Miami Heat guard and Greenfield native Tyler Herro wins the 2021- 22 Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award for his contributions coming off the bench, the NBA announced Tuesday.
In his third NBA season, the former Whitnall High School superstar averaged 20.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 32.6 minutes in 66 games (10 starts). Herro’s scoring average of 20.8 points as a reserve was the highest in the NBA. He became the fifth player to average at least 20.0 points off the bench (minimum 50 games as a reserve) since starts began being tracked in the 1970-71 season, joining Thurl Bailey (1987-88), Eddie Johnson (1988-89), Ricky Pierce (1989-90, 1990-91) and Lou Williams (2017-18, 2018-19).
The former Kentucky guard had a career year shooting the ball, finishing the regular season with 44.7% from the floor and 39.9% from beyond the arc. However, the most impressive stat comes from his ability to produce high scoring games off the bench. Herro scored 25 or more points in 22 games, and in those 22 games Herro only started for two of them.
Tyler Herro continues his impressive campaign, leading all scorers with 25 in game one of the Heat’s Eastern Conference Semi Finals series against the 76ers.
