Tyler Herro made his return to the Miami Heat's lineup Tuesday night, but it didn't seem to matter. The Heat still lost handily to the Minnesota Timberwolves, underscoring they still can't get over their biggest issue of the season - competing with good teams.
After their most recent loss to the Wolves, the Heat are now 7-22 against teams over .500 this season. Herro was fine in his return, coming off the bench while finishing with 17 points, nine rebounds, and three assists, but his presence wasn't enough to push the Heat over the hump.
With Herro in the lineup or not, it does seem as if the Heat lacks the overall talent as a team to compete with some of the other playoff contenders across the league - and that clearly continues to be a big problem.
Tyler Herro came off the bench in his return
As Herro made his return back to the lineup for the Heat, after missing the last month with a toe injury, Erik Spoelstra did elect to bring him off the bench.
It's probably something he didn't care much for, but even Spo admitted after the game that the results were mixed.
Spo on Herro off the bench:
— Naveen Ganglani (@naveenganglani) January 7, 2026
"That's just a decision. I'm not going to get into any of that right now."
2nd unit
"For stretches, the unit looked good, other stretches, the unit was getting beat by Minnesota. We'll work on all of it. We didn't have enough of a fight tonight." pic.twitter.com/JqPwJsCZjJ
Even though there's evidence that bringing Herro off the bench may be the best plan of action at the moment, I can't imagine this is something that is going to last very long. Especially if the Heat continues to struggle to get the results they're looking for.
However, especially without Jaime Jaquez Jr. for this game, the Heat needed Herro to deliver them that spark with the second unit.
Maybe it was more the Heat's opponent than anything they were doing on offense, but it simply wasn't fully there for Miami. After a blazing start in the first quarter, the Heat's offense quickly fell into a rut for much of the remainder of the game.
Credit to the Wolves and their defense.
Across the NBA, the negatives are generally projected in losses, but the evidence continues to mount that this Heat team is just not that good. They can, for the most part, take care and win games they're supposed to, but beyond that, nothing is a certainty for this ball club.
And that's what makes their future all the more blurry.
With the NBA Trade Deadline right around the corner, it's games like these that could push a front office to make a rash move. Because if the product that the Heat put out on Tuesday night is any indication, it's that this team needs to blow up this roster.
Herro is back, and not much has improved for the Heat. At this point, this is a roster that may be stale and, perhaps most importantly, one that can't beat good teams.