When Tyler Herro makes his eventual return, who is the odd man out?

Things are clicking for the injury ridden Miami Heat through the first 10 games of the season. A 6-4 record, a revived offensive playbook, and a top five defense doesn't seem so bad for the rotating list on the daily injury report.

The primary name on that list this season has been Tyler Herro, who underwent surgery on his left foot late in the off-season leading to him missing a chunk of time to start the year.

But it appears Herro's return may be closer than we think. New photos of him going through some on-court training have come out, as it was originally noted that his recovery time would take him to some point in November.

Looks like Tyler Herro has been back on the court again 👀

Return is coming soon ⏰ pic.twitter.com/jXBhfPKL2Z
— Heat Central (@HeatCulture13) November 9, 2025

When projecting forward to Herro's eventual season debut, there really shouldn't be any worry about him fitting into this new system. Some believe Herro won't fit into a style that consists of catch and shoot threes, early clock transition shot attempts, and the ability to flicker from on and off the ball as he chooses?

Yeah, I don't buy it.

But whenever the Heat do end up becoming whole, there will be some tough, tough decisions that will be forced to be made. Even with Herro and Bam Adebayo currently sidelined, the Heat have a strong nine man rotation of guys that are individually playing at an extremely high level.

By a process of elimination, you can pretty much write in four immediate starters when healthy: Herro, Adebayo, Norman Powell, and Andrew Wiggins.

The fifth starter becomes a bit more interesting. Could you go small with Davion Mitchell? Go big with Kel'el Ware? Does Nikola Jovic build off his recent hot night?

That starting lineup debate I'll leave for another time, but those three fluctuating starters are definites in their rotation when healthy.

Jaime Jaquez Jr needs to immediately be mentioned after. He was somebody who was looked at as benefitting from Herro being out, as it was a time to prove himself as a rotation player. And he has done that plus more, on his way to 17 points a night to start the year.

Those eight guys leave the Heat with a solid start to the rotation, and with some more names to go, it's important to note that we're beyond the days of a tight nine man rotation. In the new fast and taxing style, a ten man rotation is the way to go.

Even without Tyler Herro, Pelle Larsson was somebody on the outside looking in a few weeks ago. He got extended opportunities in that starting lineup as of late, and hasn't taken it for granted one bit.

He can add in high scoring totals no doubt, but his off-ball impact, scrappy defense, and pure energy just can't be sitting on your bench in his warm-ups moving forward. With all of the high level scoring in the rotation at that point, you need some dirty work guys like Larsson.

THEY NOT READY FOR YEAR 2 PELLE LARSSON BREAKOUT SEASON

TONS OF POTENTIALpic.twitter.com/szZCN1KZ2h
— 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙩𝘾𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 (@WadexFlash) November 9, 2025

That brings us to the last two guys: Dru Smith and Simone Fontecchio.

Smith's back-up point guard role behind Davion Mitchell has gone about as well as it could have to start the year. He hasn't made many mistakes, hitting shots from the outside consistently, been a huge part of the second unit's defensive surges, and just makes a huge impact on any lineup he's in.

He feels like a definite rotation guy with Erik Spoelstra's willingness to lean into him, but could Mitchell and Smith coming off the bench together change things?

It actually does feel like Miami will play them together at times, which definitely means going small in the back-court, but staggering from the staff will be needed to place their two hard nosed point of attack defenders in the right lineups.

It's tough that Simone Fontecchio is the last name to mention, since he's been so effective as a movement shooter to start his Heat career. Movement shooting may be selling him short a bit, since he's been an underrated attacker and has held up defensively.

But in a rotation that would now have the shooting of both Herro and Powell on or off the ball, it means that Fontecchio's minutes are less dire. Herro and Powell are going to be staggered a ton whenever he gets back, which means every lineup should have a high level scorer and shooting threat.

Whoever the guy on the outside looking in ends up being, should embrace that 'stay ready so you don't have to get ready' motto more than ever. Staying fully healthy is almost impossible in this league, so opportunities will keep flying all the way down the line.