NBA reporters comment on Tyler Herro's recent offensive fit

Tyler Herro continues to work back from a foot injury after going through with a procedure late in the off-season. Soreness still a concern, as he just played his 6th game of the season a night ago in Orlando.

The Heat have a 3-3 record with him this season, as he's put up 23.2 points a game through those six games. He's generally found an individual offensive rhythm, but one NBA reporter believes it's come with a price for two other key Heat rotation pieces.

Brian Windhorst says Tyler Herro returning has messed up Kel’el Ware and Jaime Jaquez “mojo”

“Ware and Jaquez had bigger roles before Herro came back and playing great. Since that has happened, In addition to league catching up, them two have lost their mojo a little bit”

(Via… pic.twitter.com/QqM7u0ynw6
— Heat Central (@HeatCulture13) December 10, 2025

Brian Windhorst suggests Jaime Jaquez Jr and Kel'el Ware have taken a bit of a hit, stating "Ware and Jaquez had bigger roles before Herro came back and playing great. Since that has happened, In addition to league catching up, them two have lost their mojo a little bit."

Emphasis on the middle part of that quote. The league is catching up to their style as of late, which most likely would've happened if Herro returned or not.

Defenses are countering Miami with size, picking them up full court to eliminate their transition success, and throwing more zone their way as they've struggled from three a ton.

After Ware played just 12 minutes a night ago against a bigger Magic group, I wouldn't say that correlates to Herro's role. In many ways, as they try to wall up the defense behind him, going to more Ware next to Bam Adebayo feels like it should be even more of a priority.

As for Jaquez Jr, it does feel he's been the one to take the biggest hit. After running his own second unit for much of the season at a high level, the staggering of Herro and Norman Powell has dropped his usage little by little.

But once again, is Herro all the blame? The Miami Heat's bench unit has been on a steady decline around him for some time now. Simone Fontecchio looking for his shot, Ware's minutes dropping, Nikola Jovic out of the rotation, and Pelle Larsson injured and prepared to miss some time.

Another NBA reporter suggests that the timing of this all for Herro and the Heat couldn't have come at a worse time.

Tyler Herro's disaster scenario is here pic.twitter.com/dQSH9Xb5du
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) December 10, 2025

Dan LeBatard calls this a disaster scenario, saying "The worst possible thing has happened to Tyler Herro, which is in the last 6 games, 5 of them have been lost by the Heat. And worse than that, all of the fun of 'hey we score 140 points a game,' disappeared as soon as he reappeared."

As the Heat have lost 5 of their last 6, it's also important to note that Herro missed two of those losses. But as the Miami Heat have gotten whole, there's no doubt the offense has taken a step back in both point totals and stylistic differences.

As I mentioned already, defenses scheming this up a bit has played into it.

But even deeper than that, the Heat's primary scorers have been aiming to be just that: scorers. Davion Mitchell posted nine assists against the Magic a night ago, as the other four starters of Herro-Powell-Andrew Wiggins-Adebayo posted nine assists combined.

This half-court offense is a 1-on-1 game, no doubt about it. But what made it special early in the year was the ball and body movement that aligned with the process. This isn't on just Herro. It's a byproduct of everybody trying too hard to make this work.

Almost like they're operating as if there isn't a recent 25 point per game scorer being added back into the mix. The Heat have to be somewhat real here and look at themselves in the mirror saying "this isn't the same as before."

Not in a bad way either. There are plenty of mouths to feed, and now it's time to get to the drawing board and divide the food up properly onto everybody's plate.

Playing the blame game is the usual in the NBA world. But it instead needs to be solution time amid recent skid.