Tyler Herro’s season is most likely over unless the Miami Heat can pull off a miracle in the postseason.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, the Heat guard Herro revealed that he plans to get surgery on his broken right hand on Friday (per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel). Herro added that he has been told that his earliest possible return from the injury would be in the NBA Finals.
This is consistent with a report from Chris Haynes of TNT, who tweeted over the weekend that Herro was expected to miss about four-to-six weeks with the injury (officially, broken ring and middle fingers on his shooting hand).
The former Sixth Man of the Year Herro was injured in Game 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks when he came down awkwardly on a dive for a loose ball (video here). The Heat would hold on for the 130-117 upset victory, but the Herro injury put a major damper on things. Now Miami will have to rely on some combination of Victor Oladipo, Caleb Martin, and Duncan Robinson to replace Herro’s offensive production.
The conference finals begin in mid-May with Game 1 of the Finals slated for June 1 (which would mark about six-and-a-half weeks since Herro’s injury). The Heat obviously have to worry about the No. 1-seeded Bucks right now. But if they can somehow survive that series, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics (the two other East juggernauts) are fortunately on the other side of the bracket. The Milwaukee series is actually looking like a toss-up at the moment too given the injury situation the Bucks are facing themselves.
