MIAMI — As strength and conditioning coach Bill Foran begins retirement after 33 years with the Heat, he has a message for fans: You will see a different Tyler Herro this season.
“He has totally dedicated himself to the weight room,” Foran said during a phone conversation last weekend. “His body is transformed. He will be a much better athlete.”
Foran said Herro — who was listed at 6-5 and 195 pounds last season — is “up 10 pounds, most in muscle. He’s in great shape. He’s stronger now, more powerful. He will be able to defend better and fight through screens.”
Herro, who said in July that he wants to put on 10 to 12 pounds this summer, displayed his more physical physique in photos posted on social media.
“I think it translates obviously offensively,” Herro said in July of his offseason goal to add weight. “Getting stronger, I can get to my spots easier and just being able to defend bigger guys than me. I want to be able to be as big as the rest of the vets are in the league. So just gaining weight I think will help me tremendously on both ends.”
It has been an eventful summer for the third-year guard, who trained with the U.S. team that scrimmaged against the U.S. Olympic team in July. His girlfriend, Katya Elise Henry, recently gave birth to Herro’s first child, Zya Elise Herro.
And, as usual, he was mobbed by autograph seekers, including one fan who left a car in drive and hopped out to get Herro’s signature, causing the car to crash into a wall. That moment was captured on social media.
Herro averaged 15.1 points and five rebounds and shot 43.1% from the field last season in 54 games, including 15 starts. He began the season as a starter but played off the bench for most of the final three months.
The Strus is confident
After playing for the Heat last season on a two-way contract, wing Max Strus was promoted to a standard NBA contract this offseason when he signed a two-year minimum deal worth $3.5 million in free agency.
Then Strus, 25, went on to impress as the Heat’s primary offensive option in summer league. He averaged 22 points while shooting 41.2% from the field and 41.1% from 3-point range to go along with six rebounds and 2.2 assists in the five summer games he played in.
“It was fun,” Strus said during a recent appearance on Heat teammate Duncan Robinson’s podcast, The Long Shot. “The Heat wanted to put me in a different situation. It’s something that I haven’t been doing. It was more than shooting. ... They had the confidence in me to challenge myself to be more than that. I took it as a challenge, and I think I had a very good summer league.”
Strus, who played in 39 games with the Heat last regular season, added that he has “the utmost confidence in myself right now” following his productive offseason.
“As far as like the confidence things go, I think you made a great point of once you’ve solidified yourself, it just helps so much more,” Strus said on The Long Shot podcast. “Like this summer has been huge for me. Just getting a guaranteed contract, knowing I’m here for two more years, and then summer league was huge for me just to show that I’m capable of doing it at that level and capable of making the shots.”
Heat forecast
The Heat added six-time All-Star guard Kyle Lowry and veteran forwards Markieff Morris and P.J. Tucker in free agency this offseason while also re-signing key players such as Duncan Robinson and Dewayne Dedmon. Stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler also return.
While some believe the moves made this summer will help the Heat take a step forward this upcoming season, ESPN’s Zach Lowe is among those who believe Miami’s roster has a few flaws.
“I want to be clear, I’m talking about the regular season,” Lowe said on a recent episode of his podcast, The Lowe Post. “I’m talking about win totals and seedings and where this team will finish. Fans of this team, I’m not talking about playoff equity, championship equity, which we will get to if you want. But in terms of regular-season wins and where this team will finish in the standings, I am lower than consensus on the Miami Heat, and the reason is very simple.”
That reason is a perceived lack of depth, especially with guard Victor Oladipo expected to miss the first few months of the season as he recovers from knee surgery.
“Love the starting five, which I presume will be Lowry, Robinson, Butler, Tucker, Bam,” Lowe continued. “Lowry, Butler, Bam is like the Bermuda Triangle of hell. They fit perfectly together, no one is going to want any part of that team defensively. They’re awesome. Herro as a sixth man, like it. I think Herro has a bounce-back year. I think the NBA world soured way too fast on Tyler Herro. I think he’s going to have a good year.
“It’s everything after that where I’m like oh my God, Gabe Vincent is the backup point guard. Yeah, he’s shown flashes, [Erik Spoelstra] likes him, we’ll see. Max Strus is going to be heavily involved, Victor Oladipo is hurt, KZ Okpala has never really done it in any of the times he has been given a chance, Markieff Morris is fine, Dedmon as a backup center is fine. The [Omer] Yurtseven kid, who knows? I just think when you look at age and minutes load of the three stars, the age of Kyle Lowry, the age/minutes that Butler has played, Bam is obviously young and can play infinite minutes, plus the lack of depth, plus the likelihood that you’re either load managing some guys to some degree or somebody gets injured, I could see a scenario where Miami is fifth, sixth [in the East].”
