The Miami Heat defeated the Houston Rockets on Friday night by a final score of 119-104. Tyler Herro scored 17 points in his return from injury.
The 24-year-old has appeared in just 37 games during the 2023-24 season due to injury. Although Herro has been vocal on his desire to start in the past, he understands that coming off the bench makes sense right now, via Brady Hawk of Five Reasons Sports.
“I mean look, there's six games left,” Herro said. “I just missed 20 games. You know, it's hard to just implement me into the starting lineup at this point. Whatever Spo (Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra) decides to do is ultimately up to him. It's not an easy decision. Obviously, everyone knows I'm a starter in the league. But like I said, to come back with six games left it's tough to just implement me into that lineup like that.
“But ultimately, I'm going to get starter minutes and that's all that matters. You know, I'm a starter but I'll come off the bench for now.”
Herro has played the sixth man role in the past. In fact, he won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award for the 2021-22 season. He obviously believes in his ability to start, but is prepared to help Miami in whichever role makes sense at the moment.
After all, the primary goal is making an NBA Finals run once again.
Tyler Herro can play pivotal role for Heat off the bench
Everyone remembers Tyler Herro's big performance in the NBA Bubble. He stepped up for Miami. The Heat fell just short in the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, but Herro established himself as a future star.
Let's compare Herro's 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons for the purpose of his sixth man vs. starting role conversation.
In 2021-22, the year Herro won the Sixth Man of the Year award, he played in 66 games and started just 10 contests. Herro averaged 20.7 points per game on 44.7 percent field goal and 39.9 percent three-point shooting.
In 2022-23, Herro started all 67 of the games he appeared in. His numbers were similar for the most part, but he was a bit less efficient. Herro averaged 20.1 points per game on 43.8 percent field goal and 37.8 percent three-point shooting in the Heat's starting rotation.
So does this mean Herro is better off the bench? Not necessarily. After all, through his 37 games (36 starts) in 2023-24, Herro has averaged 20.7 points per outing on 43.8 percent field goal and 39.7 percent three-point shooting.
To summarize, Tyler Herro is going to provide steady offensive production regardless of his role. If you want to start him, he's going to give you between 20-21 points per game while providing value from behind the arc. But the same thing can be said for when he plays the sixth man role.
And in all reality, as Herro mentioned, he is going to play similar minutes regardless of which role he is in for the Heat. He's averaged between 33-34 minutes per game over the past three years, and those are probably the kind of minutes he will receive moving forward.
Heat's 2023-24 playoff outlook
The Heat are hopeful that Herro can help them make a deep postseason run. Miami is confident with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo leading the way.
In 2022-23, the Heat reached the NBA Finals despite entering the postseason as an NBA Play-In Tournament team. Barring a scorching hot finish to the 2023-24 campaign, they will be in the play-in tournament once again. Based on last year's results, though, the Heat will not mind.
Miami features enough talent to upset some of the better teams in the conference. Reaching the NBA Finals for a second consecutive season will be difficult, but counting this Miami team out is always a risky thing to do.
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