Is Tyler Herro really on the same tier as Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young

At the start of the season, Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat said that he believed that he was in the same tier of players as the likes of Ja Morant, Luka Doncic, and Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young. At the time, we here at Soaring Down South believed that he was slightly delusional.

Elite athletes must believe that they are as good as the next player if they are going to keep their mental edge. If you don’t believe this then you are already beaten on the court. The NBA is a league where the top-level players are the strongest mentally.

Now that Herro has won the Sixth Man of the Year award, he has some silverware to back his claim up. However, this question was re-raised by Shaquille O’Neal, who says that he is on the same tier as Doncic and Young. Charles Barkley disagreed which is where this scribe’s opinion is at.

Atlanta Hawks superstar Trae Young is tiers above Tyler Herro

As Barkley said, there is a massive difference to come out against starters and do what Young and Doncic do as opposed to coming off the bench. The reason for this is that defenses are focussed on stopping Young and not as much work goes into a player who is not even a starter on his team.

Teams do not have their best player starting from their bench. So, to say that Herro, who only started 10 games is at the same level as the Atlanta Hawks’ two-time All-Star is just not valid. If you look at the numbers of Herro’s starts you will begin to understand this.

As a starter, Herro’s basic numbers are pretty good. He averaged 20.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game. These are comparable to his reserve number where he averaged 20.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.9 assists.

The difference for Herro and the Heat was his efficiency. As a starter, Herro went 37.6 percent from the floor, 30.0 percent from beyond the 3-point line, and 85.3 percent from the free-throw line. This gave him a 47.2 true shooting percentage.

When Herro came off the bench he shot the ball at 46.2 percent from the floor, 42.1 percent from beyond the 3-point line, and 87.0 percent from the free-throw line. This gave him a 58.0 true shooting percentage.

These numbers just do not stand up to compassion with Young and Doncic as these two young stars have the hopes of the franchise on their back. If Tyler Herro wants to be in this comparison, he needs to become the franchise player for the Heat, but before he does that, he needs to start at the very least.

Currently, he is at the same level as Jordan Clarkson, J.R. Smith, Montrezl Harrell, and Eric Gordon. All of these players have won this award once in the last decade.