Tyler Herro is making his case for Kia Sixth Man of the Year honors this season.
MIAMI — Tyler Herro has never really been knocked around much in his charmed and young basketball life, yet here he is, trying to overcome a pair of hits: In the 2020 Orlando bubble, where he became an immediate breakout star, and on the charts when a rap song named after him became an instant hit.
That explains what he’s doing now, conducting a redemption tour where he’s delivering solid performances with alarming regularity for the Miami Heat, confirming he is indeed an emerging star, and pushing the notion of being the best sixth man in the league, with career highs everywhere.
It’s a noticeable leap from a season ago, which by every metric was mildly disappointing only because Herro had previously teased expectations. Not that he was bad in 2020-21 … he just wasn’t next-level good and therefore his follow-up to Miami’s appearance in the 2020 NBA Finals — and his rookie season in 2019-20 — went flat.
“It’s not what I wanted, not what I knew I was capable of doing,” Herro said.
Oh, but look: Miami is 32-18 and sitting in the penthouse of the Eastern Conference largely because of the Herro-ics of its 22-year-old guard who carried the team for generous stretches over the last few months while All-Stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo sat with injuries. It was a period of growth for Herro, and he aced all the tests and erased all the doubts, if there were any.
From 2020-21 to now, he’s upped his scoring by five points, his 3-poitn shooting has risen to 38.1% and his presence is way up. At 20.3 points per game, he leads all reserves in scoring.
| Season | PPG | 3P% | RPG | APG |
| 2021-22 | 20.3 | 38.1 | 4.9 | 4.0 |
| 2020-21 | 15.1 | 36.0 | 5.0 | 3.4 |
“He’s so much more than just a shooter,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He’s a shot creator. He’s really improving as a playmaker. It’s those moments. You can’t put an analytic to that, but it’s a moment and feel during a game when it’s a big play to be made. He has a knack for that.”
In the process — and this is important, so listen up — he also made sure “Tyler Herro” the song, was well worthy of the title.
A bit about that: Herro was a few months removed from his sparkling play in the bubble when he received a call, and the conversation went something like this:
Jack Harlow: “Got a song for you to hear.”
Herro: “Yeah, what’s it called?”
Harlow: “Tyler Herro.”
Harlow already had a hit with “What’s Poppin” where he bragged how he could “pass that (ball) like Stockton” and which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top 100. Harlow, like everyone else, was impressed by Herro. They’d met before; Harlow is from Louisville and Herro played at Kentucky for one season.
“We have some Kentucky in us,” explained Herro. “I went to Kentucky so we had a link. We hooked up and now we have a real relationship, real friendship. We talk all the time.”
The song Tyler Herro really isn’t about Tyler Herro, but there’s Tyler Herro in the verse and Tyler Herro in the video. Make sense? Doesn’t matter.
The verse:
“My homeboy Tyler, he play in South Beach, he told me this summer he gon’ fix my jumper. I told Boi-1da that we might got a thumper (Yeah, yeah, yeah), I been tryna pop, now I’m on like Shumpert.”
A quick translation: “South Beach” is, of course, an outsider’s view of Miami; Boi-1da is the stage name for famed hip-hop studio wiz Matthew Samuels, who produced the track; a “thumper” is slang for a catchy beat; “tryna pop” means trying to make some outside shots; “Shumpert” is a name-drop of former NBA player Iman Shumpert.
This, of course, was a big deal for an NBA player. LeBron James, for example, has been name-dropped dozens of times in lyrics of hit songs but never in a song title.
The timing of Harlow’s hit song was just right: Herro was primed for a 2020-21 breakout based on the bubble, and now, he had his own theme song.
I’m a natural worker, I work hard, it’s who I am. So I got into the gym. Every offseason from here I think can be like the last one, where I make strides, do the work, and improve my game.”
— Tyler Herro
But what about Harlow? Did he indeed get his jumper fixed by Herro, as promised in the song? Herro laughed.
“We worked on a little basketball here and there,” he said. “He pulled up to a workout and, well, yeah, that’s about it.”
Most important: “We’re in regular contact, and we motivate each other.”
Herro, however, went through his second season without the same pop as his inspired play in the bubble, where he scored 37 points in an Eastern Conference finals game and averaged 16.0 ppg in the playoffs. It was perplexing to him and to others in how everything suddenly stagnated.
He began that season in the starting lineup, then moved to the bench, and never built on the buzz and energy he had as a rookie. He said he was “humbled” by 2020-21 and admitted the pressure of trying to replicate the bubble.
“Everything happens for a reason and I think it gave me the motivation to come back stronger,” he said.
Because of the compressed schedule and the shortened 2020 offseason, Herro said he simply wasn’t given the chance to put himself through a normal summer workout stretch.
“This past summer was really my first offseason, so I wanted to work on all parts of my game to get stronger, get my body right, eat the right foods, doing everything I can to become a good player,” he said. “It was easy to do. I’m a natural worker, I work hard, it’s who I am. So I got into the gym. Every offseason from here I think can be like the last one, where I make strides, do the work, and improve my game.”
Tyler Herro's 33-point showing off the bench keyed Miami's win in Phoenix on Jan. 8.
Herro has shown a more diverse offensive game, with a mixture of 3-pointers, pull-up mid-range jumpers off the bounce and attacking the rim. As a result, he’s taking more shot attempts this season, although that number might decrease now that Adebayo and Butler are healthy and back in the mix.
“For me, the process continues,” he said. “It’s nonstop. I even have to come in here at practice and continue doing what I started in the off-season. Defensively I wanted to get stronger and quicker and more durable. On offense, I wanted to be better off the dribble, off the catch. I’m already a confident guy, but just locking in has just made me even more confident out there.”
And suppose this translates into receiving all the flowers that come with hard work and improvement, like, Kia Sixth Man Award attention and maybe a promotion to the All-Star Game?
“I’ll take it, for sure,” he said. “Of course. I got personal goals. I do want to be an All-Star at some point in my career. But that’s up to me, to continue to get better every single game. Those are individual goals that anybody would like to get.”
Truthfully this season, Herro has been the most productive player on a team with Butler, Adebayo and Kyle Lowry — if only because he’s been healthier and more available. He’s also been at his best, shoving aside the complacency of last season and rejuvenating the vision of what he generated in the bubble.
There’s also this:
Herro the player has finally done the anticipated and matched the hypnotic flow of Tyler Herro, the song. This could be the makings of another hit.
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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