Tyler Herro could feel the table shaking. His phone, lying face down just within reach, had been buzzing for nearly an hour.
It was a little past 2 p.m. on Sept. 27. Herro and Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra were having lunch at a ritzy Coconut Grove restaurant on Miami’s waterfront. Spoelstra didn’t know then whether he had coached Herro for the last time.
For the past three months, the Heat had been the presumed landing spot for Damian Lillard, who demanded a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers in early July. At the heart of any package would have been the 23-year-old Herro, Miami’s most desirable young player, who has been linked to trades in the past for superstars to pair with foundational pieces Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
But as tensions rose between the Heat and Blazers, trade talks stalled. Lillard and Herro remained in limbo. While Lillard knew what he was getting into this summer, Herro did not. For months, he didn’t know if he’d be back in Miami or playing elsewhere. When Spoelstra returned from a six-week stint on Team USA’s coaching staff at the FIBA World Cup, he asked Herro to lunch.
“We were just catching up,” Spoelstra said. “Shootin’ the shit.”
As the lunch went on, Herro’s phone kept buzzing. Finally, he told Spoelstra he had to pick it up. “Look, Coach,” interrupted Herro, a father of two. “I don’t want to get this but I just got to make sure everything’s good at home.” Herro turned his phone around.
“That’s when he told me,” Spoelstra said.
Lillard had been traded, but not to Miami. To Milwaukee. At that moment, Herro knew he was coming back. Spoelstra and Herro couldn’t help but laugh. Then, the conversation shifted from shit-shooting to the upcoming season.
“It was like,” Herro said, “let’s have a real talk.”
Only a few months before the lunch, Tyler Herro and his family had just finished moving into their new $10.5 million mansion in Miami’s upper-crust Pinecrest neighborhood. In April, Herro broke his hand while diving for a loose ball in the Heat’s opening playoff game. He had 12 points in 19 first-half minutes, but that would be the last he played in Miami’s spectacular run to the NBA Finals. Herro was putting the finishing touches on his rehab when, on July 2, Lillard issued a public demand to be traded to one team—the Heat. It was only logical that Herro would be sent to Portland or to a third team to facilitate the deal.
“I thought I was out of here,” Herro said. “I damn near had my shit packed up.”
It’s October now as Herro reflects on his tumultuous offseason. He is sitting in a folding chair off to the side of the basketball court at FAU, where the Heat held training camp. He’s just wrapped up an afternoon of scrimmaging and individual shooting work. He wears a headband to keep his blossoming curls out of his face.
“But then the summer continued to go on,” he said, “and it didn’t happen.”
Herro says it almost flippantly, but he goes on to describe the hardest summer of his NBA career.
Lillard’s trade request spurred debate and TV hot takes so intense, so toxic, that the level of vitriol was unprecedented even in this era of player movement. Blazers and Heat fans battled online, talking heads opined on the merits of Lillard’s Miami-or-else demand and on whether the Trail Blazers “owed it” to Lillard to trade him to his desired destination after 11 dutiful seasons. Herro’s reputation was the collateral damage.
It was widely believed that Portland didn’t want to add Herro to a group of young guards that included Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe, and the third pick in June’s draft, Scoot Henderson. This started the avalanche. Instead of being viewed simply as a good, young player, Herro was seen as “not Damian Lillard” or not a good fit for the Blazers.
“Tyler Herro and the rapidly diminishing value of one-way players,” read one CBS Sports headline.
“Tyrese Maxey is laughably better than Tyler Herro,” claimed For the Win.
“Are you out of your minds, Heat Nation? No, Tyler Herro and three first-round picks is not a good deal for Portland,” wrote The Athletic’s David Aldridge. “Like, I’ll trade you my ’09 Camaro with shot brakes and three bald spares to you for your ’22 Benz with 253 miles on it. What? Sounds fair!”
As his value was debated, Herro tried to avoid the distractions. But he heard the noise, just as he did the previous summer when he was involved in trade rumors for Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell.
“I think my name just gives people something to talk about every summer,” Herro said. “The goalpost always moves with me. At first, they said I wouldn’t be a 20-point scorer, then I’m a 20-point scorer. I don’t know what the hell they say now, but I’m sure there’s something.”
But this time felt different—more real—and Herro didn’t know if he would be playing in Portland or if he’d be sent somewhere else in a multiteam deal. For weeks and months, he was left dangling in trade winds, unsure of his future. It didn’t help that the organization wasn’t providing any hints.
