MIAMI — With the Miami Heat’s direction uncertain going forward, guard Tyler Herro wound up without a contract extension by Monday’s 11:59 p.m. deadline.
Instead, Herro, who became an NBA All-Star for the first time last season, will have to wait until July to see whether years will be added onto a current contract that otherwise would expire after 2026-27.
As it is, Herro will remain under contract for the impending season with a $31 million salary, then also under contract in 2026-27 for $33 million.
Herro’s negotiation window from Oct. 1-Oct. 20 came with the seventh-year guard recovering from last month’s ankle surgery, expected to miss the first three weeks in a season that for the Heat opens Wednesday night against the Orlando Magic at Kia Center.
The question next becomes whether the price will go up with Herro and the Heat failing to lock in an extension as quickly as they did when Herro’s initial rookie-scale contract became eligible for an extension in 2022.
Herro, 25, was eligible for a three-year extension for a maximum of $150 million. Starting in July, he would be eligible for a four-year extension at a maximum of $207 million. He also would become eligible next summer for a five-year, $380 million supermax extension if he were to be named All-NBA this coming season, a status he has yet to attain since being selected at No 13 by the Heat in the 2019 NBA draft out of Kentucky.
A year ago, the Heat went through the preseason with a similar extension possibility looming. The Heat at that point bypassed an extension with forward Jimmy Butler, who subsequently acted out and was dealt to the Golden State Warriors at midseason (where he received the extension bypassed by the Heat).
Herro said on the eve of training camp that he saw the opportunity to be locked in long term by the Heat.
“I expect to get something done,” he said.
But he also made clear there would not be Butler-like antics if a deal was not struck, certainly nothing like when Butler voiced displeasure last January about losing his joy.
“I’m not going to lose my joy,” Herro said with a laugh as teammates completed media day at Kaseya Center on Sept. 29. “I ain’t going to lose my joy.”
Herro made clear during that interview with a pair of reporters in the hallway leading to the Heat locker room that it was not about seeking the maximum.
“It’s not as important as you all think, I will say that,” Herro said. “It’s not that important to me. Being here is important — but being here at a respectable number, I should say. And for me, I have a number in my mind, as I did on the last contract extension. And that’s why I didn’t accept the max, because I wasn’t pressed on it, and I’m not pressed on it now.
“And I feel like a lot of people have put out that it’s $50 million or nothing. And it’s not that. You know what I mean? And at the end of the day, I want to be here, as I’ve said. But it’s about respect at the end of the day. So we’ll see what happens.”
What has happened is a waiting game, as the Heat gauge the team’s direction after last season’s tumble to 37-45 and outside expectations of something potentially worse this season.
Herro said his play will offer clarity of where he stands with both his ankle and his attitude.
“I still got two years left on my deal,” he said. “And this shouldn’t hinder anything. I’ll be back damn near November 15, is the latest I’ll be back, right? So you won’t even notice I’m gone. I’ll be back pretty fast.”
So, once again, in prove-it mode.
“I’m not going to be a problem throughout the organization,” he said last month of moving forward without an extension. “I’m happy to be here at the end of the day. And there’s two years left.”
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The lack of an extension does not necessarily mean a lack of appreciation.
Nor does it mean a lack of appreciation that the cost could rise.
“Pay me now or pay me later, whatever it is,” Heat President Pat Riley said in his 2024-25 season wrap-up media session in May.
“But Tyler definitely is deserving of the thought of an extension.”
Just, ultimately, not now.
“He’s pivotal for us as an offensive player,” Riley said. “We just need more around him that can do a little bit of what he does, because now he’s getting beat up, he’s getting schemed, overly schemed and so we’ll learn a lot about that. Tyler is a player. And I hope he can stay here the rest of his career and we can build a team that he’s part of.”
The Heat now have extension windows open with Norman Powell and Andrew Wiggins through the end of the season, with fourth-year forward Nikola Jovic earlier this month agreeing to a four-year, $62.4 million rookie-scale extension, in a window that also closed Monday.
