Even before the current job, which is the ongoing job of resetting the team’s roster, Miami Heat president Pat Riley has for years demonstrated the art of setting the offseason schedule.
Part of that effort this time around, after his team fell a game short of the NBA Finals, was emphasizing the need to come back hungrier.
As soon as shooting guard Tyler Herro did what many quality sixth men had done before, exiting the season by emphasizing a goal to emerge as a starter, last month Riley offered in calculated fashion: “If you want to start, go win it.” “.
Riley also said, “As far as being a starter, we’ll see in October. Come to the training ground and win it. It is something you earn. Sometimes it’s that easy.”
Alone in the midst of social media, it’s never that easy.
So Herro, when he arrived to see the Heat at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, was well aware of what was coming next. And he did, at the NBA 2K House of Greatness kickoff event.
When asked while walking the red carpet at the event about his goals for the future, Herro said, “Trying to start in this league and then be an All-Star one day. So that’s the next step.”
To that end, the 2022 NBA Sixth Man of the Year didn’t budge, even when asked about the possibility of starting alongside Jimmy Butler, something he did just three times last season, with the Heat 1-2 in those. games.
“I think it will look great,” he said. “Look what happens, look what happens in training camp.”
But no, there are no hard feelings with Riley taking Herro’s hard line and earning his place in the starting lineup.
“He continues to give me advice,” he said of Riley. “Every time I talk to him, he always gives me a new book to read.”
Herro then received the Heat’s inaugural win in Las Vegas on Saturday, sitting alongside teammates Max Strus and Gabe Vincent, as well as coach Erik Spoelstra, directly across from the Heat bench.
Adding more intrigue to Herro’s offseason is the current trading window for an extension, a window that closes with the regular-season opener. If Herro is signed to such an extension, it would essentially make him non-tradeable this season, due to salary-cap rules.
For now, Herro said during his promotional appearance that the approach remains basic.
“Ready to keep playing hard,” he said, “and continue to rack up numbers and win games.”
Learning curve
In the middle of the Heat’s two-day layoff before returning to the court Tuesday for a game at 7 p.m. Nicholas Jovic.
The 6-foot-11, 19-year-old didn’t score in the Heat’s 88-78 win over the Boston Celtics on Saturday, missing his only shot.
That came after Jovic scored 25 in his previous summer league appearance.
“It’s an adjustment for him. And we’ll find more ways to engage him,” Allen said, with the Heat drafting Jovic more for an interior role, after the agile prospect played primarily on the perimeter in Europe. He will get there. He will get there. It will be a process with him. It won’t come right away. It has to be constant.
“I know what he’s going to look like in terms of his development and how he’s going to continue to evolve, because he will, because he has a lot of ability and potential.”
cited similarities
Just as Haywood Highsmith said his goal going forward was to offer the intangibles provided last season by power forward PJ Tucker, who has since left, his summer league teammate Mychal Mulder cited the similarities afterward. that Highsmith had 14 points and six rebounds in Saturday’s victory.
“H makes it work, man,” Mulder said. “He has all the intangibles. Remember Tuck, like we did last year, playing that role. And he really accepts that. You know what I want to say? Put up good screens. He gets under the defense. He plays defense with an aggression almost unlike anyone else on the floor.
“There are a lot of things that he does that don’t show up on the stat sheet, but they really lead to wins, to winning basketball.”
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