Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) watches his teammates play against the Chicago Bulls in the first half of their NBA game at Kaseya Center on Jan. 31, 2026, in Miami. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com
With the Miami Heat set to reconvene for its first practice after the All-Star break on Thursday in Miami, Heat guard Tyler Herro is nearing his return.
According to a league source, Herro has been recovering from three fractured ribs after suffering a buckle rib fracture during the Heat’s Jan. 10 road loss to the Indiana Pacers. Herro went on to play the next three games with the help of Toradol shots to ease the pain, but a subsequent MRI on his ribs revealed the severity of the injury.
Herro missed the Heat’s final 15 games before the All-Star break because of what the Heat listed as “right costochondral; injury to the ribs,” which refers to the joints where ribs connect to cartilage. That has added to the pain that Herro has dealt with while sidelined.
But Herro will soon make his return, as he’s expected to take part in Thursday’s practice and is expected to return to game action in the coming days. The Heat begins its post All-Star break schedule with a back-to-back set that includes a matchup against the Hawks in Atlanta on Friday and a game against the Memphis Grizzlies in Miami on Saturday.
“He will be back,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said last week when asked whether Herro will return at some point after the All-Star break. “Yes, for sure. I don’t have a timeline exactly of when that will be. ... We’ll see how he progresses.”
Herro’s imminent return is expected to help boost a struggling Heat offense that has been among the NBA’s least efficient units after a solid start to the season. The Heat posted the NBA’s 13th-ranked offensive rating (scoring 115.7 points per 100 possessions) through the first 20 games this season, but has the league’s 22nd-ranked offensive rating (scoring 112.6 points per 100 possessions since.
Herro, who turned 26 on Jan. 20, has missed 45 of the Heat’s first 56 games this season. He missed the first 17 games of the season due to offseason ankle surgery, 13 games because of a toe contusion and now 15 consecutive games because of this rib injury.
Herro, who is eligible to sign an extension worth as much as $206.9 million through four seasons this upcoming offseason, has averaged 21.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and one steal per game while shooting 49.7% from the field and 35.8% from three-point range.
With Herro limited to just 11 games so far this season, the Heat’s leading trio of Bam Adebayo, Herro and Norman Powell have played just 132 minutes together in eight games this season. Miami has outscored its opponent by 6.7 points per 100 possessions in their limited time together.
Herro is in his seventh NBA season after being drafted by the Heat with the 13th overall pick in 2019.
Herro made his first NBA All-Star Game last season, when he averaged career highs in points (23.9 points per game) and assists (5.5 per game) while shooting 47.2% from the field last regular season. He also shot an impressive 37.5% on 8.7 three-point attempts per game while playing in a career-high 77 games (all starts) last regular season after never reaching the 70-game mark through his first five NBA seasons.
The Heat entered the All-Star break in eighth place in the Eastern Conference with a 29-27 record. Miami wants to avoid a fourth straight appearance in the NBA’s play-in tournament, which features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.
The Heat, which is just 15-20 after a strong 14-7 start to the season, is one-half game behind the seventh-place Orlando Magic and two games behind the sixth-place Philadelphia 76ers in the East standings with 26 regular-season games left to play. Miami needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to qualify for the playoffs without needing to take part in the play-in tourney.
With injury issues forcing the Heat to use a different starting lineup in eight straight games leading into the All-Star break, getting Herro and others back from injury will help Miami.
Another thing that will help the Heat is it has a relatively soft schedule ahead. The Heat has the NBA’s seventh-easiest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon.com, based solely on the current combined winning percentage of teams left to play.
“You just look at our defense, our defense is improving,” Spoelstra said last week. “It’s getting better, we’re third or fourth, depending on the metric you look at. It’s the same thing with our offense. The efficiency isn’t exactly where we need it to be, but we can explode on teams. We’re fourth in scoring. It’s a matter of doing it in those moments of truth when it really matters to push a win.
“Offensively, I think when we get our guys back, I think we’re going to be a really dangerous offensive team. We can be fourth in the league in scoring with large parts of our rosters on the sideline. Just wait until we get our guys back into the fold.”