Getty Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat.
Whispers of a blockbuster trade have been surrounding the Miami Heat for the entirety of the young 2023 offseason. Miami has been heavily linked to disgruntled Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, who requested a trade earlier this month. As far as players the Heat would likely have to part with go, Tyler Herro has been the player whose name has been mentioned most.
Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley joined the fun, as he wrote up a mock trade between Miami and the Chicago Bulls. Of course, Herro’s name was involved in the hypothetical deal that would send multi-time All-Star Zach LaVine to South Beach.
Miami Heat receive: Zach LaVine and Dalen Terry
Chicago Bulls receive: Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson and Nikola Jović
LaVine’s time in Chicago may be coming to an end soon. There have been multiple reports so far this summer that the team is interested in shopping him, they’ve just been dwarfed by all of the Lillard stuff going around.
For starters, Buckley’s proposal works from a financial standpoint. On top of that, Miami giving up Herro in order to land the former UCLA star makes sense. The two play the same position, and LaVine is probably a better player than Herro. He’s never quite gotten the opportunity to play on a competitive team — except for when the Bulls were good for the first half of the 2021-2022 season.
Chicago would be getting back a quality return for their star guard. Perhaps they’d be interested in prying some picks away from the Heat too, but they’d get two younger players in Herro and Jović.
LaVine appeared in 77 games for the Bulls last season. He averaged 24.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.2 assists. For a star player on an underwhelming team, he was able to log some efficient splits as well, knocking down 48.5% of his attempts from the field and 37.5% of those from beyond the arc.
Zach LaVine Could Be Heat’s Backup Plan for Damian Lillard
Lillard has been pinned the top target for the Heat this summer. The star guard himself has come out and essentially said he’s only going to play basketball in Miami next season, discouraging other franchises from making an offer to the Trail Blazers.
The amount of effort on Lillard’s end to try and convince the Blazers to send him to Miami could indicate that the front office hasn’t been loving what the Heat have to offer.
In the case where another team swoops and and strikes a deal for the seven-time All-Star, LaVine could wind up being the backup plan for the Heat.
If there’s one thing about Miami, they seem to be dead set on landing more talent this offseason.
“There’s been some level of understanding that (Miami is) trying to get Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo just another piece that can take the load off, especially during the regular season,” insider Shams Charania of The Athletic said on FanDuel TV on June 13.
Tyler Herro’s Time with Heat Has to Be Done, Right?
With the rumors piling up, Herro has made a few cryptic moves over the last month or so. First NBA fans on social media began to notice that the 23-year-old had removed the Heat from his Twitter bio on July 2.
NBA Central shared screenshots of the changes Herro made:
Tyler Herro has removed “Miami Heat guard” from his bio and changed his header
On the same day, Ethan J. Skolnick of 5 Reasons Sports reported that Herro has been telling people that he’s going to be traded.
“Tyler Herro believes he’s going to get traded,” he said on the July 2 episode of the “Five on the Floor” podcast. “I can say that that’s what he’s been telling people, he’s expecting to be traded.”