“I didn’t really speak to the Heat all summer, honestly,” Herro said.
Herro’s teammate Josh Richardson, who has been traded five times in his career, including by the Heat for Jimmy Butler in 2019, was exposed to the “business” of basketball in his fourth season.
“It’s hard to lean on teammates and coaches super hard when they’re on the team you’re in the rumors from,” Richardson said.
One person Herro did lean on was Udonis Haslem, who was enjoying his first summer of retirement after 20 years with the organization. “You’ve been here for four years, two Finals, Sixth Man of the Year. All that stuff in four years is more than some dudes accomplish in their whole career,” Haslem told Herro.
They spoke on the phone nearly every day as Herro came to accept that he would be continuing his career somewhere else.
“He wasn’t really trying to butter it up like ‘Oh, you might be coming back.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you’re gone. And if you are gone, let’s not, like, feel disappointed,’” Herro said. “It was real. And I appreciate him for that.”
Still, it was hard for Herro not to take the trade rumors personally. Some argued that being offered in trades for All-NBA players like Durant and Lillard should be taken as a compliment.
“That’s one way to look at it,” Herro laughs. “But at the end of the day, I was drafted here and I feel like I gave a lot to the team and a lot of the organization and a lot to the city.
“So that part can’t get ignored even though it is a business and it is for Kevin Durant or Damian Lillard,” he continued. “There’s still this whole other human side of it. So of course I’m gonna feel some type of way.”
What Herro has lacked in clarity he’s never lacked in confidence. To all the teams that didn’t want to trade for him, he says he’ll show them what they’re missing. To all his critics, he says he’ll prove them wrong.
So I asked Herro: What do you think your trade value should be?
“I’m one of the best young scorers in the league,” he said, “and I have the potential to be the best scorer in the NBA at some point.”
It can be easy to overlook Herro’s credentials after this summer of debate. He won Sixth Man of the Year at 22 years old. At 23, he averaged 20 points, five rebounds, and four assists, joining Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Jayson Tatum, Ja Morant, and Luka Doncic as the only other players this century to meet those criteria. All, except Herro, are considered superstars.
There are questions about Herro’s defense, playmaking, and impact on winning. It was a talking point that the Heat were better in the playoffs after Herro went down and Max Strus replaced him in the starting lineup. Spoelstra hopes the constant noise drives Herro to take another leap. Pressure and diamonds sort of thing.
“We all talk about how you develop the mental game, and I think that’s a fast track to developing it,” Spoelstra said. “When you’re involved in the external noise or criticism.”
Spoelstra should know. In his third season as the Heat’s head coach, he was called too inexperienced to lead LeBron, Wade, and Chris Bosh. People thought Pat Riley should fire him and take over on the bench. Those questions almost seem silly now that more than a decade later 73 percent of general managers consider Spoelstra the best coach in the NBA, but he credits that early adversity for his success. It’s one of the things he discussed with Herro over lunch.
“I had to learn how to not focus on all that and it felt super intense,” Spoelstra said. “All the clichés you may hear, they are so true. You focus on what you can control, not all the things you can’t control, and you can actually start to make progress. If you can do that, you give yourself the best chance at being more productive at what you want to do.”
What does Herro want to do?
“I want to get myself to a place where I’m not thinking about if I’m getting traded every summer.”
Back in his Pinecrest home, Herro’s alarm goes off at 5 a.m. Wearing a gray sweatshirt with the hood up, Herro heads to the garage for an early morning workout: ab rollouts for core strength, shoulder press to increase muscle mass.
After an hour, he tosses a duffel in his Maybach and heads to a local gym. At 6:30 in the morning, he begins his second workout of the day. He runs through a battery of ballhandling drills until his hoodie is soaked. Then it’s a protein-packed breakfast and he’s back on the court for shooting reps.
“He really has just an incredible work ethic,” Spoelstra said of Herro.
It’s not that the Heat are anxious to trade Herro. By every other indication—his extension, public praise, and his role on the team—they believe in his potential (probably more than any other team).
But Butler is 34 years old and they need a ready-made star to help maximize a shrinking championship window. Herro is their best asset to acquire said star. But that star trade hasn’t materialized, so to take the next step, the Heat need Herro to go up a notch.
Part of that is Herro hitting the weight room—he’s up to 205 pounds now—so that he can stand up against bigger players and fight through screens on defense. The added bulk should help him turn some of those midrange jumpers and floaters into straight-on attacks to the basket and free throws.
