The Miami Heat are hopeful the tandem of Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro can lead the charge once Jimmy Butler departs or retires.

This is nothing more than wishful thinking to NBA analyst Kevin Pelton, who believes Herro already hit the peak of his career.

“Why is Terry Rozier here? I think the reason is Tyler Herro hasn’t developed as a scorer the way the Heat were expecting,” Pelton shared on The Lowe Post. “His usage rate has gone down since winning Sixth Man of the Year, and his efficiency hasn’t improved like you’d hoped in that role. It’s actually gone backwards relative to the league average because it’s basically stayed the same.”

Herro averaged a career-high 20.8 points last season, but did so on 44.1 percent shooting and 39.6 percent from three-point range.

“He’s also never played more than 67 games in a season, the last few years he hasn’t been able to stay healthy on a consistent basis,” Pelton said.

“The reason the Jimmy Butler situation is so fraud is if it’s not Jimmy Butler as the Heat’s best player, then who?” Pelton said. “It doesn’t look like Herro is going to get to that point in his career.”

As podcast host Zach Lowe made note of, All-Star center Bam Adebayo fits the mold of ‘best player’. The good news for the Heat is Herro doesn’t need to reach All-Star status but rather needs to improve in the areas of efficiency and playmaking. The Heat’s depth places less pressure on the stars, spreading the scoring load across the rotation instead of on the shoulders of their Big Three.

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Anthony Pasciolla works as a contributing writer to Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at ampasciolla@gmail.com or follow him on X @AnthonyPasci.

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