MIAMI – After the Miami Heat lost in the NBA Cup quarterfinals to the Orlando Magic last Tuesday, 117-108, the team is now on a four-game losing streak, having dropped five of its previous six contests. With the Heat looking to improve its offense, there is a popular narrative going around on social media blaming the returning Tyler Herro for the slump.

Since his return, Miami is 3-5, but in the games Herro has played in, they're 3-3, with the guard being in only two games as part of the four-game skid. With the Heat known for its new fast-paced, free-flowing offense, as the team leads the league in pace with 105.3 possessions per 48 minutes, it has slowed down since his return.

The theory around Herro does have holes, as he's been a net positive when on the floor. Miami has outscored teams by 3.6 points per 100 possessions in the 191 minutes he's played. The whole talk around Herro has garnered the reaction of team captain Bam Adebayo, who told ClutchPoints after Friday's practice that it's a “bad narrative,” and it isn't the first time he's been targeted.

“It's a bad narrative to start. It's just a terrible narrative,” Adebayo said. “We're gonna need Tyler [Herro] at the end of the day. The man brings an aspect to our game where he can go get a bucket at any point in time. You're gonna need that down these long stretches when the game gets close, and you got to make something out of nothing. So that point, that's just a bad narrative.”

“I feel like they've been trying to make Tyler the reason for X amount of years. They've always been like, ‘Oh, you know, this happens when Tyler…’ like come on man, relax with the narratives,” Adebayo continued.

Norman Powell on narrative around Tyler Herro and the Heat

Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac (40) makes a pass around Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) and guard Norman Powell (24) during the first half at Kaseya Center.
Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

Though it has been a middling start to the Heat with Herro's return, the issue is more the team figuring out how to counter opponents' adjustments to their fast-paced style, as there have been setbacks with players in and out of the lineups with injuries. Those injuries are even beyond Herro, as some, such as Norman Powell, Davion Mitchell, and others, have missed time during the slump.

Back to the narrative around Herro, statistics show the problem runs beyond him, as with him on the floor, the team outscored the Magic on Tuesday by 8.1 points per 100 possessions. But the Heat was outplayed by 50 points per 100 possessions in the 14 minutes he was on the bench, as he scored 20 points in total.

One aspect of the team that is still working to be developed is the chemistry between Herro and Powell, a backcourt duo that could be explosive. Talking about the chatter online, Powell downplays it to ClutchPoints, saying how quickly social media can turn.

“Just online drama,” Powell said. “If we do something good, everybody's up in arms, saying we're going to be a championship team, and you'll go through a couple losses, miss a couple shots, people are going to be in your DMs and putting out memes and information about how there's a problem.”

“We know what we've got going on within, we know the chemistry, we know the bond that we have on and off the court,” Powell continued. “And we know basketball, we know it's going to take a second for everybody to get comfortable when guys are coming in and out of the lineup, roles changing…minutes are up and down, just trying to figure out how we want to play, who's going to be on the floor.”

Heat's Tyler Herro answers if he's bothered by the narrative

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Looking at the recent losses in the slump, including the Heat's NBA Cup loss to the Magic, the pace has slowed down to 101.1 possessions per 48 minutes over the last four games. With even five of the team's six slowest-paced games this season happening in the last eight games.

Getting a player back like Herro, who does add a lot of offensive firepower to Miami, was inevitable in leading to the team regressing to the mean, especially with the fast start on offense. This adjustment from the other team was bound to happen at some point, with the Heat now in the process of getting back to their strengths on both sides of the ball.

Back to the narrative, Herro isn't bothered by it, saying that the “real basketball heads” know what's happening.

“Not really, feel like real basketball heads know what’s going on, Twitter stuff is Twitter,” Herro said.

For Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra, he calls the narrative “a total overreaction that's misguided.”

“We need Tyler, and it will be a little bit of a process working him back into the mix. But to get where we need to go, we need Tyler's skill and talent. Need our guys healthy, and that's what we're working on right now. We can be very dangerous when we get guys on the same page, committing to our identity, and Tyler's a big part of that.”

Miami looks to snap out of the slump with Monday's game against the Toronto Raptors a prime opportunity to do so with the team 14-11.