Getty Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro reacts during a bout with the Detroit Pistons.
When the Utah Jazz finally moved star Donovan Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers, it was a gut punch for a segment of the Miami Heat fan base. The team had already failed in its bid to pry Kevin Durant from Brooklyn; with Mitchell off the board now, too, the dream of adding another star for a title run in 2022-23 looks to be dead.
Or, at the very least, delayed from being realized.
That’s not the only aspect of the Mitchell trade that has left some of the South Beach faithful with a sour taste in their mouths, though.
In the end, the best player Utah received as part of its compensation package for Mitchell was former No. 8 overall pick Collin Sexton, who came via sign-and-trade. And the rate he ultimately commanded to make the deal happen is causing a contingent of fans to bemoan the money that’s likely to be heading Tyler Herro’s way sometime in the next few months.
The Heat sharpshooter may be the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year but after a rough playoff run, there’s some real hesitancy about giving him his bag.
Heat Nation Sounds Off
Per ESPN’s front office guru, Bobby Marks, Sexton’s new deal will pay him $16.5 million in year one with 5% raises annually through 2025-26 when he’ll gross $18.975 million. While that amount of money is nothing to sneeze at, especially for a player coming off of a major injury, it pales in comparison to what Herro is expected to get.
A number of Heat fans over on Reddit are pretty bent out of shape about it, too.
“Why Is Herro Gonna Get 25ish mil When Sexton Is A Better Scorer And Both Suck At Defending. Herro Shouldn’t Be Making More Than 20mil Per,” read the title of a thread that’s blowing up on the Heat sub, and the original poster isn’t the only one wondering as much.
“He has been a bad playoff performer for 2 years now, concern is warranted,” one commenter wrote of Herro getting the big bucks.
“He had a chance to step up in the playoffs and instead he put up 14/4/2 and 2 TOs per game on 41%FG and 23%3pt. He wasnt good and needs to prove himself before he gets a bag imo,” opined a second Redditor.
“As far as I’m concerned the only person on this team making above 10 million a year who earns that paycheck is Jimmy Butler,” commented another fan. “The infighting over these things is cute but you ALL should be depressed that we have so much underperforming money on this team.”
Not everyone is down on Herro getting paid though. Multiple Redditors pointed out the the baller was injured during his woeful playoff run, while others noted that the Heat star and Sexton may not be as close or as similar as some would assume.
“People forget he was injured in the playoffs smh. Dude is a certified bucket. One of the main reasons we were the 1 seed last year,” reminded a supporter.
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What Will Herro Actually Get Paid?
While the Heat don’t appear to be in any rush to extend Herro, there’s no doubting the fact that he’s got a huge raise in his future.
The 22-year-old and his reps will undoubtedly be seeking something that approaches a max-level payday when the two sides are at the negotiating table. And some of the recent extensions to come down the pipe around the Association have definitely set the market in a way Miami probably isn’t in love with.
For his part, Deandre Ayton got a four-year, $133 million offer sheet from the Indiana Pacers (later matched by the Phoenix Suns). Elsewhere, New York Knicks star RJ Barrett put pen to paper on a pact worth $120 million over four years.
Meanwhile, Heat insider Ira Winderman suggested a four-year $106 million deal for Herro on the Inside the Paint show in August.
In any case, Herro seems destined to pull down a larger chunk of change than Sexton just got. Whether that ends up being a fair-market move, an overpay or something out of the bargain bin remains to be seen.
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