In July, Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra made national headlines by publicly criticizing second-year center Kel’el Ware after the 7-footer was noticeably lethargic against weaker competition.
While his disposition improved dramatically in the final two games in Las Vegas, Nev., it has regressed at the start of preseason.
Ware tied a team-high with 18 points in Monday’s 103-93 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, hauling in 13 rebounds. Yet, Ware wasn’t impactful for the majority of his 23 minutes, struggling to put a stamp on the game outside of the fourth quarter, when the ends of both teams’ benches were on the floor.
His impact still left plenty to be desired, according to Spoelstra.
“There was a three-minute segment where he actually impacted the game,” Spoelstra said. “The rest of it has to impact the game. I’m not looking at the stat line. I think everybody is looking at the wrong thing. It’s got to impact the game. … And that’s part of the maturation for a young player. He does really good things, and then when you aren’t able to do it consistently, it doesn’t impact the game. You don’t want to have deflating plays. You want to have inspiring plays.
“That’s part of him as a young player connecting the dots. It does not matter if you have 18 (points) and 13 (rebounds). … That’s why I enjoy coaching him. It’s my responsibility to help teach him how to connect the dots and become more consistent where it leads to winning.”
Ware, 21, averaged 9.3 points and 7.4 rebounds as a rookie, shooting 55.4 percent from the floor, 31.5 percent from 3-point range and 68.7 percent from the free-throw line.
He showed plenty of encouraging glimpses across his 64 games. But one of Ware’s fatal flaws was consistency — or lack thereof — whether it came to defensive positioning, box outs, rebounding, finishing around the rim, etc. It’s been an issue dating back to his freshman season at Oregon.
Similar to what he had to do beforehand, Ware must show the longtime head coach why he should trust him to play big minutes. There’s no doubt that his potential is tantalizing if he can put it all together. But that hasn’t happened in a very limited sample.
The Miami Heat suit up again on Wednesday against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.
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I have a feeling Spo believes the best way to convince Ware to embrace Heat culture is through “tough love.” If he learns to give it everything he has, he will be rewarded with a starting role and increased minutes.. If he slacks off he will be punished with a second unit role and reduced minutes. The choice is his. If he doesn’t embrace the Miami work ethic in the coming months, I don’t expect him to be around a year from now.
I agree. Not giving his all is not acceptable.
VB, you have been saying this all along. And, I do see what you are saying. Not giving it your all may be the biggest sin you can commit in a Heat uniform. They will get rid of him even if he is an adequate rotation player if they decide he can’t be convinced to give his all. I hope that doesn’t happen because when he is in, I see shots get altered. Noone else has that rim protection effect.
On of my greatest fears is, that Ware will become something like Hassan.
There are players in the league, which are not 100 % all the time, if we are talking about effort. For aged vets this is a necessity, for superstars the way to save themselves for PO.
But there is no excuse for young player on his way up to be lazy.
And that’s exactly what was Ware for first 3 or 4 minutes in 4th qt.
True, he played with invited players or two way players, but that was an excellent opportunity to take over. He didnt.
After timeout, when Spo probably told him a word or two, there was a different story.
Good points about effort and time in your career. To be an asset in the NBA you need incredible talent, and you also need to have your motor in high gear all the time, and not just on offense. And it takes max effort to keep that up.
Once Ware turned it on, he did dominate against the GLeaguers.