but at best, he’s a blossoming star.
That’s, of course, when he’s right. Now, will the Miami Heat actually move him this offseason?
That does, indeed, seem likely. With all of the chatter you are hearing about the topic right now, it seems inevitable.
Keep your eyes open though, because as has been stated since the first-round sweep to the Bucks, this is going to be a wild offseason. Especially for Pat Riley and the Miami Heat.