The Heat didn’t have Goran Dragic available for this game. They also didn’t have Jimmy “You Need Me, You Can’t Win Without Me” Butler available for this game. So who was going to handle the ball for the Heat in this game?
You’re watching a highlight video for Tyler Herro, so obviously the answer to my rhetorical question is Tyler Herro. Tyler Herro would be the one to handle the ball for the Heat in this game. If you didn’t come up with that answer yourself, you should be ashamed.
Does the fact that Herro accumulated so many assists prove that the Heat system is tailor-made for point forwards to stuff the stat-sheet? We’ve already seen it with Justise Winslow, who was full-time point guard for at least stretches of last season, and would regularly record high assist totals. Jimmy Butler is also flourishing in a role where he acts as the primary ball-handler. Bam Adebayo at the center position is emerging as a premier passing bigman. Now Tyler Herro, who previously had shown a willingness to pass but had never been put in a position to dictate the flow of the offense, gets ten assists like it’s no problem at all. It’s easy to make over-the-top proclamations like “HERRO IS THE NEXT LEBRON” and “THIS GUY WILL BE LUKA IN TWO YEARS MARK MY WORDS”, but maybe we should be making proclamations like “SPOELSTRA HAS ENGINEERED A TOP THREE OFFENSE IN THE NBA” and “THE HEAT’S TEAM-WIDE COMMITMENT TO BALL MOVEMENT INFLATES EVERYBODY’S STATS”.
I honestly think you could stick Luke Babbitt in this system and he would average six assists per game. No lie. Somebody please test this theory (somebody meaning Pat Riley). First step: figure out if Luke Babbitt is still alive. Because I’m not sure he actually is.