Tyler Herro quickly became one the NBA’s biggest names as a rookie in 2019-20. He helped lead the Miami Heat to an NBA Finals appearance in the Bubble and immediately established himself a future star.
Beautiful Instagram models, weird tattoos, and bizarre love triangles followed. Real legend stuff.
Herro was so impressive in his rookie campaign that Miami refused to trade him for James Harden this past year.
Unfortunately, the former Kentucky standout experienced a sophomore slump.
After averaging 15.0 points on 43.9 percent shooting from the field and 36.0 percent shooting from beyond the arc, he earned a starting nod early this season. Miami subsequently went 5-9 in the first 14 games where was in the starting lineup, leading to a demotion to the bench.
Things only got worse from there. After averaging 16.0 points per game in the Heat’s run to the Finals last season, Herro ended up averaging a mere 9.3 points on 31.6 percent shooting in this season’s playoffs.
Despite his undeniable step back in 2020-21, Herro was still invited to be a member of the USA Men’s Select Team.
The Select Team is comprised of 13 young standout NBA players and four vets with international experience. Its purpose is helping the USA National Team prepare for Olympic games and grooming the next generation of Olympic talent.
This past week Bam Adebayo, who is on the USA National Team, offered his thoughts on how Herro’s presence on the USA Men’s Select Team would hopefully help the 21-year-old next year.
Bam Adebayo on how Tyler Herro can benefit from being on Team USA Select team: going against the best players…getting to watch their work ethic and how they go about their business pic.twitter.com/daH9YGDVGH
— Brendan Tobin (@Brendan_Tobin) July 1, 2021
“He’ll get the chance to go against the best in the USA,” Adebayo said.
“So I feel like that’s one of the biggest things that he can get. And obviously, getting to watch, like, people’s work ethic and how they go about their professional business.”
This story about Jimmy Butler and Rachel Nichols is wild. https://t.co/qMwCXDmx6o
— Game 7 (@game7__) July 6, 2021
Although Adebayo attempted to play it cool, his comments do seem to back up a popular theory regarding Herro: his work ethic is lacking. That is really the only seemingly logical explanation for why he regressed so badly in his second year.
Between getting distracted by his Instagram model baby mama and all the trade chatter, Herro just couldn’t get it together. Not only did that lead to Miami struggling, it also sunk his trade value. Now the guy who Pat Riley refused to trade for Harden wouldn’t command nearly as much in any prospective deal.
For everyone’s sake, Herro needs to step up and work harder this summer. Because if he doesn’t, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better for the Heat.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
