With Tyler Herro in the starting lineup, the Miami Heat have not been the same team. And after all the feel-good from the first month of the season, it's pretty clear that the Heat may be facing a major crossroad at just the 20-game mark.
The Heat have won their last two games, but if you've paid close attention, it's pretty easy to see that they haven't been the same team. I wouldn't place all that blame on Herro, but it's no coincidence that he's back in the starting lineup, and all of a sudden, things on the offensive end of the floor seem off again.
Maybe this is just a short adjustment period that the team needs to work through, but the Heat are coming off their two lowest scoring and slowest performances of the season.
The Heat has been a different team with Tyler Herro
If you take the last two games as a sample size, and an extremely small one, the Heat go from being the highest-scoring team in the league to a bottom-5 scoring team. They also go from having the 13th-best offensive rating to the third-worst.
Perhaps most eye-opening, if those statistics weren't enough, the Heat go from playing at the fastest pace in the league to outside the top 11.
Again, there was likely going to be some growing pains as they welcomed Herro back into the lineup, but what if this is much more than that?
What if Herro simply doesn't fit the Heat's new playstyle, and what if they have to make a big long-term decision on not only his future, but the overall long-term future of the team?
The Heat have time to turn things around
And just 19 games in, it will be 20 after the Heat's Saturday night tilt against the Detroit Pistons, the Heat may have some very big questions to answer.
This could all be moot if the Heat are able to get back to their old ways (and send a strong message in the process) against the Pistons, but if they don't, the noise surrounding all of these concerns is just going to get louder.
There was already some hesitation as Herro inched closer to his return to the floor for Miami, especially after the Heat's unexpected hot start to the season, and the first two games haven't helped quiet many of those questions.
In fairness, there are no fair conclusions that should be taken after just two games.
The Heat will get more time to figure all this out, but the clock is certainly ticking, and if the struggles on the offensive end of the floor continue, it could push this team toward a big decision about their future - one that they didn't expect to need to answer after just 20 games into the regular season.