MIAMI — Don’t bother asking Tyler Herro to define a typical NBA postseason.
He still doesn’t know.
As a rookie in 2020, there was the quarantine bubble at Disney World amid the pandemic, and a trip to the NBA Finals played in the void of spectators. In his second year, there was nothing more than a first-round sweep in 2021 at the hands of his hometown Milwaukee Bucks. Then, last year, an injury-riddled close to a ride to the Eastern Conference finals, practically immobilized at the finish by a strained left groin.
So now, even with the Heat back in the postseason, playing for the first time as a starter in the postseason, Herro appreciates what is old is very new again, this time starting with Tuesday night’s play-in game against the Atlanta Hawks at the Kaseya Center, the new name for the team’s arena.
“Every year’s a new year,” he said at Tuesday morning’s shootaround. “I think that’s one thing I’ve learned in my short time here in the league, is every year’s a new year, even if you bring the same group back.
“So whatever challenges that present from year to year, they’re different.”
But still with a feeling of the possibilities of more of the same from the 2022 playoffs.
“This team is built for the playoffs,” Herro said, “and obviously having a guy like Jimmy [Butler], with a bunch of other guys who can follow his lead, I think we’ll be the same team we were in the playoffs last year.”
The difference last season is the Heat entered as the top seed in the Eastern Conference. This time, it is after a seventh-place finish, entering the play-in round needing one win in two games to advance to the best-of-seven opening round this weekend.
“We’ve just got to continue to get better,” Herro said, “and hopefully our offense and our defense are trending in the right direction.”
While Herro played a starter in the 2020 NBA Finals as an injury replacement, with Goran Dragic ailing, this is the first time entering a postseason in that role. That has him appreciating the need to play more from a position of leadership.
“Obviously I’m young,” Herro, 23, said. “But I don’t feel young anymore as far as my experience in the league. So I will be a little bit more vocal and a little bit more experienced as a leader.
“I feel like I’ve been here before, and I have a better understanding of what it takes to get the job done from game to game, series to series, and ultimately to win a championship.”
Same old
When it comes to the Heat’s entrance point to this postseason, Butler said it makes no difference to him regarding the ultimate goal, for one particular reason.
“It’s all the same,” he said. “Didn’t nobody pick us to win last year, either. So who cares. Y’all not going to pick us this year, still don’t give a damn.
“In 10 years, y’all still not going to pick us. Still don’t give a damn.”
Name dropping
With Dwane Casey stepping down as coach of the Detroit Pistons and with Stephen Silas dismissed as coach of the Houston Rockets, there again is a degree of Heat buzz in the coaching carousel.
This time it’s Erik Spoelstra’s lead assistant, Chris Quinn, whose name has been floated as a possible candidate.
BetOnline has the former Heat guard at 20-to-1 odds for both the Detroit and Houston jobs.
Quinn, 39, joined the Heat in 2014, after working one season as an assistant coach at Northwestern University.
Among previous Spoelstra assistants, David Fizdale went on to become coach of the Memphis Grizzlies and New York Knicks, with Juwan Howard becoming coach at the University of Michigan.
