The challenges facing Heat coach Erik Spoelstra ahead of the 2025-26 NBA season seemed straightforward. Steep, sure, but most of the typical stuff: navigating around a void at point guard, forming this group's identity, helping rookie Kasparas Jakucionis find his way after a shaky summer, bringing the best back out of Bam Adebayo.
That was true until the injury bug hurled an unexpected curveball their way and sent Tyler Herro under the knife for surgery on his foot and ankle. Just like that, Spo and the Heat find themselves without their top offensive option, their lone 2024-25 All-Star, and arguably their best scorer, shooter, and playmaker.
Even if Herro's absence is temporary, it could linger long enough for Miami's season to go awry before it even gets going. Unless, that is, Spoelstra finds a way to coach his team out of this unfortunate situation.
Spoelstra's creativity will be tested in trying to replace Herro.
While the next-man-up mentality is more than a little cliched in professional sports, the simple truth is it's almost never the next man up. It typically takes a team effort to replace anyone of stature, and Herro, who posted personal-bests in points (23.9), assists (5.5), and three-pointers (3.3) last season, clearly qualifies.
That will definitely be the case in Miami, which had a playmaking void even before Herro went down. In a best-case scenario, Davion Mitchell is every bit as good as he looked following his deadline trade to Miami, and Jakucionis is worlds more comfortable than he appeared at summer league, but Spoelstra can't treat either of those as guarantees (or maybe even likelihoods).
Really, this will hinge on the Heat's ability to extract a little something more from everyone in their rotation.
It ups the scoring demands on Adebayo, Norman Powell, and Andrew Wiggins. The Herro-less Heat probably can't buy without 20-plus points from two of those three, unless Nikola Jovic makes a big jump as a self-sufficient scorer. Speaking of Jovic, he, Adebayo, and Mitchell will probably shoulder the heaviest playmaking burden now, although Jaime Jaquez Jr. could help out a bit if he has a rotation spot.
Volume shooting will be its own challenge, since Powell is really the only other quantity-plus-quality marksman on the roster. That said, Jovic has been a plus perimeter shooter the past two seasons, Simone Fontecchio was fully dialed-in from distance two seasons back, and Wiggins has mostly been an above-average shooter from range over the past four years. There's hope here for Miami to get by, even if none of these shooters will put as much strain on opposing defenses as a healthy Herro would.
This is going to take some luck, some surprises, and a whole lot of wizardry from Spoelstra for the Heat to even tread water without Herro. Then again, overachieving in the face of adversity has sort of been a hallmark for recent Heat teams, so maybe Spoelstra has more tricks up his sleeve than any of us can realize.