NBA Rookies: Is Tyler Herro a steal for the Miami Heat?
The Miami Heat front office knew they were snagging a talented scorer when they drafted Tyler Herro as the 13th pick. But during the scouting process and pre-draft workouts as well as interviews they discovered they very well may have found an undervalued player that other teams and "draft experts" like Jonathan Givony overlooked.
During the NBA Summer League, it has become abundantly clear that there is far more to Tyler Herro's game than was shown this past season at Kentucky. He has shown enough to suggest that he may be NBA-rotation ready by the start of the upcoming season.
Granted the NBA regular season play is several levels above summer league play, but Herro displayed a diverse all-round skill set during the NBA Summer League that has turned heads. Particularly, his distance shooting, passing, and ball-handling have exceeded expectations of many NBA scouts and front office personnel.
However, none of this is surprising to Tyler Herro or those who have seen him rise over the years into the player he has become. This past season at Kentucky, Herro had a clearly defined role by Coach Calipari. And if you watched Kentucky play you would have noticed that they always run the same offensive system and sets, each player knows what they can and can't do within that system.
Tyler wasn't a primary ball-handler in Kentucky's system, so he had limited opportunities to be able to show that he can make both passing and scoring plays off the drive. In Kentucky's system, Tyler got limited opportunities to make plays off the dribble or catch in full-court transition situations where if he was driving the ball down the court and he got into his shooting range, he would pull-up from outside of NBA three-point range.
The one skill set Tyler did get to show off this past season was his ability as a defender and the level of toughness/intensity he plays with. He showed that he is a committed defender and that you run different defensive schemes with him on the floor and not have your team defense decline with an offensive-minded player. His toughness and intensity allowed him to make clutch plays throughout last season and be a valued on-court leader even as an eighteen going on nineteen-year-old freshman.
The x-factor that makes Herro such a valuable player is the fact that he is a real student of the game. He constantly studies film on himself, other players, and match-ups he will face to help him prepare and improve.
To give a better description, Tyler Herro has been like a mad-scientist working secretively in his lab to create the ultimate professional basketball player; a player that can do a little bit of everything. In many ways, Tyler Herro has been engineering himself over the past decade to be NBA regular season ready.
If Herro keeps progressing and the odds are in favor of that happening, his hidden x-factor will prove that he is the "steal" of the 2019 NBA Draft.