Inside The Heat

NBA Analyst’s Cold Tyler Herro Take Resurfaces After Latest Stellar Performance

Jake Elman

Dec 20, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) defends Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) during the second half at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Rhona Wise-Imagn Images
Dec 20, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) defends Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) during the second half at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Rhona Wise-Imagn Images / Rhona Wise-Imagn Images
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We’ve all had sports opinions we wish we could take back, whether it’s doubting a player or buying the preseason hype on a team.

Social media means those takes never truly go away, and NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor may wish he had a reset button.

Miami Heat fans celebrated Wednesday’s victory over the New Orleans Pelicans by finding a July 2023 O’Connor post on X (formerly Twitter). At the time, the Heat were reportedly trying to trade guard Tyler Herro for then-Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard.

O’Connor posted a theoretical trade where the Heat would trade Herro, Kyle Lowry, Jaime Jaquez, Nikola Jović, and draft picks to the Blazers for Lillard and big man Jusuf Nurkić.

“Considering the significant price of recent superstars dealt, this return for Portland would go down as one of the worst trades in NBA history,” O’Connor wrote.

Suffice to say, Heat fans had fun mocking O’Connor after Herro’s latest All-Star caliber performance. Herro totaled 32 points—his fifth 30-point game thus far—and four assists in 40 minutes Wednesday against the Pelicans.

Reddit user heatculture03 called O’Connor’s post “one of the worst takes in NBA history.” Another poster compared O’Connor to a typical Reddit user who doesn’t take accountability when they’re wrong.

“Perhaps he’s even worse than a Redditor because he pretends to know s---,” realudonishaslem (we doubt that’s the real Haslem) wrote.

In fairness to O’Connor, his take isn’t specifically aimed at Herro. However, there’s an implied belief Herro wouldn’t be an adequate replacement for Lillard or grow into a dependable franchise player. 

Herro remains on pace to make his first All-Star Game. He entered Thursday’s showdown with the Indiana Pacers averaging 24.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.2 assists. 

“I’m curious as to where everyone who wanted Herro gone is now,” user acceptandprotect wrote. “All of a sudden all the comments are pro Herro but just a summer or two ago half of this sub was crapping all over him. Show y’all faces you phonies.”

Is O’Connor’s Herro take one of the worst in NBA history? Probably not. There were likely people who genuinely believed the Cleveland Cavaliers were correct in drafting Anthony Bennett in 2013. 

However, O’Connor’s take isn’t aging well, especially with Herro emerging as a legitimate superstar. In hindsight, the Heat are probably thrilled they kept Herro, especially with Jimmy Butler potentially on his way out of Miami. 

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Jake Elman works as a contributing writer to Miami Heat on SI. He can be reached at jakeelman97@gmail.com or follow him on X @JakeElman97.

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Jake Elman
JAKE ELMAN

Jake Elman is a veteran sports journalist and graduate of Florida Atlantic University’s journalism program. In recent years, he has covered the NFL for EndGame360 and served as the sports content lead for ExpressVPN. He also covered the Lane Kiffin years at FAU for the Palm Beach Post.