Tyler Herro is one man who has had a busy offseason. The Miami Heat still owns the former Sixth Man of the Year, but if only they had been successful in acquiring Damian Lillard, his current situation would be quite different.
The race for Lillard was ultimately won by the Milwaukee Bucks, which was unquestionably a sad development for the Heat. This implied that they could maintain Herro on their roster, even though it was obviously not their first choice.
According to multiple reports, Herro was Miami’s centerpiece in their trade offer for Lillard. The Portland Trail Blazers reportedly wanted nothing to do with the 23-year-old, however, which is why they needed to bring in a third team in trade negotiations. Obviously, nothing materialized on that front.
It’s a poorly kept secret that the Heat have been wanting to cash in on Herro. You can only imagine what type of impact this would have on the 6-foot-5 shooting guard, knowing that he’s been deemed a dispensable asset by his squad.
In a recent interview on Sirius XM NBA Radio, Herro spoke out about how things went down after the Lillard trade fell through. According to the former Kentucky standout, head coach Erik Spoelstra immediately went out of his way to clear the air with Herro:
“Him reaching out and just wanting to connect — that was important to me,” Herro said, via David Akerman of Heat Nation. “Just being able to connect with him and understand that we’re both on the same page as far as what was going to happen at that point and just seeing Coach for the first time all summer was good.
“I haven’t saw him or really anybody from the organization all summer, so just to be able to connect with him was good, and then we spoke about the upcoming season and then just this summer and how everything went, so, obviously I put in a lot of work over the summer and really excited to get going and show my improvements.
After the front office failed to move Herro, it was up to Coach Spo to do some damage control. The three-time NBA champion coach is one of the best shot-callers in the game today, and the fact that he’s able to connect with his players on a personal level is one of his biggest strengths. He’s also an excellent motivator, which was once again proven by how he was able to get Herro back on board after a summer surrounded by uncertainty.
Regardless of the fact that this wasn’t Miami’s Plan A, Herro will still be in a Heat uniform this coming season. You just know that this young man is going to be playing with a chip on his shoulder as he goes out to prove to everybody that he deserves a lot more respect to his name.
Leave a Reply