A Change in Role for Tyler Herro on Offense against the Cavaliers
A breakdown of Herro's offense against the Cavaliers
Tyler Herro’s season has come to an end, as the Miami Heat were swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers. This was the second year in which Herro has been the best offensive option in the playoffs.
Last year, it was because of unfortunate circumstances that had Jimmy Butler miss the entire run. He was forced to be the best offensive player against a juggernaut team in the Boston Celtics. In five games, he averaged 18.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per 75 possessions on 48.1% eFG and 51.0% TS. That was a bad series for him, and he said that it was a big reason for his change and development for the season.
During the regular season, he did improve his game and has addressed many of his weaknesses. He had a career year across so many different metrics. That was a whole year’s worth of samples. He closed out the season very well and had two very good play-in games, where he responded when the team needed it.
But now came the playoffs. His second one as the guy, and the first following his rise to being an All-Star this year. That didn’t turn out to be great… on either end of the floor.
Against the Cavaliers, he averaged 19.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per 75 on 48.5% eFG and 51.2% TS. Almost identical to his Celtics series, except he cut his assists in half.
Although the stats are almost identical, this was coming in completely different. He was being used very differently from how he was against Boston, which made it interesting to see. Some of the struggles were directly because of that, too. And related to that, it also came as a result of an elite defense from the Cavaliers, which also has to be credited.
Herro has spoken recently about how the Cavaliers have been defending and how it wasn’t easy to get free with the defense top-locking and face guarding you, basically every single possession. Honestly, if there is big takeaway from this is that both Max Strus and Sam Merrill deserve a lot of credit.
But even before the defense from the Cavaliers gets talked about, how he was being used allowed that kind of defense to be played.
Here are some tracking stats for this year compared to last year:
Touches per 36: 56.5 vs 69.1
Front court touches per 36: 27.0 vs 34.4
Time of possession: 4.0 vs 4.5
Average sec per touch: 4.29 vs 3.78
Average drib per touch: 3.61 vs 3.03
C&S freq: 21.5% vs 28.2%
Pull up freq: 53.8% vs 50.0%
Less than 10ft: 23.1% vs 21.8%
So, pretty much all the same when it comes to the shot profile and how he handled the ball, but what changed the most is the touches dropping significantly. To put that number in perspective, in 2020, as a rookie, he averaged 56.2 in 33.6 minutes.
In comparison to the team, he was also first in touches and time of possession last year. He was third and second this year. We saw Davion Mitchell a lot more as the ball handler initially before Herro got into his actions.
Against the Celtics, he was the lead ball handler and was treated as such. He dominated the ball and also got a lot more shots with the ball in his hands for much longer. He was tasked to create for himself on-ball. In that series, he averaged 7.8 possessions in the PNR, with 40.6% of his offense being that(he scored 0.92 points per and shot 51.6% eFG). He also had 3.4 handoffs, which were 17.7% of his offense(scored 0.65 points per and shot 39.3%). When it comes to his off-ball, he only had 2.0 spot ups, and that was 10.4% freq(1.2 & 60.0%). That’s why he was much higher in touches and was more directly involved with the offense and could’ve had much more of an impact, even if it wasn’t effective.
For this series, it was completely different. His PNR went down to 4.0 possessions and was 20.3% of his offense(0.69 & 32.1%). He did have 3.0 isolations, which were 15.2% of his offense(0.83 & 50.0%). But those two actions combined still don’t even match the amount of offense that he had as a PNR ball handler last year. Instead, he had 4.8 spot-ups this year, which was 24.1%. That was his most-used play type. He was primarily an off-ball player for the first time ever. Again, just using 2020 as a reference, he had 24.4% PNR frequency then and 4.0 possessions.
All of this is significant in how much he was involved, period, and played a big part in how the defense could’ve taken him out of the game. This shift towards a primarily off-ball role was a big reason why the defense was able to play him in such a way and make him less effective in the first place. And even before the effectiveness, the volume of being directly involved in the offense makes it easier to limit because he rarely started with the ball.
That’s also where I tweeted that I’ve been down on his offense in general a lot more than I was against the Celtics, and also have more questions going forward. For that series, the struggles were more valid. He was tasked with a huge offensive workload, and he was the primary option on the ball. There’s also the fact that the Celtics had Jrue Holiday, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Jayson Tatum as the defenders. That is hell for any player.
With this series, I have just been more confused and came away feeling worse about his offense because of how little he was felt in the game, how he was taken out, and against the kind of defenders.
