Tyler Herro’s name was constantly brought up in trade talks over the summer and it seemed like he was destined to head to Portland in a deal for Damian Lillard.
He remained at Miami and the team’s president, Pat Riley, has irrevocably denied that the franchise was looking to trade one of their core pieces.
“We have never shopped him and had no interest in ever trading the guy,” Riley said of Herro via AP News. “But when you’re talking about acquiring one of the top five players in the league, there isn’t anybody on our team that won’t be discussed.”
To be in contention again this season, Riley knows that the team is only as good as it’s core of Herro, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
“To win it, it’s going to take this mentality on the part of our team and on the part of our three best players—most importantly, Jimmy and Bam and Tyler,” Riley said. “They’re the guys we really look to, the guys that are getting paid, they have to have far and away their career-best years that impact winning. So, whatever that is, scoring, rebounding, assists, not turning it over, defensively, whatever it is…that’s what it’s going to take.”
In his 29th season with the Heat, Riley believes his team has “as good a chance as anybody” to win the Eastern Conference.
However, if the team’s current core doesn’t yield results this season, Riley says change may have to happen.
“If you build a team around one or two players, three players, and you don’t win the championship, then you might have to start thinking: ‘OK, this is not going to work. This is not going to happen,’” Riley said. “Maybe you see that in Milwaukee, maybe you see that in Boston. They got to those windows and made moves.”
The Heat will begin their season on Wednesday night, hosting the Pistons at 7:30 p.m. ET.
It will be Herro’s first game back since suffering a broken hand in the first round of the playoffs against the Bucks last season.
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