It’s undeniable that Miami Heat guard that Tyler Herro is having the most efficient season of his career.
It did, however, come at the expense his shot diet, which was previously a steady diet of long 2s–an area of the floor assumed by their two best players in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
Herro modified his diet into taking more 3s and layups, supercharging his individual offense while complementing his peers’ skillsets.. Through 24 games, the 6-foot-5 guard has averaged 24.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists, shooting 47.6 percent from the floor, 41.3 percent from beyond the arc and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line.
When opening up to Heat.com’s Couper Moorhead regarding his modified shot diet, Herro worked to replicate a shot diet similar to the greatest shooter ever: Stephen Curry.
“The guys who shoot the mid-range shots efficiently and do it well are the ones that are like, 6’9”, 6’10”, 6’11”,” Herro told Moorhead. “Like [Kevin Durant] . . . can shoot over the top of guys from the mid-range and make it an efficient shot.
“I feel like with my body type and the way I play, it’s like Steph Curry. I try to make my shot profile as identical to Steph as possible. Steph shoots a lot of threes obviously, the rest of them are to the rim, layups and free throws. That’s kind of what I’m trying to resemble is literally what Steph’s doing.”
Herro is hoisting a career-most 10.1 3-pointers per game, over three more than his career average and two more than his previous career-most; his 3-point rate jumped nearly nine percentage points higher than his previous-highest, thus opening up the floor for the rest of his game.
Teams have started to try and take the 3-point shot away from Herro. But he’s leveraged his shooting prowess, added strength and extra burst into being more efficient inside-the-arc. He’s shooting 51.1 percent on mid-range attempts (career-best), 48.7 percent on short 2s (~4-14 ft.) and 62.1 percent at the rim, which ranks in the 95th, 84th and 52nd percentile amongst combo guards, respectively, per Cleaning The Glass.
His shot diet isn’t far off from Curry’s, either. Herro is shooting 57.3 percent of his shots from deep compared to Curry’s 60.5 percent; Herro is taking roughly 35.6 percent of his shots within 10 feet to Curry’s 27.9; neither player is hoisting more than six percent of their attempts on long 2s.
He didn’t completely duplicate it. But if you’re going to try and complement your best players’ skillsets, emulating the greatest shooter ever isn’t the worst idea–should you continue to remain efficient. Herro has, emphatically.
Now, according to Heat assistant Chris Quinn, his next step is leveraging his shotmaking into his playmaking, which he’s c0ntinued to fine-tune over his first six years in the NBA.
“The next step, which he’s already improving, is the playmaking aspect,” Quinn told Moorhead. “Whatever the defense does is wrong basically. If you’re going to put more guys on me, I’m going to get an assist or make the right play for the team, then I’m going to have my spurts where I have 15 or 20 in a quarter. That’s the next step where he can balance that ability to score and playmake for the team. To make the right play over and over and over again is what makes the great players great.
“He’s always been able to do anything offensively on the basketball court. Sometimes we look at a player sometimes as a shooter or an attacker or a scorer, but Tyler is able to do all of it. He had to wrap his mind around three-point shooting as a part of that and not that he’s just a shooter or just a scorer, and how he can tie it all together. I think once he figured that out is really when he took a big jump.”
Herro’s continuing to grow at making advanced reads as a primary initiator. He’s always shown that he’s more than capable of being effective off-ball, but developing how to process advanced reads has been a process for 24-year-old ever since his second NBA season.
He’s been their best player so far this season and has gotten better each season. But now he’s becoming more efficient in more ways than one. And that’s not only crucial for his individual growth, but the team’s short- and long-term ceiling.
