When Pat Riley uttered Tyler Herro and ‘fragile’ in the same sentence, fans’ reactions were anxiety. Rasheed Wallace’s was absolute amusement. With a mouth and personality that got him kicked off the court more than keep him in play, Sheed found the Miami Heat president’s comments hilarious. When the former winning coach commented on Herro’s condition, he was praising him. But the way Wallace interpreted it has more than a few implications during trade season.

After TylerIAm read out Riley’s quote on Sheed & Tyler, Wallace burst out laughing. Even though Tyler repeated it’s not funny, Sheed countered, “That’s funny as s**t. Actually for him [Herro]  it’s not funny. For your GM to think you that French word, ‘fra-gil-lee’…” He let the implication hang.

For starters, it wasn’t Miami GM, Andy Elisburg who commented. It was Pat Riley, the team’s coach-turned-president. Back in May, Riley addressed Herro missing a significant number of games during the regular season due to injuries but remains productive when he does play.

“He’s been fragile a little bit,” Riley said during the offseason press conference. “What did he play, 40 games? He might have to go to another level nutritionally. He’s got to make some adjustments, definitely.” He referred to the NBA’s new 65-game rule which he is critical of and claimed that not all players are always at their 100% to play every game.

Now Sheed and Herro are on two opposite ends of the toughness spectrum. The 2004 champ embodied the Bad Boy Pistons persona, staying unbeaten for the most single season record for technical fouls and the most ejections in NBA history. In 2023, Herro and his teammate Jimmy Butler were ranked among the most well-behaved players in the league for their low number of personal fouls. So Wallace directly interprets the word ‘fragile’ as ‘soft’ despite Tyler (his co-host, not Herro) stating they aren’t the same. He compared the situation to calling Anthony Davis ‘Mr Glass.’ He couldn’t be convinced that Herro or AD aren’t ‘soft.’ But he recommends Herro should go farther from those opinions.

Sheed recommends distance for Tyler Herro

With the summer comes trade rumors. After missing several games, Herro is embroiled in them although there’s very little indication that Miami wants to trade him. Several names are floating around that Miami could possibly trade Herro for. After DeMar DeRozan’s possible deal fell through, analysts propose that Heat should pursue Zach Lavine or Brandon Ingram in exchange for Herro.

As per Wallace, this subject was bound to come up when someone like Riley calls you ‘fragile.’ In fact, Wallace suggests Herro should distance himself from that opinion. “If the GM said that about me… I might be getting traded y’all.” 

But Herro never really responded to Riley’s comments. So his thoughts on the situation are unclear. Not much can be commented on him potentially being traded either. It’s only Wallace’s opinion at this point.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.