If Tyler Herro's recent comments are any indication, it's pretty clear that he doesn't love coming off the bench for the Miami Heat.
And it's hard to blame him, especially when he's been the full-time starting shooting guard for the past three seasons. Nevertheless, as Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra made the small adjustment to bring Herro off the bench in his return from injury, it's pretty clear he didn't like it.
"Herro: It’s cool. Not really an adjustment — playing basketball.Herro on coming off the bench
Reporter: If that's something that the coach wants to keep moving forward?
Herro: Ask him. Ask him. "
In an uneven game for the Heat as a whole, Herro did finish with 17 points, nine rebounds, and three assists off the bench. It was a fine game, but nothing spectacular by any means. I suppose the fact that the Heat lost by 28 points doesn't help any either.
But these difficult to read comments were certainly the story for Herro after his return to the Heat.
Will Spo keep Herro in the second unit?
It's tough to tell what exactly the plan will be for Herro moving forward, especially after Spo had some cryptic comments of himself after being questioned about his decision to bring their All-Star guard off the bench.
That's generally the way he likes to keep things too.
Because of that, it's almost impossible to get a good read on Spo. The Heat are in a difficult spot and are still trying to find their footing this season. Even though they've had some truly bright and encouraging stretches this season, this is a team that continues to struggle when it matters.
Miami is 7-22 against winning teams this season, and that's simply not a formula that is going to help them make a successful push toward the postseason. It certainly suggests that all the good from the first half of the season may have been one big mirage.
Bringing Herro off the bench is clearly something Spo figured was worth experiencing with. Maybe he bails on it after one game, maybe he wants to see how this could continue to look.
Either way, especially at this point in the season, you can't blame Spo for trying something different. Especially when it feels as if the status quo wasn't working.
That said, it's important to note that losing does make everything seem much worse than it generally is. That could 100 percent be the case for Herro.
But even if he was speaking out of emotion after a big loss in his return to the Heat, I can't imagine he loves coming off the bench for the team. That's totally understandable, especially considering he's coming off an All-Star season.
Still, both the Heat and Spo are in a pretty tough situation. And their handling of Herro, both on and off the court, is at the center of it all.