When the Heat signed Tyler Herro to a long-term deal on Sunday, this year’s rookie scale extension deadline was still over two weeks away. But Herro told reporters, including Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, that he was happy with the Heat’s offer and didn’t feel the need to take negotiations down to the wire to try to squeeze out a few more million.
“It was a number I couldn’t pass up,” Herro said. “It wasn’t worth going into restricted free agency. And at the end of the day, this is where I want to be. … So it made sense.”
Herro’s new contract has a base value of $120MM and can technically be worth up to $130MM, but his incentives won’t be easy to achieve. As Anil Gogna of NoTradeClause.com details (via Twitter), Herro’s various bonuses are tied to being named to an All-NBA team, winning the MVP, and/or being named Defensive Player of the Year.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- With Herro locked up for the next five seasons, the Heat will face a cap crunch going forward, according to Chiang and Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. As The Herald’s duo observes, any major roster addition Miami makes in the next few years will likely have to come via trade, since the team won’t have any cap room available anytime soon, barring some major roster reshuffling. Re-signing Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, and/or Omer Yurtseven beyond 2022/23 will only push team salary further over the cap (and the tax line), Chiang and Jackson note.
- After playing Bam Adebayo and Yurtseven together for just 18 total minutes last season, head coach Erik Spoelstra had the duo on the floor for 20 minutes in the Heat’s preseason opener on Tuesday, showing that he’s committed to determining whether the frontcourt pairing can work, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “They’re not going to play this many minutes together (during the season), if they play together. We’ll figure that part out,” Spoelstra said. “But that takes more time than some of the space or speed lineups. That’s why we’re dedicating time to that now in the preseason and in training camp.”
- Spoelstra intends to continue using the preseason as a time to experiment with different lineup combinations, telling reporters that he’s “open to whatever” as he gets a sense of what works and what doesn’t, per Winderman. “We view all of this as training camp until we get to that Chicago game,” Spoelstra said, referring to Miami’s first game of the regular season on October 19.
I don’t see the point in these unlikely incentives when they’re as surreal as Tyler Herro winning MVP or DPOTY…
Aren’t most rookie extensions filled with clauses like that? I think it’s how Jokic is gonna end up making 60mil a season soon lol
Didnt make sense to go to that mtibig lineup while Gobeet and KAT didnt play last night, and Minnesota had the smaller, more versatile lineups going, but I could see using it in certain matchups for some minutes
0ersonally, I think the options at the 4 should be Highsmith, Strus, Butler, Days, Martin in that order, and the multi big lineups in the few situations I mentioned…I prefer Martin on the wing. I also think Duncan Robinson should start, and Highsmith and Strus should switch starting based on matchups
Lowry, Robinson, Butler, Highsmith, Bam
I could also see switching Lowry for Oladipo to separate Herro and Oladipo, and keep Lowry with Herro and Strus, which worked very well last year, but I’m not sure they would be willing to try that, and also it might lead to a more turnover prone lineup, and slightly less spacing
I’ll be curious to see what they do with Vincent’s role, and how much time he’ll get, with Oladipo and Lowry healthy. I could see letting 1 of those 2 guys rest at times to keep them fresh, and have him play those minutes.