Tyler Herro is far from the Miami Heat's biggest problem, but the fact that he's also not a solution makes his future complicated with the franchise.
The Heat's problems this season stem well beyond Herro; he's just become an easy target of late. And while it may not be completely fair, it's what comes with the territory of a high-usage player that may not fit in the new system that Erik Spoelstra has assembled in Miami.
Even if Spo's new offensive system isn't sustainable, it hasn't helped the narrative for extending Herro. And, sure, a big part of that could be attributed to Herro's lack of health to start the year, but that's part of the game.
With everything that has transpired this season, there's an argument to be made that Herro and the Heat may not be the right fit for each other anymore, but that probably says more about the team than it does the individual player.
It's not an indictment on Herro, it explains the brutal reality of the state of the Heat.
The Heat may need a hard reset
While the Heat has had both highs and lows this season, the lows have significantly outweighed the highs. Even when things have gone right for Miami, it's quite unreasonable to think that this team's ceiling is much higher than what it has been over the past few years.
It's that even though the Heat are 20-17 on the season, they're just 7-22 against teams over .500 and have beefed up on the bad teams. Even with Herro missing the majority of this year, the Heat isn't a Herro away from what they'd like to accomplish.
But, again, it's not necessarily that Herro hasn't been good; it's the fact that he's not the solution they need to help the team snap out of mediocrity.
In a vacuum, Herro is a good offensive player. And he does make the team better when he's on the floor. But the difference between Herro in the lineup and out of the lineup isn't what the Heat needs to enter the contender discussion.
And for a team that has been a fringe playoff team at best over the last few years, the Heat have not been a Herro away from where they want to be. That's the team's big-picture problem that Herro finds himself at the center of.
That's why Herro's future with the Heat isn't as clear as perhaps many thought it would be just a few months ago.
But, again, that says more about where the Heat find themselves as a franchise than it does as Herro the player.