Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro won’t be taking part in training camp this week after undergoing surgery on his left ankle earlier this month. But Herro and his representatives do have some business to tend to in the coming days.
That’s because Herro’s window to sign an extension with the Heat — worth as much as $149.7 million through three seasons — opens on Wednesday. Herro expects the Heat and his representatives to meet about a potential extension this week.
“I expect to get something done. But we’ll see what happens,” Herro said Monday before the Heat opened training camp on Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. “I think they’re supposed to meet on Wednesday.”
Herro still has two years left on his current contract at $31 million for this season and $33 million for the 2026-27 season, with any potential extension beginning in the 2027-28 season even if it’s agreed to this year.
Herro’s extension window closes on Oct. 20 just before the start of this regular season. If an agreement is not reached by then, Herro would become eligible to sign an extension worth as much as $206.9 million through four seasons during the 2026 offseason and would become supermax eligible (five years, $380 million) if he’s selected for an All-NBA team this season.
“It is important for me,” Herro, 25, said of the possibility of signing an extension in the coming weeks. “I’ve been here six years. I feel like I’ve earned it. I’m not saying what I’ve earned, but I’ve earned something. I think I deserve it, and I want to be here ultimately. I’ve vocally said that.”
But Herro also made clear that if the sides can’t strike a deal before the start of this regular season, he won’t let any frustration from those negotiations affect his play this season when he does return from injury.
“But I do want to say that it’s not like a top priority and I’m not going to hinder this season on getting an extension or not. I’m not going to lose my joy,” Herro said with a laugh, alluding to former Heat teammate Jimmy Butler’s viral “joy” comment that eventually led to his ugly breakup with the organization. “I ain’t going to lose my joy. I’m excited to play.
“At the end of the day, I have two years on my contract. And if we don’t get something done, I’m not going to be a problem throughout the organization. I’m happy to be here, at the end of the day, and there are two years left. I would love to get something done, like I said, but we’ll see what happens.”
Herro, who accompanied the Heat to Boca Raton for training camp this week despite not being available to practice, also emphasized that he’s willing to negotiate down from the max extension he’s eligible to receive of $149.7 million through three seasons.
Herro already took less than the max when he signed his first extension with the Heat, committing to a four-year deal worth $120 million guaranteed (average of $30 million per season) in 2022 instead of the five-year contract worth $188 million (average of $37.6 million per season) he was eligible for at the time.
“It’s not as important as you all think,” Herro said when asked about the importance of getting a max extension this time around. “It’s not that important to me. Being here is important, but being here at a respectable number. For me, I have a number in my mind like I did on the last contract extension. And that’s why I didn’t accept the max because I wasn’t pressed on that, and I’m not pressed on it now.
“I feel like a lot of people have put out like it’s $50 million or nothing. It’s not that. At the end of the day, I want to be here, as I’ve said. But it’s about respect at the end of the day. So we’ll see what happens.”
Herro’s extension window overlaps with his recovery from ankle surgery, as he underwent surgery “to alleviate posterior impingement syndrome in his left ankle” on Sept. 19 and is expected to miss at least eight weeks from the date of the procedure. That will have Herro out until at least mid-November.
Herro doesn’t expect this short-term setback to impact impending extension talks with the Heat, though.
“This shouldn’t hinder anything,” he said. “I’ll be back damn near Nov. 15, that’s the latest I’ll be back. So you won’t even notice I’m gone. I’ll be back pretty fast.”
Heat president Pat Riley hinted during his season-ending news conference in May that the Heat might wait until next offseason to address a potential Herro extension.
“Pay me now or pay me later, whatever it is,” Riley said in May. “We’ve already talked about it. I talked about it with Tyler, and so we’ll see what happens as we plan. The numbers are getting pretty big for a lot of guys. Max salaries in this league, who do they go to? … But Tyler definitely is deserving of the thought of an extension. But are we going to do it? We haven’t committed to it, but we’re going to discuss it and I’ve already talked to him about it. He’s cool.”
While the Heat deals with Herro’s situation, the organization must also make a decision on forward Nikola Jovic.
Jovic has been eligible to sign an extension with the Heat since July 1. Like Herro, the window for the Heat to sign Jovic to a rookie-scale extension closes on Oct. 20.
Jovic, 22, is eligible to sign a rookie-scale extension up to the max, but any potential deal for him would be far less than the max. If the Heat doesn’t sign Jovic to an extension before the start of this season, he would stand as a restricted free agent next offseason, and Miami would be eligible to match outside offers.
Jovic, who is due $4.4 million this upcoming season in the fourth and final year of his rookie deal, said at Heat Media Day on Monday that he’s not allowing any potential extension discussions to distract him from on-court matters.
“I don’t really talk about it a lot,” Jovic said. “I’m not worried about it. I still have a year left on my deal, and I’ve got a lot of stuff to do and a lot of stuff to show, and we’ll see what’s going to happen in the next 20 days. Hopefully we end up figuring something out.”
As for Herro, he’s preparing for his seventh NBA season after being drafted by the Heat with the 13th overall pick in 2019.
Since then, Herro has developed into one of the most skilled scorers in Heat history. He already enters this season as the Heat’s sixth all-time leading scorer in franchise history with 6,987 points and also ranks second in franchise history with 984 made three-pointers.
Herro finished last regular season as the Heat’s leading scorer on the way to being selected for his first NBA All-Star Game and turning in the best season of his NBA career. He averaged career highs in points (23.9 points per game) and assists (5.5 per game) while shooting a career-best 47.2% from the field last regular season.
“It would mean a lot,” Herro said when asked what a long-term commitment from the Heat would mean to him at this point of his career. “Like I said, it’s part of the reason I want to get something done this summer. But it’s not the end of the world and it’s not my top priority to get something done. Yeah, I would love to do it. But it’s not the top priority. The top priority for me this year is winning and that will handle what I want at the end of the day.”