Guard Tyler Herro won’t be signing an extension with the Miami Heat this year.
Monday’s 11:59 p.m. deadline for Herro to sign an extension with the Heat this year passed without the two sides reaching an agreement, a league source told the Miami Herald. After Herro turned in the best season of his NBA career last season, the Heat wants to see how he follows that up in the months ahead.
According to a source, the Heat and Herro’s representation had discussions, but the Heat had not made a firm offer as of this past Friday
Herro, 25, was eligible to sign an extension worth as much as $149.7 million with the Heat this year. The window to sign such a deal opened on Oct. 1 and closed Monday at 11:59 p.m. just a few days before the Heat opens the regular season on Wednesday against the Magic in Orlando.
Herro’s next opportunity to sign an extension with the Heat will come next year, and that negotiating window will open July 1, 2026 and close on June 30, 2027. He’ll be eligible to sign an extension worth as much as $206.9 million through four seasons during that window and would become supermax eligible (five years, $380 million) if he’s selected for an All-NBA team this season.
Herro still has two years left on his current contract at $31 million for this season and $33 million for the 2026-27 season. So any potential extension for Herro would begin in the 2027-28 season.
If the Heat and Herro can’t agree to an extension by June 30, 2027, he would become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2027.
“It is important for me,” Herro said during the Heat’s annual Media Day on Sept. 29 regarding the possibility of signing an extension. “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 last month that if the sides couldn’t strike a deal before the start of this regular season, he wouldn’t let any frustration from those negotiations affect his play.
“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 on Sept. 29 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.”
Unfortunately for Herro, his extension window overlapped with his recovery from ankle surgery after he underwent surgery “to alleviate posterior impingement syndrome in his left ankle” on Sept. 19. He’s expected to miss at least the first month of the regular season.
Heat president Pat Riley hinted during his season-ending news conference in May that the Heat would 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.”
Herro is 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. 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.
Earlier this month, the Heat signed forward Nikola Jovic to a four-year, $62.4 million rookie scale extension that keeps him under contract with the team through the 2029-30 season.
In July 2024, the Heat signed center Bam Adebayo to a three-year maximum contract extension worth about $166 million. This deal keeps Adebayo under contract with the team through the 2028-29 season.
But Herro will need to wait on his potential extension.
“It would mean a lot,” Herro said last month 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.”
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Anthony Chiang
Miami Herald
Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.
