Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra may have no choice but to embrace a defensive-first mentality this season after the injury to Tyler Herro. It may not be what Heat fans were hoping for, especially after their offensive struggles last season, but this is what will give the Heat the best shot to keep their head above water in the Eastern Conference until their All-Star guard returns.
Heading into the start of training camp, there was some hope that the Heat would shake up their team philosophy this season, perhaps this time leaning on a more high-powered offense, rather than building a rotation on a defense-first mindset.
That almost certainly won't be the case now that Herro is sidelined for the next two months.
It'll be an almost impossible ask for the Heat to reemerge this season as an elite offense without Herro in the lineup. There's a much better chance that they can begin this year as one of the better defensive teams in the league with their current personnel.
How the Heat will pivot without Tyler Herro
Looking at the most likely outcomes of this Herro injury as it pertains to the team's starting 5 to begin the year, you'd almost have to assume that Spo is going to go with a lineup that includes Davion Mitchell, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, Bam Adebayo, and Kel'el Ware. That'd be considered a defensive-first starting 5.
I'd imagine Spo will want to bring Nikola Jovic off the bench in an attempt to spark the second unit. The hope is that another developmental step from Pelle Larsson and a bounce-back effort from Jaime Jaquez Jr. would supply enough of a boom off the bench, in addition to Jovic.
But, honestly speaking, that's far from a foregone conclusion. And that's what you have to be most concerned with if you're Miami. Add in the fact that the Heat have a brutal schedule to open the season, and the margin for error, without Herro, for the Heat is that much smaller.
Expect Spo to, once again, look to embrace a defensive mentality this season. Maybe that was always going to be the case, but the injury to Herro has all but cemented that idea.
The injury to Herro couldn't have come at a worse time for the Heat as they prepare for a huge season, one that will greatly impact the immediate future of the franchise.