It's not necessarily surprising that the Miami Heat and Tyler Herro didn't agree to an early contract extension before the October 20 deadline, but it is that a "firm offer" wasn't even made. If anything, it's going to naturally birth even more questions in the minds of Heat fans.
According to the Miami Herald, while the Heat and Herro did have some discussions, there was no firm offer made in the end. In fairness to both sides, that could've been the case for a myriad of reasons. Maybe it was clear that both sides weren't close to each other, maybe it was a consensus to table serious discussions until next summer. Who knows at this point?
What we do know is that the Heat and Herro never got close to getting an extension done. Did the injury to Herro throw a wrench in their plans? It very well could've. But we may never know. And, in the end, waiting to find a middle ground could end up working out for both sides.
Herro could end up securing more long-term money, while the Heat could end up saving in the per-year average. We won't know until this situation is ultimately settled, and that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon.
What it will do, though, is naturally birth more questions into the minds of the Heat's fan base.
The questions surrounding Tyler Herro aren't going anywhere
It's only natural for fans to question Herro's future even more after the decision not to sign him to an early extension. It's been public that the team wants to maintain flexibility heading into the future, but that still doesn't offer any clarity on what the future holds for Herro.
Even if the Heat wanted flexibility to explore other avenues, Miami would still theoretically have to pay Herro eventually. From the outside looking in, those two things don't necessarily go hand in hand.
If Miami does find a path to another star player, I find it hard to believe that Herro is going to still be a mainstay in Miami, unless he's willing to take a pretty significant pay cut. Short of Herro's production and effectiveness completely falling off a cliff this season, I can't imagine Herro (and his camp) would even entertain going down that path.
For as much as Herro may love the city of Miami and the Heat organization, he's not going to settle for less than he's worth on the open market. And that's part of the reason why it may be beneficial for him to kick this entire situation down the road until he can test unrestricted free agency, especially if the Heat is more interested in seeing him find his fair value on the open market.
The Heat continue to say all the right things about Herro, but their actions of late are truly interesting. Even if it's just a shadow of a doubt, Herro's future in Miami may have just gotten slightly more cloudy.