‘Had my s**t packed up:’ Tyler Herro makes wild admission following Damian Lillard trade

Tyler Herro has turned the page from a wildly tumultuous to the 2023-24 season. Looking back on an offseason that almost changed his career forever, though, the Miami Heat star admitted just how confident he was about being dealt for Damian Lillard.

“I thought I was out of here,” Herro told Wes Goldberg of The Ringer. “I damn near had my s**t packed up.”

Herro’s summer of uncertainty began in earnest weeks before Lillard finally requested a from the Portland Trail Blazers, making his preference to be moved to Miami defiant public knowledge.

The Heat’s underdog run from the play-in tournament to the NBA Finals mostly came as Herro watched from the bench after suffering a broken right hand while diving for a loose ball in Game 1 of his team’s first-round matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks. Miami’s defense leveled up without Herro in the lineup, while the likes of Caleb Martin, Gave Vincent and Max Strus shot the lights out, compensating for Herro’s absence on the other end. Jimmy Butler’s semi-annual transformation into a playoff superstar blunted the offensive impact of Herro’s injury, too.

Once Lillard doubled and tripled down on Miami as his next destination, it seemed only a matter of time until Herro would be traded, likely not even ending up in Portland. The Blazers, like so many other teams across the league, weren’t especially enthused about taking on Herro and his pricey new contract, already stocked with young guards. It was a replay of what transpired the previous summer, when he was the subject of trade rumors involving Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell.

“I think my name just gives people something to talk about every summer,” Herro said. “The goalpost always moves with me. At first, they said I wouldn’t be a 20-point scorer, then I’m a 20-point scorer. I don’t know what the hell they say now, but I’m sure there’s something.”

For now, at least, Herro is re-entrenched with the Heat, who hope to quiet critics suggesting their offseason was a failure after the Bucks landed Lillard and the Boston Celtics swung a subsequent deal for Jrue Holiday. If Herro lives up to his lofty personal expectations in 2023-24, Miami will effectively added a star guard of its own, keeping pace with Milwaukee and Boston at the top of the Eastern Conference.

“I’m one of the best young scorers in the league,” he told The Ringer, “and I have the potential to be the best scorer in the NBA at some point.”