Inside The Heat

Look who is back on the court for the Miami Heat

Ethan J. Skolnick|
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Miami Heat

The time appears to be near.

The Miami Heat have risen to the top of the scoring charts without their leading scorer from last season, but all signs are pointing to a return -- and perhaps another boost -- before too much longer.

Tyler Herro is on the trip to New York with the Heat, and while he won't play against the New York Knicks on Friday night, he has clearly increased his activity. That has been evident not only in Herro's most recent social media posts, but also in his sighting at Madison Square Garden a few hours prior to Friday's contest. Long-time Heat radio voice Jose Paneda was among whose captured Herro's work, alongside future backcourt mate Norman Powell, who is off to a scorching start this season.

The Heat have still not indicated exactly when Herro will be in the lineup and, as is their custom, likely won't until the night it happens. They tend to be conservative and cryptic. But we are right around the eight-week timeline from the date of the surgery that the team put on their original release, and there's been no word of a setback. Instead, Herro has been hyping his recovery himself.

He has been telling the world he is "In mode."

Herro has also been active in other promotional ways, for Nike and for the Heat's re-release of a Vice jersey. In that one, he has a message. One that resonates with Heat fans, who are accustomed to big winning, and want to see more from Herro in the postseason. As good as he's been in the regular season, the Heat went to the 2023 NBA Finals largely without him and, after a healthy 2024-25 season, he's been injured to start this one. Still, Miami hasn't sunk.

There's considerable anticipation for Herro's return, not just because he was an All-Star last season for the first time, but also because the Heat must assess how he and Powell fit prior to offering contract extensions to either. Powell's contract is up at the end of this season, and Herro the season after that. How much can Miami pay that backcourt while also paying Bam Adebayo a maximum?

Those are questions to come.

For now, the answer to the question of when Herro will be playing again seems to be.... soon. Quite soon.

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Ethan J. Skolnick
ETHAN J. SKOLNICK

Ethan has covered all major sports -- in South Florida and beyond -- since 1996 and is one of the longest-tenured fully credentialed members of the Miami Heat. He has covered, in total, more than 30 NBA Finals, Super Bowls, World Series and Stanley Cup Finals. After working full-time for the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Bleacher Report and several other outlets, he founded the Five Reasons Sports Network in 2019 and began hosting the Five on the Floor podcast as part of that network. The podcast is regularly among the most downloaded one-team focused NBA podcasts in the nation, and the network is the largest independent sports outlet in South Florida, by views, listens and social media reach. He has a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University and an M.S. from Columbia University. TWITTER: @EthanJSkolnick and @5ReasonsSports EMAIL: fllscribe@gmail.com

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