The Miami Heat appear to be on the path of a truly franchise-crippling move that they may never completely recover from.
After a truly disappointing season, the Miami Heat will certainly be looking to make a big move during the offseason. However, I'm not sure if signing Tyler Herro to a three-year, $150 million extension is what fans are expecting. According to recent reporting, it's one the Heat and Herro could eventually close in on. If it were to happen, though, I'm not sure if the Heat would be able to recover from such a decision.
ESPN's Bobby Marks notes that he fully expects Herro to agree to a three-year extension with the Heat. If so, it would put him in range to make roughly $50 million per season over those years. As the Heat explores the offseason market for a star player, this is one of those moves that would go a long way to paralyze the team from realistically winning a championship in the foreseeable future.
Why the Heat would be making a massive mistake
In a vacuum, the argument can be made that Herro deserves such an extension. He's improved every year of his career thus far, and he even made his first All-Star team this past season. However, it can also be argued that this extension would put the Heat at a huge disadvantage when it comes to team building heading into the future.
Paying Herro and Bam Adebayo upwards of a combined $100 million in the foreseeable future gives the Heat two players getting very close to max money that probably aren't good enough to be No. 1 or No. 2 options on a championship team.
Much like this past season, the Heat will probably be locked into mediocrity heading into the future. They will be competitive with Bam and Herro leading the way, but nowhere near close to championship contention. For a team that prides itself on always being "in the mix," this extension for Herro would likely eliminate any shot the Heat have at adding a superstar player while also keeping their core together.
In many ways, especially in the modern era of the CBA, the Heat may very well have to choose between keeping Bam and Herro. Giving Herro an extension now may give us the answer to that question that we may be looking for in the future.
There are so many repercussions that are coming the Heat's way if they give Herro this extension, many of which we can't even understand now.