Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo disappoint in Bucks sweep

A season ago, the Miami Heat were riding Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler to the NBA Finals.

This season, Herro, Adebayo and Butler were shells of their 202o selves. Instead of making a surprising run to the Finals, Miami is out after a first-round sweep against Milwaukee — the team they beat in five games in the 2020 East Semifinals.

So what happened with the Miami Heat in the last seven months? Well, aside from Butler, Dragic and Tyler and Bam, most of the Heat’s main rotation players were changed. Kelly Olynyk, Jae Crowder and Derrick Jones all left the team and were replaced by 35-year-old Trevor Ariza and Victor Oldadipo, who was injured during the playoffs.

Throughout the season, Miami struggled with COVID absences and injuries which kept them under .500 for the first half of the season. They struggled to develop the continuity and chemistry they had in 2020 while their best players took steps back.

Butler shot the ball much worse in this year’s playoffs and put up lesser numbers across the board. Bam Adebayo was fairly productive, averaging 15.5 points and 9.3 rebounds in the Bucks series while shooting significantly less efficient than he did during the regular season.

He wasn’t terrific in the postseason, but he held his own in a tough matchup and can’t be blamed much for the result.

Tyler Herro simply had an atrocious playoffs. It was only four games but Tyler couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn during the Milwaukee sweep. He shot just 31.6% both from the field and from three and scored less than 10 points a game.

Last October, Herro came off the bench in Miami’s Finals run for 16 points a game with a 37.5% clip from three — and lit up the Celtics for 35 points in an Eastern Conference Playoff game.

Coming into the 2020-21 season, expectations were high for Herro, who averaged 13.5 points on 43% shooting during a rookie but upped his production during the playoff run. He caught a lot of criticism this season for seemingly “taking a step back” after his first season, but the year-long numbers don’t suggest a major step back at all.

He scored two more points per game this season, shot the ball one percent better from the field and slightly worse on threes. Statistically, it was a fine follow-up to his rookie season. It wasn’t the leap into stardom fans may have expected but Tyler certainly wasn’t bad.

He got incrementally better in a shortened season and hit a rough spot in the playoffs, and really, so did his whole team. He still has a very bright future.