As the Miami Heat prepare to finish their five-game road trip Friday night against the Phoenix Suns, two players from both squads do have a friendship in stars Tyler Herro and Devin Booker. Before the game, Herro spoke about the companionship with the Suns playmaker and how it will be fun to compete against him according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“He’s obviously a good friend of mine, somebody I see in the summers,” Herro said. “So it’s always good to compete against people that you once looked up to and now is one of my peers. So to be able to compete against him now is great, it’s fun.”
The two dynamic players share more in common than you might have thought. Both played for the University of Kentucky, both have a similar play-style, and both were selected with the 13th overall pick when they were drafted.
While player comparisons are always fun to do, Herro feels there are only two players that he sees himself in. Those two players being Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry and Booker, especially the latter who he has “watched closely.”
“It’s really just him and Steph, for real,” Herro said. “… I think Book is somebody who I’ve always watched closely and was able to pick up some things from his game, for sure.”
Heat's Herro explains what makes Booker stand out from the rest
Though both players are dynamic in the way they score the ball, Herro feels the one trait that stands out Booker from the rest is his playmaking ability. Booker, who is a three-time NBA All-Star and made the 2021-22 All-NBA First Team, has been averaging 26.7 points, 7.8 assists, and 5.2 rebounds per game this season.
“We’re both scorers, but I think when he took the next step was really just playmaking, making the right play and making his teammates better,” Herro said.
Herro wants to see himself take that exact next step in helping his teammates around him to get better. The 23-year old has shown snippets of being a better passer and facilitator, though his strength is scoring, shot-creating, and improvising with the ball.
“That’s what I want to try to make my next step,” Herro said. “My next step is just trying to make my teammates better.”
Erik Spoelstra talks what makes Herro a tough player to defend
Even though he wants to see himself that leap, Herro is in the midst of his best season in the NBA averaging 23.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.4 assists while shooting 44.9 percent from the field and 42.9 from three-point range. In terms of the points, rebounds, and assist numbers, they are all career-highs as the season is in early January.
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has seen the improvements year by year that Herro has been making, even saying that the young star adapts. He also stressed that Herro has the “versatility” that are significant for himself and for the team.
“Tyler is one of the very few in this association that whatever the team is doing to try to scheme against him, if they’re trying to take him out of pick-and-roll basketball then he can just go off the ball and he can also do things in transition,” Spoelstra said. “And I think all great players evolve and just add more based on scouting reports. That versatility is, I think, really important to him and also for us.”
One could credit Herro's strong performances due to him wearing Booker's new signature shoe from Nike called the “Nike Book 1.” He's been wearing it recently since it came out last month according to Chiang and Herro said that the Sun even sent him a pair.
“He sent me a pair, he’ll send me all the pairs he gets hopefully,” Herro said with a smile. “He’s somebody I’ve always looked up to.”
The Heat look to win two games in a row against the Suns Friday night after an impressive victory Wednesday against the Los Angeles Lakers. Miami is 20-14 on the season which puts them at fourth in the Eastern Conference.
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