Heat’s Tyler Herro arrives to media day with one big goal: ‘It’s all about staying healthy’

Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro arrived to media day Monday at Kaseya Center with a new haircut, but the buzz cut wasn’t the most noticeable difference in his appearance. It was the added weight.

“He looks different for sure,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about Herro on Monday.

In an effort to be more durable throughout the long NBA schedule, Herro, 24, revealed Monday that he added 12 pounds this offseason. He closed last season at 189 pounds and arrived to media day at 201 pounds, noting that it’s “the heaviest I’ve come into camp in my career.”

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“I was eating a lot of food this summer,” Herro said, with the Heat traveling to the Bahamas immediately after media day for the start of training camp Tuesday at Baha Mar. “Honestly, I was just eating everything.”

Eating everything with the hope of staying healthy after missing 40 regular-season games last season because of injuries. Herro has yet to play 70 or more games in a regular season during his five-year NBA career, leading to Heat president Pat Riley calling him “fragile” during his season-ending news conference in May.

“Being able to stay healthy, I think that will help being more durable, having a little bigger frame throughout an 82-game season,” Herro said of the added weight. “Then just taking care of my body recovery wise and truly being professional. I put the work in on the court and in the weight room. Now it’s all about staying healthy and putting that recovery work in, as well.”

When asked Monday if he still feels strongly about continuing to play as a starter, Herro sidestepped that question and left that decision to Riley and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

Since winning the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award for the 2021-22 season, Herro has moved into a full-time starting role to start in 113 of his 115 appearances over the last two seasons. Last regular season, he averaged a career-high 20.8 points and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 44.1 percent from the field and 39.6 percent on threes.

“Whatever they say I am, that’s what I am,” Herro said, referring to Spoelstra and Riley. “Y’all can say I’m a starter, I’m off the bench. We’re going to let the best coach in the league decide, we’re going to let one of the best GMs and presidents ever to do this decide if I’m starting or coming off the bench. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to win a championship.”

Along with the new weight that he put on this summer, Herro hopes the painful playoff lessons that he learned last season also help him moving forward.

With the Heat missing starters Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier because of injuries during its first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics last season, Herro found himself at the center of Miami’s offensive game plan but also at the center of Boston’s defensive game plan. Herro struggled for most of the series against a Celtics defense focused on slowing him down, averaging 16.8 points per game on 38.5 percent shooting from the field and 15-of-43 (34.9 percent) shooting from three-point range while also being hunted on the defensive end.

“He learned that firsthand in that series,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat losing that series 4-1 to the eventual NBA champion Celtics. “You have to do things on both ends of the court, guard the other team’s best wing player and then also have the offensive responsibility to make the right plays every single time for your team and then be able to do it for 38 minutes in a playoff setting. That requires a lot and he did all of it this summer — the weight room work, the conditioning, the skill work.

“Sometimes you have to go through it and have that pain of a loss in a playoff series, where it really matters to you to be able to have the experience to break through the next year. I think he’s set up for those kinds of breakthroughs.”

Breakthroughs that Herro is not putting any numbers on this season. He plans to let it all happen organically while working to keep his added weight on during the season.

“This is already Year 6 for me, so I definitely have matured in my mind,” said Herro, who was drafted by the Heat with the 13th overall pick in 2019. “Last year, I was coming in like, ‘I’m trying to score 25 per game.’ This year, honestly, I’m just here to play, have fun, be myself. Whatever I end up averaging, I end up averaging. I’m not here to push any agendas of All-Star or anything like that. I’m just honestly here to have fun, win a championship with the guys we have and just go from there.”

From a productive offseason to what the Heat and Herro hopes is a productive season.

“Tyler did everything that I asked of him this offseason, everything,” Spoelstra said. “I love the work that he put in.”

HEALTHY HEAT?

After a year full of team-wide injury issues last season, the Heat is relatively healthy entering training camp this week.

Spoelstra said Monday at media day that guard Josh Richardson is the only player on the Heat’s roster who won’t be a full participant on the first day of training camp Tuesday. Richardson is still recovering from a right shoulder injury that he suffered in February, undergoing season-ending labrum surgery on March 6.

“J-Rich still has some more things to do to get to full contact,” Spoelstra said. “But he will be a participant in camp.”

Richardson missed the final 29 games of last regular season and then the entire postseason because of his shoulder issue.

“I’m getting close,” Richardson said Monday. “So I’ve been doing some court stuff, a little tiny bit of contact but not full. I’ll be on the court a little bit in training camp.”

When asked if there’s still a possibility to be ready for the Oct. 23 regular-season opener against the Orlando Magic at Kaseya Center, Richardson was non-committal.

The Heat’s other players who dealt with injuries this offseason — Nikola Jovic (left ankle and foot), Duncan Robinson (back), Terry Rozier (neck) and Dru Smith (right knee) — are expected to be full-go for the start of training camp. But Spoelstra made clear that the team will “be smart about the reps for each player.”

“In terms of mind-set and where our health is, we’re in a very good place,” Spoelstra added. “And the work and the intention that everybody had this summer, I feel good about that going into training camp.”