Tyler Herro sets his goal for the Heat's season, plus 3 more practice takeaways

The Miami Heat held their final practice on Tuesday before the start of the 2024-25 regular season, and the tone was noticeably different than this time last year.

“Yeah,” Bam said when asked if he senses more excitement from the team than at the start of last season. “Just because we had a long offseason, so having this type of atmosphere, seeing us in preseason, has given people a lot more to be excited about.”

After last season’s disappointing first-round exit, the Heat will enter Wednesday night’s season opener against the Orlando Magic at Kaseya Center, aiming to kickstart a bounce-back season.

Here are four takeaways from the Heat’s practice, where we heard from Adebayo, Erik Spoelstra, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro as that core enters its sixth season together.

Jimmy Butler says, “Now it starts to get real.”

Butler and the starting lineup played four of Miami’s five preseason games (although Alec Burks started the first game in place of Herro). It was the first time Butler played that many preseason games in a Heat uniform, and four more than he played last preseason.

While that was a clear priority of the organization, Butler downplayed the importance of how playing in the lead-up would impact the start of the regular season.

“I don’t think so,” Butler said when asked if the preseason could set the tone for the regular season. “I think we play together enough in practice and hang around each other enough in practice. Preseason does help, but now it starts to get real and so it’s time to go out there and do what we do.”

Tyler Herro is making durability a priority.

Herro weighed in at media day at 201. He says he’s down to 200 now after playing three preseason games. NBA players shed weight throughout the long season, but Herro hopes to keep it on. 

“It’ll help hopefully throughout the season,” Herro said of adding 12 pounds of muscle in the summer. “My hope is for it to hold up, and I can hopefully be more durable. We’ll see what happens, though.”

There’s been a dramatic shift in Herro’s game. He’s taking fewer long 2s and more 3s and shots at the rim. In other words, he’s embracing a carefully defined role that has been outlined for him. After injuries derailed the last two seasons, Herro’s goal for the season is simple: Stay on the court.

“Winning a championship, but being healthy. That’s my main goal for the season,” Herro said. “Just being healthy and being on the court for my teammates, coaches, the whole organization. I owe it to them to be on the court as much as possible. Unless I can’t walk or I can’t do something, I’m going to be on the court.”

Spoelstra doubles down on turnovers and pace.

Erik Spoelstra can downplay the changes on offense all he wants, but the difference has been stark. The Heat played at the league’s ninth-fastest pace and averaged 41 3-point attempts per game in the preseason. They also led the preseason in forcing turnovers at a staggering 15.2 per game.

“Playing to our strengths, speed and quickness is something we want to tap into,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve been able to force turnovers when we’ve been at our best. But we want to be more efficient in capitalizing off of that. Where the pace will end up, I’m not totally sure. But we want to be more assertive and more efficient in those less-scripted areas.”

Last season, the Heat ranked 15th in points off turnovers after ranking sixth the season prior and seventh the season before that. To Spoelstra’s point, using turnovers to fuel the offense isn’t new. It’s been a foundational component of the Butler era. But they got away from it last season and want to get back to the top of the league this season.

Bam Adebayo plans to keep letting it fly

Before the preseason, Adebayo claimed he wanted to take 100 3-pointers this season. Then he shot 38.5% on 3.3 per game in the preseason. Asked if the early success might convince him to bump up the goal, Adebayo said, “Yeah, for sure.”

“You heard it from coach (Spoelstra) himself, it’s either five or seven (in a game), or it could be two a game. So, he said seven, so why lower my standard?”