The Miami Heat are on everyone’s trendy little picks list lately. However, Tyler Herro wants to be on your mind.
In October, he said that he should be placed in the same category as other players like Luka Doncic, Trae Young, and Ja Morant. His comment was met with some skepticism around the league.
You can’t blame people for doubting him, those three guys are supernovas around which their franchises orbit like astronomic space rocks. Their teams’ entries in the win and loss columns are driven by their individual successes and failures.
But star is a finicky concept and it doesn’t necessarily translate to best player. Herro won’t thrive in the NBA by leading the league in usage rate.
But if the Miami Heat can pile up wins in future years, he can become a star by default.
The Miami Heat are one of the most balanced teams in the NBA. Their defense, shored up by the likes of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, is holding offenses to 98.4 points per game and that’s good enough to be tops in the league.
The Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro wants to be a star like Luka Doncic, but is that really his pathway to NBA glory? Let’s take a look at his playbook.
Locking down on D is where the Heat butter their bread. Butler and Adebayo are the defense’s stars and they’re also the faces of the franchise right now.
But while defense wins championships, it doesn’t birth phenoms. Today, Butler doubles as the Heat’s star bucket getter.
As he ages, there will be a changing of the guard in Miami. Adebayo is the best young player on the team and he is likely to be the leader once Butler’s knees get creaky.
Yet, more often than not, he won’t find himself hitting a ton of game-winning fadeaways after a left-to-right crossover. He needs to be playing around the rim.
But Tyler can hit those shots with supreme regularity.
Herro doesn’t need to be the Dwyane Wade to Adebayo’s Shaq. Tomorrow’s Miami Heat just need him to be the lead shot creator on another well-balanced team.
If Adebayo can control the rim and Duncan Robinson can spray flames from deep, Herro can be the magician everyone is currently watching. As the primary off-the-dribble scorer, he’ll be the one making plays for himself and others in crunch time.
For all the glamor in South Beach, the Miami Heat are a blue-collar NBA franchise. It’s the dirty work that gets them to the finish line.
But even if Tyler Herro is never the best player on his team, he can still get his interview after the game by leading the fourth quarter charge. And that projects to be the Miami Heat’s biggest need in future seasons.
So just keep shooting Tyler, your time will come.