And after all the feel-good from the first month of the season, it's pretty clear that the Heat may be facing a major crossroad at just the 20-game mark.
The Heat have won their last two games...
This was written BEFORE indisputably the worst game since Tyler's return!
...but if you've paid close attention, it's pretty easy to see that they haven't been the same team. I wouldn't place all that blame on Herro, but it's no coincidence that he's back in the starting lineup, and all of a sudden, things on the offensive end of the floor seem off again.
Maybe this is just a short adjustment period that the team needs to work through, but the Heat are coming off their two lowest scoring and slowest performances of the season.
The Heat has been a different team with Tyler Herro
If you take the last two games as a sample size, and an extremely small one, the Heat go from being the highest-scoring team in the league to a bottom-5 scoring team. They also go from having the 13th-best offensive rating to the third-worst.
Perhaps most eye-opening, if those statistics weren't enough, the Heat go from playing at the fastest pace in the league to outside the top 11.
...
What if Herro simply doesn't fit the Heat's new playstyle, and what if they have to make a big long-term decision on not only his future, but the overall long-term future of the team?
The org. hasn't extended the supermax contract extension that Tyler is eligible for.
And just 19 games in, it will be 20 after the Heat's Saturday night tilt against the Detroit Pistons, the Heat may have some very big questions to answer.
This could all be moot if the Heat are able to get back to their old ways (and send a strong message in the process) against the Pistons, but if they don't, the noise surrounding all of these concerns is just going to get louder.
Excellent, prescient piece by Michael Saenz, AllUCanHeat.
