NBA Daily: Tyler Herro Not Lacking Confidence Going Into Draft

After receiving feedback from his agent and people around the league, Kentucky Wildcats freshman Tyler Herro decided to keep his name in the draft. Most players that aren’t guaranteed-locks for the lottery now have the opportunity to hire an agent, test the professional waters, then return to college hoops if they feel like they want to continue to develop.

“My hope was always to remain in the draft and begin my lifelong dream of playing in the NBA,” said Herro in a video posted to his Twitter account, “This year [with Kentucky] was everything I hoped for and more – Coach [John Calipari] and his staff challenged me to be a complete basketball player and I truly believe I’ve done that and improved in all areas of my game.”

And improve Herro has. He started in all 37 games the Wildcats played this season, averaging 14 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He shot 46.2 percent from the field and 35.5 percent from three. Likely his most impressive mark was shooting 93.5 percent from the free throw line.

Herro brings a skill set that is much-needed in today’s NBA. While his sub-36 percent three-point shooting might not jump off the pages, shooting is his forte. He has incredible form, a high release and he squares his shoulders up incredibly well.

He is perhaps slightly undersized at only 6-foot-5, and his 6-foot-3 wingspan won’t help him any on defense, but he is athletic enough to hang in the league and his shooting could certainly make him valuable to any franchise in need of offense.

Basketball Insiders had the opportunity to catch up with Herro at this year’s NBA Draft Combine in Chicago.

He discussed the week of waiting where he tentatively declared for the draft, then confirmed he was entering after receiving positive feedback.

“Coach Cal just wanted to get as much feedback as possible for me,” Herro said. “I pretty much told him – when I first announced – that I was leaving no matter what, but he said ‘just leave it open, I want to get the right feedback for you’ and he got what I wanted to hear so I made the decision to leave.”

When asked what he wanted to hear, Herro responded, “I’m going to hopefully be a top-20 pick.”

He is right on the money there. Most mock drafts have Herro in the high-teens to low-20’s. He might not be a complete enough package to vault him into the lottery, but his shooting alone – combined with the fact that he is still just 19 years old – certainly cements him in the mid-to-late first round.

Herro talked about his ability to score, particularly off the pick-and-roll.

“I think I can play in the pick-and-roll and make reads off that and score at all three levels,” he said.

He mentioned a lot of teams haven’t seen what he is capable of when he has the ball in his hands – as he was primarily used as an off-ball shooter at Kentucky.

Herro – being a four-star recruit coming out of high school – was not expected to be a one-and-done guy.

“Being able to get on that stage at Kentucky and show what I’m about is the reason I’m here,” he said.

His play significantly improved throughout the season. January and on, his three-point percentage was well above 40 percent.

He still has a long road ahead of him, but Herro certainly isn’t lacking confidence. Going from a four-star recruit to one-and-done didn’t seem like that much of a stretch to him. He mentioned always believing that he was an NBA-caliber player.

Now, Tyler Herro’s dream of becoming an NBA player is less than a month away.