The Miami Heat and Tyler Herro can officially negotiate a new contract, as their 20-day window has officially opened. And if one prediction proves right, the Heat could be making a $40 million per year mistake.
A prediction from Bleacher Report has the Heat gifting Herro a three-year, $130 million contract extension. That would balance out to paying the All-Star shooting guard roughly $40 million per season. If that were to happen, the Heat would essentially be kissing their chances to emerge as a serious contender in the Eastern Conference goodbye.
It's going to be increasingly impossible for the Heat to build out a contender with two max-level players already on the roster. If Herro were to get that large of a contract, he wouldn't theoretically be a max player, but he'd certainly be close enough.
With Bam Adebayo already in line to make $50-plus milion over the next three years, the Heat would essentially be locking themselves in no-man's land by giving Herro a similar deal.
Why the Heat can't give Tyler Herro a huge extension
The biggest problem with a huge extension for Herro is that the Heat would be on the hook for roughly $90 million per year for two players who aren't true alphas in the NBA. That's not great, nor is it a proper formula for building a championship contender.
As good as Herro and Bam may be, they're not elite superstars, and aren't a duo that is going to lead a team toward a championship. As we saw this past season, the ceiling for a Herro and Bam-led team is not as high as it should be, especially if they're going to be paid a combined $90 million per season.
Miami would be locking itself into mediocrity in the Eastern Conference. They probably wouldn't ever be a downright terrible team with Herro and Bam leading the way, but they'd also never be truly in the championship mix.
With the way the Heat's team is currently constructed, they clearly need a No. 1 option superstar. They don't have one on their roster, and it's one of the biggest reasons why they're considered somewhat of an afterthought heading into the start of the new year.
Again, this is just a prediction and not necessarily an informed report. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be all that surprising if this is how things played out between Herro and the Heat this offseason.
After on, on the first day of training camp, Herro did say he expected to get something done and led reporters to believe that he wasn't necessarily going to ask for the max. This "prediction" falls into both of those lines of thinking.
Still, that doesn't mean this move wouldn't still be a complete disaster in the long run for the Heat.