The Miami Heat are going to have to survive the first month of the season without Tyler Herro. The team officially announced that Herro is expected to miss around eight weeks after undergoing successful surgery on his left ankle.
That puts his return around late-November, right before Thanksgiving. If this timeline is accurate, and Herro is able to return around November 20, that would put him right at 15 games missed. Even though it's far from ideal for the Heat, there's reason to believe that Miami could survive with that projection.
It certainly won't be easy, especially when you look at their early-season schedule, but it could've been a lot worse for both Herro and the Heat.
The Heat's impossible early-season schedule
With as many questions as surround this team, I'm not sure they would've been able to survive many injuries to their roster. Losing Herro to begin the year is absolutely brutal. Looking at their schedule out of the gate, the Heat are going to have their work cut out for them if they're going to keep their head above water without Herro.
Seven of their first eight games are against projected playoff teams, with six of those games coming on the road. Overall, 11 of their first 15 games are against teams many expect to make the postseason this year.
If those are the games that Herro ends up missing, there's a very real chance the Heat could find themselves in a very deep hole by the time their All-Star guard returns.
And that's assuming that he only misses the eight projected weeks that has been reported.
Even with a more concrete timeline, there are still questions that must be sorted out regarding Herro and the injury. What does Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra do with the starting lineup with Herro out? How will they handle his role when he returns, especially if Spo has found a rotation he's comfortable with?
Before all that, there's the contract extension decision that must be sorted out in October.
There's no question that the Herro injury certainly complicated things a ton for the Heat overall heading into the start of this season. At least he isn't expected to miss a huge chunk of the season.