Some will say that he was treated like the number one option. Was he really, though? I saw the exact scheme defended by Strus, Wade, or Merrill against Duncan too. Top locking and face guarding shooters who primarily want to come off screens is a common play. Sure, not having an elite ball-handler that can create the shots does lower what the shooters can do if they can’t get open.
But why was that the primary option for Herro to go about his offense? I do agree with his comments that it was tough to get open against such a defense. That is kind of why off-ball shooters that are role players may drop off in the playoffs. It takes effort constantly trying to get free through so much physicality because they were very physical. My issue is why couldn’t he do something else?
The easiest counter to such a defense is to start with the ball and bring it up yourself. You cannot get denied the ball when you’re starting with it. These weren’t defenders that should’ve put any kind of fear or reluctance to handle the ball, especially when the off-ball stuff clearly wasn’t working.
He wasn’t bringing up the ball as much, barely ever. Based on my tracking, in totality, he brought up the ball 45 times in four games. That’s including every time he simply started with the ball in the backcourt, regardless of what he did after. Some were in just early offense, pushing pace, and transition. But a lot of the time, he simply brought up the ball that followed a quick pass or swing, or just had someone else flow into a different action, as he looked to be off-ball. It wasn’t many instances where he simply brought the ball up into an action, whether it’s to drive, PNR, or anything else.
Not doing that already limits how much he can be involved in the offense. Because what mostly happened is he was simply spacing where there wasn’t any plays or actions run for him. A lot of the possessions were spacing in the far corners, on the wing, above the break, way beyond the 3pt line, or not even on the screen:
In a lot of those clips, he’s also not being guarded tightly, top locked, or face-guarded. A lot of those possessions were simply him being a spacer who looks to shift here and there or just stand in one spot. This was one of the most annoying things to watch. This was borderline James Harden-level off-ball offense. It was these possessions that made him not be felt at all. You could’ve replaced him with any kind of respectable shooter, and it wouldn’t have made a difference.
One point on this is that this is also a team issue, as he wasn’t maximised in this area. There were many possessions where he wasn’t tightly guarded, but certain players instead took contested shots at the rim, challenging 7-footers rather than making a kick to Herro for an open 3pt or simply not recognising the help coming.
This is where not having a reliable offensive player create shots hurts. Herro would’ve had more opportunities as an C&S shooter if he still had Butler.
This is also where I’m just confused by the team’s and coaching’s decision to have Herro in this role at this volume. There were a lot of these possessions, and that was a big reason why he only averaged 56 touches in the first place. I should add that this particular point is less about Herro specifically, but the overall team’s decision to think this was the way to go in using him.
Then there were these possessions, where he was seeing very aggressive and physical defense. A lot of these possessions are ones that either looked to get Herro going off-ball one way or the other. And this is also the part where you do credit the Cavaliers for doing one hell of a job. That’s where that scheme and the individual defense come into play, which allowed such plays to happen.
Just check out some of that defense. Whether it’s Merrill, Strus, Wade, Hunter, or Okoro, a lot of the time, their goal was simply to not let Herro out of your sight or get free. You can see the top-locks any time a pindown comes down or any potential staggers. Those have been very common actions for the Heat to get guys open. I really don’t think he ever came off a stagger fully.
The physicality also played a part. Take this play:
Or this play. This does end in a foul but it just shows what was going on when he tried to get open:
This is where it makes sense why his numbers were lower than usual. It is tough to get open seeing that kind of defense just focused on you and only you.
But that’s also not an excuse that takes any accountability of the player. Because, at the same time, look at how many times he gets denied and does nothing. He looks to move but does so without any intention. He tries to half-assedly get open before just looking to space, doing nothing. That goes back to the previous point where he was spaced out, doing nothing when he could do something.
Standing like that in the corner just bails the defense out. You can’t use the excuse of the defense scheming out when he’s not doing anything to help himself. There were many possessions like this, especially in game three and four.
Being a smart off-ball player is a skill that requires a lot, particularly physically to have the stamina to be constantly moving. It’s not easy trying to get open every single time like that. But this is also where some of the areas come in when it comes to off-ball movement. I didn’t see many counters from him. No jabs. No fakes. No misdirection or using any movement to put defenders out of position. Even when he tried to move, I didn’t see much of a hard intent to get open.
The Heat did look for him to be used as a screener more, but that also became less effective given how he was guarded.
I actually liked the willingness to be constantly used as a screener. The volume was quite up there, whether it was guard screening, ghost screens, or most often, used as a backscreener. But just notice how he’s defended here. The defender doesn’t care about anything else. He’s here to stick with Herro on the screen, and that is it. Nothing else matters. You can see how many times on that backscreen, he has the defender all glued to his body. Even when he looked to screen early, the defense was ready to just prevent that from happening.
