During the buildup to the 2025-26 NBA season, the biggest talking points around the Miami Heat were the will-they-or-won't-they nature of contract extension talks with All-Star guard Tyler Herro. Then, when he went under the knife for left ankle surgery ahead of training camp, Miami's new Herro-based headache became whether his absence might derail this season before it even started.
Well, those conversations are thankfully finished—Herro wasn't extended, and his absence hasn't doomed the Heat—but a new dilemma has taken their place. With Miami's new-look offense dismantling defenses on the regular (before stalling out against San Antonio, at least), coach Erik Spoelstra now has to figure out where Herro fits in the new system and who must be removed from the rotation to accommodate his return.
Herro must adapt to Miami's offense, and the rotation requires some reshuffling, too.
While it's unclear exactly when Herro will make it back onto the hardwood, things are clearly trending in that direction. That is, objectively speaking, fantastic news for a group that has arguably overperformed without him.
That said, this won't be as simple as Herro climbing back onto a bicycle. In a lot of ways, the guard might not even recognize the offensive attack he piloted just last season.
There is a faster pace, more movement, and far fewer pick-and-rolls. In other words, Miami is doing a lot of things differently than it was during the best (by far) season of Herro's career.
In a perfect world, this system will suit him just as smoothly as it has his teammates. While he has perked up as a shot-creator and playmaker over the years, he's still at his best getting buckets. And there should be plenty of them available in this offense.
In fact, if he trusts that the ball will find him in favorable spots, there's a chance this brings out even more efficiency from him. And that could be a sight to see, considering he just net-shredded to the tune of a 47.2/37.5/87.8 shooting slash during his All-Star emergence last season.
It'll be an adjustment, though, and those typically take time. There's probably even a universe in which he never fully takes to the new approach. (It is similar, after all, to the style the Memphis Grizzlies ran last season and eventually abandoned because it didn't fit Ja Morant the best.)
There are adjustments to be made by the team overall, too. Herro logged 35.4 minutes a night last season, and even if his workload isn't quite as high, there are still significant cuts to be made.
Would the Heat risk disrupting Norman Powell's latest breakout? Do they think they have enough playmakers to get by without Davion Mitchell and his staggering assist-to-turnover numbers (7.4 of the former compared to just 1.8 of the latter)? Could putting the ball back in Herro's hands so often do any harm to Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s resurgence? Might one or both of Dru Smith and Pelle Larsson wind up buried on the bench?
It's tough to tell how Spo will play this—and easier than it should be to trust that he'll figure it out—but there are, once again, difficult decisions to be made involving Herro.