How Tyler Herro fuels the best version of the Miami Heat: 'Last year was the aberration, not this year'

JUST ACROSS THE street from FTX Arena, on a billboard space that was regularly occupied by Dwyane Wade during his legendary Miami Heat tenure, Tyler Herro is all angles, pictured in a Hudson Jeans advertisement dribbling a basketball, wearing a short-sleeved black T-shirt, ripped black jeans and black boots.

Inside the arena on this Monday in March, Herro starts his night against the Sacramento Kings by modeling that springy jump shot, floating slightly to his right and nailing a 3-pointer from the «Ray Allen corner.»

By the finish of this Heat win, which ends a tumultuous four-game losing streak that featured a sideline shouting match between Jimmy Butler, Udonis Haslem and Erik Spoelstra, Herro had dropped in a few more 3s on his way to 20 points, six assists and five boards.

Now in his third year, with a breakthrough regular season behind him and probable Sixth Man of the Year award ahead, Herro is playing in these playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks as possibly the most important player on the No. 1 team in a loaded Eastern Conference. As the most natural scorer on a deep Heat team, the 22-year-old reserve is most suited to unlocking a Miami offense that has been the source of consternation late in the season, and late in games all season.

On a team with Butler, Kyle Lowry and Bam Adebayo, it's Herro who provides the most effortless offense — a three-level threat no one else on the roster can match.

«We trust in him a lot,» Butler said. «Obviously he has the ball a lot of the time, and obviously when someone does have the ball that much, you trust in them to take the right shots, which he does, and get everybody involved, which he does.

»But he's grown since he came into the league. He's going to continue to do that.