Herro thought he’d be starter but is settling in as a reserve
Tyler Herro thought he had it figured out. After a mere eight starts during his rookie season, something more substantial seemingly was inevitable.
And it was. For six weeks.
But since playing as a starter in his first 14 appearances this season, a sixth-man role it has been again for the No. 13 pick in the 2019 NBA draft. Herro has been playing in a reserve role since Feb. 5.
“Definitely thought I would be starting,” the streak-scoring Miami Heat guard said ahead of Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers at American-Airlines Arena.
“But I think as the season goes on, things change, and I’m OK with coming off the bench right now and just continuing to do that. It was a short period of time where I was trying to adjust to it because I was starting at the beginning of the season, so [I’m] just trying to make that adjustment.”
With the Heat’s trade-deadline acquisition of Victor Oladipo, the starting door essentially slammed shut, save for injury absence, with Oladipo, Jimmy Butler and Duncan Robinson apparently locked into the opening wing rotation.
For Herro, that has meant locking into his reserve reality.
“I think I can provide scoring off the bench, just come in with energy and try to really bring energy to the team and just
try to keep going once that second unit comes in,” he said, now in a reserve rotation that also features Goran Dragic, Andre Iguodala and Nemanja Bjelica.
“We got a lot of guys who can score, a lot of guys who can play. So once I get in, [I] just try to keep the flow going and try to keep the rhythm of the team going.”
What hasn’t changed is the confidence to launch at will.
“I think it’s really the same,” he said. “I feel like I still get the same amount of shots either way.”
What also hasn’t changed is Herro’s role as closer, basically getting starters’ minutes in fourth quarters.
“I think they just trust me and I try to make winning plays,” he said. “I’m willing to take the big shots in the fourth quarter, and I think they have confidence in me. And I think my teammates also trust me to go out there and try to win games.”
Yet even while locked into what now has become his regular role, Herro acknowledged ongoing adjustment for the team’s trade-deadline acquisitions.
“I think any time you add new guys, there’s an adjustment period of getting to know each other and being able to play with each other and what the new guys like and what they have to [do to] adjust to what we do,” he said of Oladipo, Bjelica and Trevor Ariza.
“They’re still learning our system. So every day is a learning process and a learning period for us.”
With better days ahead, he said, once the acclimation is complete.
“I think that takes us to another level with our new guys,” Herro said. “I’m excited to see where we can go. I feel like this team has a lot of potential.”
Lakers shorthanded
Not only have the Lakers been without LeBron James (ankle) and Anthony Davis (calf ), but they also lost talented second-year guard Talen Horton-Tucker for Thursday night’s nationally televised game against the Heat for leaving the bench during a melee in the Lakers’ Tuesday victory over the Toronto Raptors.
Lakers center Montrezl Harrell, who was involved in that primary incident with the Raptors’ OG Anunoby, was fined $20,000 Thursday by the NBA but not suspended.