There were also other counters that worked, and that was with him constantly looking to move. Him being more active,e combined with having additional screens being set on the other side of the floor worked well. There were these four plays that stood out the most for countering that help.
The physicality is there. He’s getting denied. He even saw two defenders around him. But you continue to move, and eventually you get open, and now you have the advantage against an aggressive defense.
Similar thing here. He’s looking to come off screen but everything is aggressive and he never stops moving. It ends up flowing into a handoff with Strus looking to recover. All of that is just stamina and conditioning to be that active 247.
I liked this the most because this could’ve happened more. Herro gets top locked on the initial pindown from Highsmith, so he decides to backcut and now he can go flow into another pindown from Jovic, where Strus is now trailing. This was a great counter to that kind of defense.
Finally, we also have this play that also just had him be constantly active and never relaxing. Defenders will also get tired of playing this defense. Herro doesn’t resort to just curling around to being a spacer, instead he continues to move into the right space and gets rewarded for it.
This was all of the off-ball stuff. That did make up most of his possessions. A lot more than anything involving him with the ball. But let’s go through his on-ball stuff.
His on-ball scoring also wasn’t great, even when considering the low volume. As mentioned, he only scored 0.65 points per possession in the PNR. That’s not great at all. He had a couple of solid isolation possessions that ended in a tough stepback against Allen and Garland. But outside of that, there wasn’t really much else going.
A big part of the PNR and handoffs being an issue for him was the fact that the Cavaliers were icing every single PNR. I don’t think there were many instances where they let someone use the pick that wasn’t done because of a breakdown. Without the ability to come off the screen, that does limit what Herro could’ve done.
He shot 41.7% from the floor(45.8% eFG) on shots with at least 6 seconds of touch time. He also shot 33.3%(37.5% eFG) on shots with 7+ dribbles. The self-creation scoring was not there. He only went 3/9 on 3s with at least 2 dribbles and 13/29 on 2s with at least 2 dribbles.
The Cavaliers did a good job at running him off the line, where he had a 44.6% 3pt rate, which would’ve been the lowest since 2022. His free-throw rate also dropped from 0.237 in the regular season to 0.154(only up from 0.128 last year vs Celtics).
The main positive is that his touch is still elite. He shot 54.2% within 4-14ft. That space was by far the biggest portion of his shots inside the arc. He took 24 shots there and 12 everywhere else. That was due to the Cavaliers’ defense, and his shot-making made them pay for that. All of that early help in the paint takes away the rim and deeper drives, but for him is a legitimate weapon that is highly efficient.
That was one of the reasons why he had some good, late isolation plays. He managed to get some open looks and had that floater at his disposal. A lot of those looks were late clock with someone needing to get something, and he did manage to get the best shot available in that moment.
But also, too many times, any time he ran an action, it had no advantages either. No beating anyone off the dribble or forcing much help, and it all just resulted in swinging the ball.
Combine that with the lack of volume, and his playmaking was non-existent. He only had a 13.5% AST to 11.5% TOV. He averaged 35 passes and only 4.0 potential assists — for comparison, he had 6.2 in 2020 and 10.8 in 2024. The turnover was also a concern. On his isolations, he had a 16.7% TOV freq. Third worst in the playoffs out of 30 qualifying players.
Last year, I just came away from the Celtics series with what’s already known. He isn’t suited for an on-ball role that is the primary ball handler responsible for creating for himself and for others.
But after this series, I’m just left more confused and with more question marks around his offense. The split between him being on-ball and off-ball has been the biggest question mark. Why was he even averaging fewer touches than he did as a rookie? That part specifically is more on the coaching.
Beyond that, when it comes to him, despite the kind of defense that he was seeing, I’m also left disappointed that there weren’t many counters to that. Too often, he just didn’t try to get free after the initial move from the defense that took away an action. Being able to get taken out of the game by a simple top-lock raises an alarm.
All of that made his impact on offense very quiet. But again, how much of that was just him and the coaches’ game plan is something we won’t know. Though when addressing his comments about needing to counter such a defense, the easiest way was to get him starting with the ball, and we didn’t really see that.
The on-ball stuff wasn’t particularly different from what he’s done in the regular season. The turnover was a bit of an issue, and the a decline in playmaking. He’s had some good reads when he did drive… but that was on very low volume. The PNR was limited, and that was because of the Cavaliers’ defense simply not allowing to have the screen to be used. That is another alarm being raised.
Overall, this series just raised more questions about his role on offense and how effective he could be if he’s not primarily an on-ball guard or if the defense schemes against him(we’ll have more of a general discussion about that in a separate piece).