Heat President Pat Riley admits they missed Tyler Herro in the NBA Finals: ‘People don’t understand just how lethal he is’

This past season was quite the rollercoaster ride for the Heat, as they became only the second No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals, and ultimately lost the championship series to the Denver Nuggets. However, they proved they could beat adversity time and time again, as they remain hopeful to stay at the top for the upcoming campaign.

What we can already tell is how badly the South Beach club is looking for a guard to accompany stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, as they’ve been in the news trying to trade for Bradley Beal (who decided to go to Phoenix this Sunday) and now are following Damian Lillard’s footsteps.

In spite of this, there’s one guard who was dearly missed in the NBA Finals as he had suffered an injury in the first round of the playoffs and never recovered fast enough to return at the final stages. We are talking about Tyler Herro, who is now rumored to being considered a trade asset for this summer market.

Miami’s President Pat Riley recieved a media session this Tuesday and referred to Herro, implying that the series against Denver might of been different with his presence on court.

“We missed him (Herro) (in the playoffs),” Riley said. “People don’t understand just how lethal he is. He gets bigger in the biggest moments. We’ve got two anchors in (center) Bam (Adebayo) and Tyler.”

Check out Riley’s entire press conference which opened up about the team’s offseason objectives:

23-year-old Tyler comes from playing 67 matches for the Heat this season, the most he’s ever participated in a single competition. He also averaged 20.1 points, 4.2 assist and a career-best 5.4 rebounds per contest.

Riley dedicated almost 40 minutes to the press to deliver a end-of-season review and explain how they expect to come back even stronger for the 2023/24 tournament.

“Another championship team, that’s my goal,” he assured. “I have no other plans other than to do that.”

According to Riley, there’s no need to use a wrecking ball to rebuild a team that is already strong

“We’re not going to take a wrecking ball to this thing,” the former NBA player and coach said, making numerous references to Bruce Springsteen’s music.

“Good times come, good times come. Hard times come, hard times come,” he kept at it. “We’re not going to take a wrecking ball to a good team that had some real adversity this year. We had a good team, probably a great team. We wouldn’t have as gotten as far as we have, and there’s no caveat in any of that, if you weren’t a great team.”

They are also awaiting to add the No. 18 pick on this Thursday’s draft and know that the following free agency will present a lot of interesting market movement.

“Persistence and perseverance has been something that’s been part of my life forever. Just has been,” Riley said. “And patience is the last thing that came with it. And so, we’re going to show some patience here instead of react without knowing what the consequences could be in doing something. So right now, this is what we have.”

78-year-old Pat, who has been part of nine NBA championships (three with the Heat), has no plans of retiring or slowing down.