MIAMI — There was a time when being considered scrawny wasn’t a concern for Tyler Herro.
“I mean,” the personable Miami Heat guard said with a smile, “I never had to worry about bulking up. No one could guard me in high school.”
Then the stakes were raised, first at Kentucky and now these past three seasons in the NBA.
Now, while buff might be a bit of hyperbole, Herro has muscled up to challenges such as the first-round playoff series that opens Sunday at 1 p.m. at FTX Arena.
Understand, while decidedly gradual, the process began early, when Herro’s father brought him at 12 years old to Steve Becker at Athletic Performance in Mequon, Wis., just north of Milwaukee.
“We started,” Becker said, “at a young age.
“Shoot, the first time when I met Tyler, he could barely bench 20s.”
As in 20-pound dumbbells.
Now?
Now a smile starts to crease Herro’s face as he’s asked about his most prideful weight-room accomplishment.
“The last year or two, I was lifting 70-pound dumbbells,” he said. “That was my max.”
Full-fledged, prideful smile follows.
“Then, this summer we did 100-pound dumbbells,” he said, essentially lifting half his bodyweight with each arm. “So we went up like 30 pounds in dumbbells.”
At a listed 6 feet 5, 205 pounds, Herro never has made it about massive mass.
Rather the partnership with Heat strength coach Eric Foran, as well as during his offseasons with Becker, has been being able to initiate, absorb and play through contact as an attacking scorer.
“Benching 100-pound dumbbells on the dumbbell bench press is impressive,” Foran said. “That’s a strong guy.”
For years, the process with Becker had been on an annual schedule during summers. Then came the NBA’s COVID-19 stoppage that pushed the end of Herro’s rookie season into the summer and fall of 2020. Suddenly, there also was practically no offseason, with the league restarting in December 2020 for ‘20-21.
“It’s been a process,” Foran said “It’s been a process, for sure. His entire career, he’s made a good progression. Obviously last year we had such a short offseason. Then we really got to spend some time with him this year.”
Last summer, there again was time with both Becker and Foran.
“It was just a matter of a time when I could get a real offseason in the NBA to work on my nutrition and my body,” Herro said.
The difference has been tangible.
In 54 games in 2020-21, Herro attempted 117 free throws. This season, there were 219 in 66 games, an increase from 1.7 to 2.9 per game.
“I’m just trying to be aggressive, getting to the rim, trying to put some pressure on the defense,” he said.
That helped fuel a jump in scoring average, from 15.1 to 20.7 points.
“It was the summer of work in the weight room, to be able to handle a little bit more contact,” coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Because of the compact schedule of Herro’s first two seasons, it meant more time away from Becker than typical.
That, in turn, led to an eye-opening moment last summer.
“I would say when he came up this past summer,” Becker said, “I was like, ‘Wow, OK, he does physically look more built.’ And I saw the same changes. When I saw him, in the summer, that was like, ‘Wow, this is the Tyler that I thought that we would see.’
“And I still think he is going to be that 205 type of player, and he’s going to be able to have a nice, defined upper body. And he’s got really strong legs, if you look at it. So I imagine he’s going to have a really nice offseason and we’re going to continually see that growth.”
The jump, Becker said, was similar to the bump before Herro entered Kentucky.
“When he committed to Kentucky,” Becker said, “it was like, ‘All right, now you’re in big-time basketball, you’re going to be going up against all these athletes, the physicality.’ "
Still, it’s not as if Herro was selected No. 13 out of Kentucky in 2019 with a focus on creating a bully. This was never meant to become the 6-5, 245-pound frame, say, of Heat power forward P.J. Tucker.
“We wanted to make sure that he was getting stronger and not getting too big, but doing it in a progressive way,” Foran said. “It was designed in a smart way to not slow him down, but make sure he gets strong, he gets a little bit bulkier without weighing him down.
“And he lost bodyfat, too. So he gained weight, he gained 10 pounds, but his bodyfat dropped during that time, too.”
The summer program has been attacked with the same focus.
“We don’t need to gain weight,” Becker said. “Tyler is not a weightlifter. He’s a basketball player, and we don’t need to do all that. So our biggest thing was, if we’re going to gain strength, how do we utilize that strength efficiently? And I think, whatever those numbers were, if I felt he was moving quickly and he felt he was moving quickly and efficiently, we knew we were on the right path.
“But it was always not: How much can we do? It was: How efficient were we when we were in those stages of strengths? And how does it help us on the basketball court?”
When Becker talks about Herro, he uses words such as “powerful” and “explosive.”
“And,” he said, “still be flexible enough to still create separation and be able to finish at the rim.”
It has been 10 years since Becker and Herro first teamed to create this body of work.
But from the start, Becker said, there never was backing from challenges.
“When Tyler wants to commit to something, he’s going to do it,” Becker said.
“I was rearranging the weight room once, and Tyler happened to be the only guy in there with me, and so I made him take every dumbbell that I had and press it five times, from 5 up to 70. He’s always gaining strength.”
For Foran, the opportunity is there to see it daily, in both the weight room and on the court, taking particular pride in those trips to the foul line.
“Yeah, for sure,” Foran said. “You could see that strength coming out in his game.”