As a 3-point shooter, Herro’s numbers are elite. He made 38.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s last season and 42.2 percent the season before that. He makes 42.3 percent of his shots when coming off screens—Steph Curry– and Klay Thompson–level marksmanship. Miami’s offense flows when Adebayo is handling the ball at the top of the key and he finds Herro curling into space.
But the greatest indicator of Herro’s potential is his work off the dribble. Among players who attempted as many 3-pointers off the dribble as Herro last season, only Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Tyrese Haliburton, Mitchell, Curry, and Lillard shot a better percentage.
“He makes our offense really dynamic because of his skill set and where he can hurt a defense,” Spoelstra said. “You definitely have to scout for him. You can’t just show up as an opposing team and not have a plan for him.”
Herro might have more opportunity to explore this part of his game if he were on a younger team, but the Heat need to win now. There’s little doubt they would have been more comfortable handing the keys to the 33-year-old Lillard. But in the absence of a superstar trade, the Heat have to find a way to mesh Herro’s need for the ball with how Butler and Adebayo play.
The Heat are working with their young guard to make simpler decisions. Herro can get himself into trouble by passing up open shots to dribble into predetermined sweet spots on the court, resulting in contested midrange jumpers that hurt his efficiency. Coaches want him to optimize his shot chart by taking the open 3s and straight-line paths to the rim. In other words: Dribble less and take what the defense gives you.
Herro has been frustrated with his role at times. He openly lobbied to start after he won Sixth Man of the Year. The Heat have mostly kept him off the ball despite him wanting it in his hands. He chased individual goals like scoring 20 points per game (which he has done) and making an All-Star team (which he has yet to do). Stuff like that can wear on a young player and distract from the greater goal. Since Herro’s Bubble-bursting rookie campaign, where he helped fuel a surprise run to the Finals, he’s averaged just 11.9 points on 39.9 percent shooting (25.8 percent from 3-point range) in the playoffs.
“Guys can get miserable towards the end of the season just because it’s so long and you might not want the role you have,” Herro said. “Now I know what it takes to get through a long NBA season. And, ultimately, I want to be healthy in April, May, and June. It’s coming in and knowing it’s a long season and my goal is to be available and ready to roll in the playoffs.”
Making a third Finals run in five years will be difficult for the Heat. They might have expected to be spending this preseason folding Lillard into the mix. Instead, they are looking up at revamped Bucks and Celtics squads after they made very few changes themselves. The Heat lost Strus and Gabe Vincent, their starting backcourt throughout the playoffs, in free agency. They signed Richardson and Thomas Bryant and drafted Jaime Jaquez Jr. in the first round. They’re also excited about what second-year forward Nikola Jovic might contribute.
But those are fringe contributors. Someone needs to take the scoring load off Butler and Adebayo so they can focus on the things they do best and stay fresh for a postseason run. Ironically, it’s Herro who represents Miami’s best chance to take a leap.
“The team—in particular Jimmy and Bam—know how important Tyler’s involvement and impact is for our basketball team to get to a higher level,” Spoelstra said.
Of course, there remains the possibility that Herro’s name will be thrust into trade rumors again. It’s only a matter of time until another star requests a trade, and chances are high that the Heat and Herro will be part of any ensuing speculation. But, at least for a few months, Herro will get a reprieve. With the season about to begin, focusing on what happens on the court will be a little bit easier.
“He handled it accordingly,” Butler said about Herro’s summer at media day. “He put his head down and worked out like he always does, knowing that he can only control what he can control. So, he’s here. He’s going to make the most of that and he can come in, do his job, be a pro, go out there, score some baskets, win some games. And, knowing he’s on our team, I’m good with it.”
In the Heat’s first game of the preseason, Herro came out firing. Twenty-two points in 24 minutes in front of a Miami crowd that Herro didn’t think would be cheering for him again. That was until Herro picked up his phone at lunch and learned he wasn’t getting traded. At least for now.
“I was happy. Ecstatic, really,” Herro said. “My family’s here, my kids, my [friends] live in Miami. Came from Milwaukee with me. Everything is in Miami.
“If I were to get traded, at the end of my career Miami will still be my home.”
Wes Goldberg has written for the Miami Herald, Mercury News, Bleacher Report, Forbes, and more. You can hear him on the Locked on NBA and Locked on Heat podcasts.