Heat president Pat Riley: Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson 'could become truly great'

The Miami Heat refused to trade Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson at Thursday's deadline because the franchise believes they have a bright future ahead. 

Heat president Pat Riley said as much Thursday night following Miami's 125-122 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

"You can't let go of those two assets, you can't, because they could become truly great," Riley said. "They're very, very good players right now, and I think they're probably a year or two away from making what their early max could be from a production standpoint.

"So I'd hate to have that come back at us if we were to do something and try to move them. But we're not going to. So from that standpoint, what happened today is you're going to see Duncan, you're going to see Tyler."

Herro is already surpassing the numbers he put up during his rookie campaign last season. The 21-year-old is averaging 15.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 41.7% from the field and 32.3% from deep. 

Miami selected Herro with the 13th overall pick in the 2019 draft and he's arguably one of the top five players from the draft class. 

Robinson, meanwhile, went undrafted but landed a deal with the Heat in 2018. His best season came last year, but he's still having a solid 2020-21 campaign. The 26-year-old is averaging 12.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game while shooting 41.9% from the field and 38.7% from deep. 

The duo has helped propel the Heat to seventh in the Eastern Conference after a rough start.

Although the Heat didn't trade Herro or Robinson, they still landed Victor Oladipo and Nemanja Bjelica. Miami acquired Oladipo from the Houston Rockets in exchange for Kelly Olynyk and Avery Bradley. The Heat acquired Bjelica from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Chris Silva and Moe Harkless.

Both moves should make Miami better in the long run, but only time will tell.