(Photo via Getty Images)
Miami Heat sophomore Kel’el Ware appears to be back in the dog house.
Ware has had an unfortunate up and down 2025-26 season that doesn’t have anything to really do with his performance, but more so his role. He has been in and out of the starting lineup as the starting big man alongside Bam Adebayo on several occasions. This has mostly been due to Tyler Herro’s availability as a starter impacting the rest of the rotation.
However, when Ware has been out there for extended time with the first unit, he has put up dominant numbers. The 7-footer has averaged a 13.2 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks double-double in 27 games as a starter this season.
In a more recent three-game stretch as a starter, Ware averaged a monstrous 25 points, 15 rebounds and elite 87% true shooting percentage. Despite a clear impact being shown when given the opportunity, coach Erik Spoelstra has continued to repeatedly mess up his flow. And he hasn’t held back on questionable public criticism towards his 21-year-old big man, either.
Spoelstra has clearly been hard on Ware all season long. Whether that’s part of his development plan because Spoelstra sees something special in Ware is still possible, but his most recent postgame press conference comments were nothing short of concerning:
Erik Spoelstra insinuated that Ware is playing poorly on purpose to prove a point that he should be getting more minutes…
Heat fans have seen questionable Ware critique by Spoelstra all season long in these press conferences. This one in particular just felt a little more personal.
Even when Ware has had dominant and impactful outings back when he was starting, Spoelstra still would refuse to give him his flowers fully. Perhaps Spoelstra sees things behind the scenes that the fans don’t see, but the way he’s spoken down on Ware has seemed a bit too much for a long time. Those last comments were the icing on the cake.
Adebayo shared his message to Ware amidst these inconsistent role changes for the young player following Thursday’s game, too. “Don’t let stuff like this be the motivation,” Adebayo said. “Discipline every day is what beats motivation… discipline makes you be consistent… it might not be 20 and 15 every night, it might be 4 points, but make your presence felt.”
Former Heat captain Udonis Haslem, who has done a lot of practice work with Ware over the past two seasons, also shared thoughts on the odd comments from Spoelstra.
“That makes absolutely no sense if that is the case. What I’ll say to Kel’el and any young basketball player is there’s going to be so many things that are out of your control. I get that’s frustrating, but if you step on the court and you’re playing in a situation where you’re frustrated, not playing with joy, not playing with effort and energy, then you allow everything those coaches say to be right… Don’t give them that satisfaction.“
Put them in position to earn their money and say ‘he is one of our top 7/8 guys, he should be playing. Let me figure out ways to get him more minutes.’ What you can do is when you step on the floor make sure your minutes are impactful.”
— Udonis Haslem on Spo & Kel’el Ware (via NBA on Prime)
On that same NBA on Prime broadcast, Miami’s franchise goat Dwyane Wade also chimed in with the advice he’d give to Ware.
“You’re gonna go through the mental challenges if you have a Miami Heat jersey on,” Wade stated. “This is apart of the cloth of Miami. They’ll challenge you physically, but also mentally. Hopefully young fella who has so much talent can get through this bump and get back out there and really help this team get out of that play-in situation.”
Kel’el Ware only played in nine minutes in the Heat’s previous game.
The weirdest part of Spoelstra limiting Ware to just nine minutes of playing time in Miami’s loss to the Boston Celtics Thursday was the rebounding. The Heat got pummeled on the offensive glass and second chance points, allowing a 51-40 overall rebounding advantage in favor of Boston and a 31-9 edge with those second chance points. They allowed 18 offensive boards to Miami’s 12.
If only there was a talented 7-footer on the roster hungry for playing time that could’ve helped…
Instead, Spoelstra opted to give those bench minutes to the likes of Dru Smith, Nikola Jovic and Simone Fontecchio over Ware. Those three provided little-to-no impact at all, shooting a combined 1 of 13 from the field.
Ware is one of, if not the biggest ceiling raiser on this entire Heat roster. He needs to be playing. Whether he’s starting or coming off the bench, nine minutes for someone as talented and physically capable as him— while bashing him publicly afterwards— is unacceptable on Spoelstra’s part.
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Spo is like Kerr. Stuck in “small ball” mode, even though he has the best rebounding tandem in the NBA. Something is very wrong with the team. It is falling apart on Spo’s watch. Now both Bam and Ware are under 10.0 rebounds per game and the team is losing…8-14 in
the last 7 weeks. Not exactly playoff caliber results. That’s on Spo, not Ware.
WTF is Riley doing? He has done absolutely nothing to acquire a back-up PF/C or put NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s feet to the fire over the Rozier trade debacle. Silver and Charlotte intentionally neglected their obligations to inform Miami of the NBA and FBI investigations and the Heat is being forced to suffer the consequences. WTF?
Time to s*** or get off the pot Pat. Time to lead or get TF out of the way. Heat fans deserve better than this. Mediocrity is no longer acceptable. It is no longer an option. DO SOMETHING!!!
Testify!!
Ware prefers to hangs in the corners and waiting for occasional 3p then try to get an offensive rebound. Ditto for Bam. Pelle, Wigg and Simone at least try to do something on that area.
His defensive rebounding was a disaster. Even Niko was better rebounder then Ware.
No wonder Ware played only 9 minutes.
I hope he gets the message. Spo is right in this case.
I hope he gets the message , we need his talent on the floor ,and not on the bench.