Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro has been a major reason for the team’s success in the 2021-22 season, as he has taken the next step as a scorer and helped lead the Heat to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Herro’s impact on the team can’t be underestimated, and his father Chris is willing to go as far as saying that the Heat would just be a .500 team without his son.
“It’s, ‘Can he be that dude?'” the elder Herro told ESPN’s Israel Gutierrez. “What are you talking about? He’s been doing it all year. If Tyler Herro doesn’t exist on the Miami Heat, the Miami Heat are a .500 club. Let’s be real, dude.
“I’m not being arrogant because he’s my son. I’m just being real.”
The younger Herro may not be Miami’s best player, but he is one of the team’s most consistent scorers.
The University of Kentucky product averaged 20.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game during the 2021-22 regular season while shooting 44.7 percent from the field and 39.9 percent from beyond the arc. As a result, he is one of the leading candidates for the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award.
The former first-round pick’s scoring prowess can be tied directly Miami’s success, as the team went 28-9 in the regular season when he scored 20 or more points.
Now, the younger Herro is hoping to lead the Heat to the NBA Finals this year. Through two playoff games against the Atlanta Hawks, he is averaging 10.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game while shooting just 36.4 percent from the field.
Miami is up 2-0 in the first round, and it hasn’t even gotten amazing play from its star bench player in the series.
While the elder Herro may hold his son in higher regard than others, there is no doubt that the younger Herro is a key part of Miami’s success now, and he likely will be in the coming years as well.