Heat get Herro in NBA draft
Heat draft Kentucky shooting specialist Herro with 13th overall pick
MIAMI — The Miami Heat opted for shooting with the No. 13 selection in Thursday’s NBA draft, going for the 3-point range of Kentucky guard Tyler Herro.
Having lost Wayne Ellington, Tyler Johnson and Rodney McGruder last season due to luxury-tax transactions, the Heat reloaded with spacing with the 6-foot-5 freshman guard who shot 60 of 169 on 3-pointers in his lone season with the Wildcats.
“I think I’m much more than a shooter,” Herro said Thursday from Brooklyn, where the draft was held at Barclays Center. “I can play in pick-and-rolls. Offensively I definitely think I’m a complete player.”
Dwyane Wade, another loss from last season’s Heat roster with his retirement, posted on Twitter in the wake of the selection, “OK Tyler Herro, I hope you’re ready to work. It’s the Miami Heat way. Let’s go!”
Of stepping into that Wade void, Herro quipped, “I can assure you I’m not no Dwyane Wade yet.”
But he said he believed he can be a Heattype two-way player.
“At Kentucky that was my biggest im
provement, being able to guard,” he said.
The Heat, with the selection, bypassed options such as Indiana guard Romeo Langford, North Carolina forward Nassir Little, Gonzaga forward Brandon Clarke, Southern Cal guard Kevin Porter Jr., Oregon center Bol Bol and French League forward Sekou Doumbouya.
Among those selected directly ahead of Herro were Gonzaga forward Rui Hachimura at No. 9 by the Washington Wizards, Duke forward Cam Reddish at No. 10 by the Atlanta Hawks, North Carolina forward Cam Johnson at No. 11 by the Phoenix Suns and Kentucky forward PJ Washington at No. 12 by the Charlotte Hornets. The Heat lost a three-way tiebreaker with the Hornets for that No. 12 selection, after closing the season with a 39-43 record.
Herro, according to the NBA’s draft guide, is considered a “multidimensional scoring threat with a high basketball IQ.” The league’s draft guide notes of Herro, “has very good range and overall touch” as well as “can make plays off the dribble” and “has good size and length for his position.”
Of Herro, Kentucky coach John Calipari said going into the draft, “Tyler is wired and driven like few other players I’ve coached — a complete basketball player who can score on the bounce, who can shoot it, who can defend and who can rebound. It’s his total package that will make Tyler successful at the next level.”
It is the second consecutive first-round pick the Heat have utilized on a Kentucky player, with center Bam Adebayo drafted from the Wildcats at No. 14 in 2017. The Heat did not have a first-round pick last year.
Herro in his lone season at Kentucky was the 2018-19 SEC Newcomer of the Year and voted second-team All-SEC and firstteam SEC All-Freshman. He set the Kentucky single-season record for free-throw percentage at .935 and finished second on the team in scoring at 14 points per game.
During the NCAA Tournament, Herro was voted to the NCAA Midwest Regional All-Tournament team after hitting a gamewinning 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining against Houston in the Sweet 16. He also helped limit Wofford’s Fletcher Magee, the all-time NCAA leader in 3-poniters made, to 0-for-12 shooting on threes in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Herro could find himself opening his NBA career as a reserve, with Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters currently the projected backcourt starters, and with Josh Richardson and Justise Winslow also available on the wing.
Herro likely will join former 2018-19 two-way players Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten, late-season acquisition Kendrick Nunn, as well as the Heat’s firstround pick for the team’s summer leagues next month in Sacramento and Las Vegas.
Factoring into the Heat’s Thursday approach was the absence of a first-round pick in the 2021 draft, with that unprotected selection, currently held by the Clippers, having been dealt to the Suns in the February 2015 Dragic trade. By rule, it makes the Heat ineligible to trade their 2020 or ’22 first-round picks, with the NBA banning teams from being without successive future first-round selections.