Once labeled as ‘fragile,’ Tyler Herro changing narratives around him. Also, Heat injury updates

Just eight months after Miami Heat president Pat Riley labeled Heat guard Tyler Herro as “fragile,” Herro has become the team’s most durable player so far this season.

With Bam Adebayo missing his first game of the season in Monday night’s 109-98 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers at Intuit Dome because of a lower back contusion, Herro is now the lone player on the Heat’s roster who has appeared in each of the Heat’s first 38 games this season.

“I’m trying to play over 70, 75 games, for sure,” Herro said, with the Heat now 3-2 on its six-game trip and 20-18 this season. “Obviously, if I can play all 82, I’ll play 82. But I’m just trying to be as healthy as possible.”

No Adebayo, no Butler, not enough offense for Heat in loss to Clippers. Takeaways and details

Herro entered this season with the goal of staying healthy and being available for more games after missing 40 of the Heat’s 82 games last regular season and never playing in more than 67 regular-season games during the first five seasons of his NBA career. But Riley’s comments at the start of this past offseason only added fuel to Herro’s drive to play in more games.

“He’s been fragile a little bit,” Riley said in May regarding Herro. “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.”

How did Herro take that public challenge from Riley?

“I’m a perfectionist in my own way,” Herro said, with the Heat set to close its six-game West Coast trip on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena (10 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). “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.”

There’s always some luck involved in avoiding injuries and staying healthy, but Herro is also doing his part to give himself the best chance to be available for more games this season.

“Just working on my body more, being more conscious of my weight, my strength and then just staying on my body work,” said Herro who turns 25 on Jan. 20. “Making sure I’m taking care of my body, recovery and stuff like that.”

Herro has not only been the Heat’s most available player this season, he’s also been the team’s most reliable and best source of offense. That combination has Herro in the middle of his best NBA season and receiving strong consideration for his first NBA All-Star Game appearance.

With Adebayo missing his first game of the season and Jimmy Butler still serving his team-issued suspension, Herro totaled a game-high 32 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field, 4-of-13 shooting on threes and 10-of-12 shooting from the foul line, 11 rebounds and seven assists for the short-handed Heat in Monday’s loss to the Clippers.

In his sixth NBA season, Herro is averaging career-highs in points (24 per game), rebounds (5.7) and assists (5.1). He’s also shooting a career-best 46.9 percent from the field and a career-best 40.3 percent from three-point range on a career-high 9.7 three-point attempts per game this season.

“This is not an overnight thing,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Herro’s growth. “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.”

Not only does Herro enter Tuesday ranked third in the league in three-pointers made this season (149 threes made) behind only Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and Detroit’s Malik Beasley, but Herro is also one of only two players in the league who has played in more than 10 games while averaging at least 24 points, five rebounds and five assists per game while also shooting 45 percent or better from the field and 40 percent or better from behind the arc this season. The only other player in the NBA currently meeting those thresholds is three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.

With Herro also producing a more efficient shot chart by taking more threes and fewer midrange shots this season, the Heat has been a much more efficient offense when he has been on the court. The Heat is scoring 10.6 more points per 100 possessions this season when he has been on the court compared to when he hasn’t been in the game.

“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.”

While “fragile” isn’t a word that can be used to describe Herro this season, he knows the conversation can shift quickly with just one turned ankle. That’s why he’s not yet ready to say he has changed the narrative.

“It’s early,” Herro said. “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.”

INJURY REPORT

Adebayo is listed as questionable for Wednesday’s matchup against the Lakers after missing his first game of the season on Monday because of a lower back contusion.

Adebayo hurt his back when he took a hard fall after trying to catch an errant pass from Heat teammate Nikola Jovic during Saturday’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Adebayo was slow to get up, but he stayed in the game and finished the contest to log 30 minutes in the victory.

The Heat is labeling Adebayo as day-to-day.

“He’s been dealing with it for a few days,” Spoelstra said when asked about the injury on Monday. “He’s getting a lot of treatment and it kind of seized up on him this morning. We’ll treat him day to day and we’ll reevaluate him.”

The Heat also listed rookie center Kel’el Ware as probable for Wednesday’s game against the Lakers because of right foot soreness.

The Heat remains without Butler (team suspension), Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation) and Dru Smith (Achilles surgery).