Heat Sign Tyler Herro To Rookie Contract

The Heat have signed rookie shooting guard Tyler Herro to his rookie contract, the team announced in an official release. Herro, 19, was the No. 13 overall selection in last month’s 2019 NBA Draft.

Because Herro signed for the typical 120% of the rookie-scale (h/t to Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel), he will earn $3,640,200 during his first year in the league and $17,188,836 over the life of the contract. If he ends up being a factor in a potential trade for Russell Westbrook, he can’t be traded for 30 days.

In his lone season at Kentucky, Herro started all 37 games he appeared in while averaging 14.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 32.6 minutes per game. He was named SEC Newcomer of the Year for his efforts.

As NBA cap expert Albert Nahmad notes (Twitter link), the Heat now have 14 players under contract after Herro’s signing. With a combined salary of $135.8MM, they’re $987K below the hard cap, which is not enough to add another free agent.

This is because while the rookie minimum salary is only $898K, the two-year minimum salary ($1.621MM) is used in place of the salary of a non-drafted rookie when determining a team’s salary in relation to the hard cap.

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