How Heat's Tyler Herro used Pat Riley's 'fragile' dig to fuel career season

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As the drama between the Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler continues, the one bright spot this season has been the emergence of Tyler Herro. Besides his play on the floor, he has so far improved his availability, especially after Heat president Pat Riley called him “fragile” since he missed a significant amount of time last season.

After Bam Adebayo missed Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers with a lower back contusion, Herro is now the only player on the team to play every single game thus far. There is no doubt that he took Riley’s words said last May during his end-of-season press conference as a challenge for this current season.

"He's been fragile a little bit," Riley said. "He broke his hand last year in the playoffs and he had some injuries earlier in his career. It's always going to be about getting stronger, getting your body ready for that kind of physicality. So his major injuries are real and we just hope we can get through a season where he's playing in that 72 to 82 game range. Maybe one year he will surprise everybody and play every game."

Pat Riley talks about Tyler Herro and his frustrating season filled with injuries. Full response below.

"Well he's been fragile a little bit…" #HeatCulturepic.twitter.com/UIufl06o1L

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) May 6, 2024

Heat’s Tyler Herro on Pat Riley’s comments 

The star guard would speak to the media after having another impressive game finishing with 32 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists. He spoke about being a “perfectionist” and how he definitely “took his words” regarding Riley as a way to motivate himself according to The Miami Herald.

"I'm a perfectionist in my own way," Herro said. "I don't need anyone to tell me I'm fragile or I haven't played as many games. I'm aware of what's going on. I know I missed the last two seasons, with the hand injury and half the season last year. I've seen the comments Coach Riley said. In my own world, I was going to try to play more games on my own either way. I took his words, obviously, into consideration and used it as motivation as I always do."

"I'm trying to play over 70, 75 games, for sure," Herro continued. "Obviously, if I can play all 82, I'll play 82. But I'm just trying to be as healthy as possible…It's early, I missed 40 games last year. So if I was to get hurt next game, I could still miss 40 games. Let me knock on some wood. But it's still early."

As Herro looks to be an All-Star hopeful this season, he came into it emphasizing his health and getting bigger which was talked about during media day.

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra on Tyler Herro’s development 

With his health came a consistency of play on the basketball court that hasn’t been seen from him before as he leads the team with 24 points and 5.1 assists per game as he’s shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 40.3 percent from deep.

"This is not an overnight thing," Spoelstra said. "I think people only recognize if the scoring average goes up. But his skill set has been really developing for the last three years. He was a heck of an offensive player when he was Sixth Man of the Year [for the 2021-22 season]. Now he's added some strength, he's defending better, his playmaking has gotten better, off-the-catch movement has gotten better. We know what he's been able to do with the ball in his hands — that has been two or three years now. But it's really putting a lot of things together to help your team."

"He really takes pride in all of that," Spoelstra continued. "The responsibilities that he has for the team, he's really worked at it, making his body stronger. He loves all the responsibilities offensively, the scoring but also the playmaking, the facilitating, sometimes just playing off the ball and creating some confusion with all of that. But all the great players develop that kind of consistency at some point."

Spoelstra would even hint that some of Herro’s traits are like Stephen Curry as he has praised his star player throughout the season. Still, Herro has yet to determine if his goals are met in terms of being healthy, but he is on the right track as he only played 42 the season prior.

Miami is 20-18 which puts them seventh in the East as they next face the Lakers on Wednesday.

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