Inside The Heat

`Baby Goats' have lasting impact for Miami Heat in first season

First-year Miami Heat players Tyler Herro, Kendrick Nunn and Chris Silva paid immediate dividends
Shandel Richardson|
`Baby Goats' have lasting impact for Miami Heat in first season
`Baby Goats' have lasting impact for Miami Heat in first season

It was late December when Miami Heat rookie Tyler Herro first introduced the clique. 

After a victory against the Philadelphia 76ers, he was asked about the `Baby Goat Gang." It is the nickname for the Heat's group of rookies that includes Herro, Kendrick Nunn and Chris Silva. The trio often made hand gestures toward each other on the court after making a big play. 

“It’s the pinky, baby goat,” Herro said. “We started that, a little trend we got going on. It’s carried around throughout the locker room and it’s a good thing going on right now. It started off as just me and K-Nunn and then Silva decided he wanted to join along so he’s in it now, too.”

Herro, Nunn and Silva were quite the combination before the regular season was suspended March 11 due to the coronavirus outbreak. They have been arguably the Heat's deepest rookie crop in franchise history. Josh Richardson and Justise Winslow were effective in 2015. So were Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers in 2008. And there is the 2003 when the Heat landed Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem.

This year's class, however, has been more about depth. Nunn, who played in the Rising Stars Challenge during NBA All-Star Weekend, is on pace to earn first-team All-Rookie honors after averaging 15.6 points, 3.4 assists and 2.7 rebounds. He went undrafted in 2018 before making a name for himself on the Heat's summer league team. 

Herro was off to a fast start but was slowed by a midseason ankle injury. He still is seventh among rookie scoring leaders at 12.9 points a game. Silva, another undrafted player, averaged 2.9 points and 2.7 rebounds while splitting time with the franchise's G League affiliate in Sioux Falls. He's already drawing comparisons to Haslem because of their similar work ethic. 

It will take a few more years to truly evaluate the class' place in Heat history. 

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star. TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here

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