Heat reserve guard Tyler Herro, currently lighting it up in the postseason for Miami, has won the NBA’s 2021/22 Sixth Man of the Year award, the league announced in a press release.
As Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets, Herro is the first Heat player to win the award and just the fifth player in league history to average 20+ points coming off the bench.
Last month, the third-year shooting guard was announced as a finalist for the honor, along with Cavaliers big man Kevin Love and Suns forward Cameron Johnson.
The NBA released a full breakdown of votes cast by a panel of 100 broadcasters and sportswriters (Twitter link). Herro received 96 first-place votes, two second-place votes, and two third-place votes. Love finished second, with Johnson in third. The 2020/21 Sixth Man of the Year, Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson, placed fourth in voting, while Clippers wing Luke Kennard rounded out the top five. Eight other players received at least one vote.
Across 66 games this year, Herro averaged 20.7 PPG, 5.0 RPG and 4.0 APG for Miami, who finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference at 53-29. The 6’5″ wing had shooting splits of .447/.399/.868. Still just 22, Herro is eligible for a contract extension this summer. This hardware could certainly help his case at the bargaining table.
“It means a lot,” Herro told Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “I accepted the sixth man role [at the beginning of the year] for a reason. I wanted to be the best sixth man in the league.”
“I just realized what this team was built for,” Herro added. “It was built for a championship. When you look at our roster, if I was our coach, I would probably bring myself off the bench, too. Just looking at what we have on the team, if it makes sense to bring either me or Jimmy [Butler] off the bench, obviously it’s going to be me. We’ve got to bring one of our main scorers off the bench. And I understand that.”
Love announced his support for Herro in a tweet following the announcement. “Everyone who knows me knows I love Tyler Herro’s game (and swag) – much respect on an incredible [Sixth Man of the Year] campaign,” the former five-time All-Star wrote, in part.
Of course it would’ve been nice if Love won the award because of the story line but I have zero problems with Herro copping it. He put up all-star numbers coming off the bench. He’s usually in there to close out a game too. Congrats.
As a Heat fan, Kevin Love had an amazing season…it was actually arguably his best or top 2. In a lit of other circumstances, it would have been him
No brainer and well deserved..
There goes my herro!
Big congrats to Tyler! Go UK! Go Heat!
Herro was +2000 before the season to win this award, and I thought that was some of the freest money I’ve seen in a while
I couldn’t understand why Herro wasn’t starting. 6th man? Ha!