Heat star reinforces belief that Kel’el Ware will be 'great'

Bam Adebayo Kel'el Ware — (Mandatory Credit: Tomas Diniz Santos/Getty Images)

One of the premier positives of the rocky 2025-26 Miami Heat season was how many of their young players progressed, namely Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Pelle Larsson.

Ware, in particular, showcased several flashes of stardom — even though consistency still lacked from the sophomore big. Nevertheless, Ware turned in a productive year across 77 games, averaging 11.0 points and nine rebounds across 22.1 minutes per game.

During his end-of-season press conference last week, Heat star and captain Bam Adebayo, who oftentimes played alongside Ware, shared an interesting perspective as to why Ware can be “great.”

“I feel like he can be great.” he said. “I feel like Kel’el is a lot more comfortable when I’m out there just because somebody’s actively talking to him. And that might be aggravating, but that was [Dwyane Wade] when I was rookie, when I was a second-year player. He used to piss me all of the time because he used to always talk to me. Him and [Udonis Haslem] — one was in the game aggravating me and then I would come to the bench and then it was UD getting on my nerves.

“You need that if you want to tap into your ceiling if you want to get to places where you don’t think you can get. You need those conversations; you need those buildups; you need those honest conversations … It’s helped me, so my job is to help him.”

The Kel’el Ware-Bam Adebayo tandem was still a mixed bag in 2025-26:

One of the bigger storylines throughout the season revolved around Ware and Adebayo’s playing time — or lack thereof — together. Through the first three months, the duo looked horrendous. But an early February bout against the lowly Washington Wizards flipped the script, thus gaining more trust from Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra.

It was still a mixed bag, but Ware-Adebayo together finished with plus-6.7 NET, a steady improvement from the plus-4.2 NET a year ago, according to Cleaning The Glass. However, it is slighly deceiving.

They feasted on poor frontcourts, while struggled to find consistency against anything average or better. Across 189 minutes against bottom-10 teams, they were a plus-30.1; in 250 minutes against defenses ranked in the top-half, they were a dismal minus-9.7.

While it’s imperative they continue to build more comfortability with one another next year, it’s just as important they develop more consistency against stiffer competition to justify those minutes. We’ve seen Adebayo hold the fort; we’ve seen, at times, Ware hold down the fort.