How does Heat’s Tyler Herro feel after another summer full of trade rumors? ‘I want to be wanted’

At one point, it looked like media day for the Miami Heat this year would be about the future Hall of Famer it was expected to add this summer. Instead, the Heat’s media day on Monday turned out to be about the players it brought back from last season’s team.

Specifically about one player, Heat guard Tyler Herro.

The Heat spent most of the offseason pursuing seven-time All-Star guard Damian Lillard, who requested to be dealt to Miami. But talks between the Heat and Portland Trail Blazers never went far, and the Trail Blazers instead dealt Lillard to one of the Heat’s prime Eastern Conference rivals, the Milwaukee Bucks, last week.

And Herro survived another summer of trade rumors involving his name, with speculation swirling around him for the past few months that he would be part of any Heat offer for Lillard. It’s unclear what the Heat’s final offer to the Trail Blazers was, but the Heat’s initial offer for Lillard in July was built around Herro and draft compensation.

“There was a little bit of frustration,” Herro said Monday during media day in his first comments to the media since last season. “But at the end of the day, it’s a business. I understand that. I would just like some clarity. I feel like I’ve gained enough respect around here to know what’s going on a little bit, whether my name is involved or not. That’s really it. I want to be involved. I feel like I gained the respect and I put the work in.”

Herro, 23, who is entering his fifth NBA season, has spent his entire NBA career with the Heat. But Herro has dealt with constant talk that he would be sent elsewhere throughout his time in Miami.

Herro has already been involved in speculation that he would be traded for James Harden, Kevin Durant, Donovan Mitchell, Bradley Beal and Lillard during his first four NBA seasons. Herro admits this rumor-filled felt different than the others, though.

“This one felt a little more real than any of the other trade rumors in the past,” Herro said. “But it’s part of the business. At this point in my career, I’m really just wanting to play wherever I’m wanted. Whether that’s here or somewhere else, I don’t care. I just want to play where I’m wanted and I want to be wanted and that’s really it.

“I don’t think I’m not wanted here. There’s a great player who was on the market at the time. Whatever happens happened and we’re now in this situation. I’m excited to be back and ready to play. Like I said, I’ll play here or somewhere else. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Herro flashed some self-deprecating humor the day after the Lillard trade saga came to an end last week. In response to an ESPN tweet of “Tyler Herro remains with the Heat after having his name linked to trade reports surrounding Damian Lillard,” Herro jokingly tweeted: “Until next summer.”

“He has experience dealing with all the noise,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Monday when asked about Herro’s situation. “I think he’s able to compartmentalize and use that as motivation. He has something bigger to play for and compete for. I think that’s where he’s starting to transition, which happens as you get more experience and more years under your belt.

“I can relate to Tyler, dealing with all that kind of noise early on in your career. It seemed like every offseason I was dealing with something very similar to what he’s dealing with. Then hopefully you get to a point where the noise just quiets down because you’re providing that kind of value and everybody totally gets it, understands it. But he’s very mentally stable, he’s ambitious and he has a terrific work ethic. So he’s ready. He’s used all of this as fuel. I don’t blame him for that, I just know that he’s going to be ready for this season and he wants to really contribute.”

Herro also took time Monday to address the outside narrative that he removed the Heat out of his social media bio amid the Lillard trade talks.

“I removed that about a month before anyone picked up on it. That was funny to me,” said Herro, who is due $27 million this season in the first year of a four-year, $120 million extension he signed with the Heat last October. “When somebody posted it and they said, ‘He took it out of his thing.’ But I did that during the season last year. So that had nothing to do with the trade rumors or anything like that. Social media is funny.”

Herro added that his decision to work out at Westminster Christian School in Palmetto Bay this offseason instead of the Heat’s facility was simply borne out of convenience.

“I was getting my work in as I always do,” Herro said. “I’m up at 4 a.m., so I didn’t want to drive here. I live in Pinecrest, so I would rather not drive 45 minutes to come here. Westminster is about four minutes from my house.”

Herro made clear that much of the social media buzz surrounding his Heat situation throughout the Lillard saga was wrong.

“Honestly, at one point it was super loud but everything that was being said was not true,” Herro said. “Because my agent and everybody else kind of knew what was going on. What I heard wasn’t what was going on. The media controls a lot of the narrative, especially in trade rumors because there are so many different sources coming from here, there, here. At the end of the day, nobody expected Dame to go to Milwaukee. It kind of just happened.

“Any time a player like Dame’s caliber is available, if I was a GM, I would be going after Dame, too. So at the end of the day, it’s a business and you want to do what’s best to put your franchise and organization in the best position to win championships.”

In the end, Herro is back and he will now try to help the Heat win a championship after losing to the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals last season.

While playing as a full-time starter for the first time in his NBA career, Herro closed last regular season as the Heat’s third-leading scorer with 20.1 points per game on 43.9 percent shooting from the field and 37.8 percent shooting on threes. Heat stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler were the only Heat players who averaged more points than Herro.

Herro essentially missed the Heat’s entire playoff run last season after breaking right hand in the opening game of the playoffs. He worked hard to return in time for the NBA Finals and was in uniform for the Heat’s season-ending loss in Game 5 of the championship series, but he did not play and said Monday that “I don’t think I was 100 percent ready to come back until probably a month after the season.”

All Herro wanted from the Heat this summer was clarity on his situation and he finally feels like he has it ... for now. The Heat opens training camp on Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

“There’s definitely clarity now that I’m here,” Herro said. “I would love to play the one or two, whatever works. We have a great team without any trades. We still have a great roster and a lot of guys who can play different positions.”