Should Tyler Herro play more point guard for Miami Heat?

The Miami Heat have a very interesting little scenario on their hands. Tyler Herro has, for four seasons now, been effectively playing himself into one specific category: combo guards who can score but don’t play defense.

This group ranges from bench scorers like the new Los Angeles Clipper, Bones Hyland, Jordan Poole, or Herro last year—to effective veterans like Bradley Beal and everyone in between.

Some players stay in this category and have excellent careers, such as Lou Williams and Manu Ginobili, while others branch out into different roles, such as James Harden and Jordan Clarkson. The latter is where we find Tyler Herro—or at least, where we should find him.

Now a full-time starter, Herro has some different expectations placed upon him. His defense needs to improve and he needs to fit into the Miami Heat team offense a little bit better.

His usage has slightly declined compared to last year because he’s no longer the microwave bench scorer. He spends more time on the wings than in the point guard spot, where he’s only spent seven percent of his possessions this year per Cleaningtheglass.com.

Regardless of where he’s playing though, he has been a net positive for Miami, who, as a team, has had a fluctuant year. He gets into his bag and scores, whether that be off the bounce or coming off of two-man actions.

The Miami Heat failed to improve externally but could do so from the inside. With that, could Tyler Herro become the full-time point guard moving forward?

But now he’s at the place in his career where he can start making others better. He isn’t a young up-and-comer anymore.

He is young but he’s proved he is here and he’s for real, so playmaking needs to be the next step. Good pros come into the game already able to read the game at a much higher level, for which Herro has shown that much.

The graduation of that is to process the game for not only himself but the other four Heat guys at the same time. Up until now, Herro has been a score-first guy.

That’s what has been asked of him and he’s been spectacular at it but the natural progression is leveraging that into buckets for others. Currently, he is assisting on only 12.8 percent of the team’s scoring, the 18th percentile per.

But in order for him to take the leap, he will need to bring that way up. And he has the skills to do it.

As mentioned, Herro has spent less time at the point guard spot this year than in previous seasons. It’s actually the lowest of his career, but for those 100 or so minutes, the numbers do look good.

The team is plus 5.5 points per possession and the team is shooting at a very efficient 60.2 percent effective field goal percentage in those spots. Again, it’s not a lot to go off of but it is worth exploring.

He has the capability to be a primary ball handler for this Heat team. As Kyle Lowry is on the decline, there has been a need for guard playmaking, and it’s not inconceivable for Tyler to take on that role of developing into this team’s full-time point guard going forward.

As constructed, this Miami Heat team is built around Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. The natural balance to that frontcourt would have to be quality point guard play in the backcourt.

That’s what Lowry was for them last year. But as everyone can see, Lowry may just be over the hill and small guards don’t age well in this league.

Tyler is 23 years old, 6’5″, and long. He wants to be an All-Star and he very much has the potential to be.

If he starts running point and efficiently at that, he could be a shoo-in next year. He’s got the scoring down, as his bag is full, so to speak.

Now though, it’s time to start gifting out of said bag and spreading the joy around.