Heat's Tyler Herro makes All-Star breakthrough, selected as reserve by East coaches
Published in Basketball
MIAMI — The waiting game is over for Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro when it comes to the bid by the sixth-year veteran for his first All-Star berth.
With East coaches charged with selecting at least four and no more than six guards to round out the conference’s All-Star roster, the polling announced Thursday had Herro as one of the four guards from the conference selected as an East reserve, along with the Milwaukee Bucks’ Damian Lillard, Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham and Cleveland Cavaliers’ Darius Garland.
That was after the results of the combined fan-player-media vote selected Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell and New York’s Jalen Brunson as the starting guards representing the East.
Among those Herro beat out for a backcourt berth were the Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young, the Charlotte Hornets’ LaMelo Ball, the Chicago Bulls’ Zach LaVine and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey.
And so on to San Francisco for the Feb. 16 game it is for Herro, allaying thought the Heat would be without an All-Star for the first time since 2021.
Center Bam Adebayo was the Heat’s lone All-Star both last year and in 2023, with Jimmy Butler making it in 2022, a year Heat coach Erik Spoelstra coached in the game.
With Herro in the All-Star Game, he now is expected to also receive an invitation to participate in the league’s 3-point contest on All-Star Saturday. Herro participated in the event in 2023, placing sixth. Herro went into Thursday ranked third in the NBA in 3-pointers made.
The Heat’s All-Star chances were otherwise reduced this season with Butler, currently suspended, missing most of the season and Adebayo in the midst of an uneven offensive season.
For now, the Heat’s representatives for the Feb 14-16 All-Star Weekend are Herro, second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. in the Rising Stars competition for first- and second-year players, and two-way players Josh Christopher and Isaiah Stevens in the G League All-Star Game.
While he did not lobby during the process, Spoelstra said Wednesday that he viewed Herro as a deserving selection.
“I think that would be a great nod,” Spoelstra said. “I do think he’s an All-Star. I’m not sending anything all around the league. I just do. I think he’s an All-Star guard and I think that would be a great nod to be able to get it from the coaches. I think that would be the ultimate sign of respect.”
In the balloting for reserves, coaches were not allowed to vote for players on their own team.
Herro was both hopeful and optimistic ahead of Thursday’s announcement.
“It would be cool, it would be cool,” he said earlier this month. “I don’t want to say too much about it. We’ll see what happens.
“I’ve wanted to be an All-Star since I came into the league. I think the organization wants me to be an All-Star, that’s why they drafted me.”
He also offered a nod to the competition.
“I definitely never had my numbers that I have now,” he said. “My Sixth Man of the Year (2021-22) was probably my best chance. But I think this is my best chance since then, probably my best year since I came into the league. But there’s a lot of good guards in the East when you think about it.”
Herro, 25, is averaging career highs in points (24.1), rebounds (5.6) and assists (5.4) and also is at career bests at .474 from the field and .400 on 3-pointers.
For the first time, the All-Star Game will be played as a four-team mini-tournament, one that also will feature the winning team from the Rising Stars competition, making a Herro-Jaquez matchup possible.
All-Star Rosters
Eastern Conference
— Starters: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum.
— Reserves: Jaylen Brown, Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Tyler Herro, Damian Lillard, Evan Mobley, Pascal Siakam.
Western Conference
— Starters: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, LeBron James, Nikola Jokić.
— Reserves: Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards, James Harden, Jaren Jackson Jr., Alperen Sengun, Jalen Williams, Victor Wembanyama.
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