🚨Miami Heat Make A REALLY SMART Move Regarding Ke’el Ware & Jaime Jaquez Jr.

🚨Miami Heat Make A REALLY SMART Move Regarding Ke’el Ware & Jaime Jaquez Jr.

[Music] The Miami Heat made two really smart roster moves today. What were those moves? Well, we’ll describe them here in a second, but they have to do with Kel Wear and Haimeme Hawkeye Jr. I am Nick Rolloff. This is the Heat Report by Chat Sports. It was originally reported and announced by Keith Smith, who basically is the head honcho at Spa Track, it feels like, but he announced that the Heat have picked up the team options on the rookie scale contracts for Kel Wear for the 2026 27 season, but also the fourth year team option for Haimeme Hawkeyes Jr. in that same fourth year. It is the final year of Hawkins’ rookie contract. It is the third year of four on We’s rookie deal. Um, I reacted to the news initially over on social media. So, make sure you follow me at nick_rolloff because I have more on the Miami Heat over there before we come on here and break it more down in depth. But when you think about these two moves by Miami, they were formalities. Very rarely do teams just decline the team options on former first round picks unless they are atrocious, abysmal basketball players. You did see it happen with the Lakers and Jaylen Hood Shafino, but they did him wrong. He still would have flourished in Miami. I stand by that. But either way, Wear will be here for at least 2026 27 and so will Hakaz barring a trade. So, let’s look at the two rookie contracts now. Start with KL Wear, who now has two years in a row fully guaranteed at 4.4 million and 4.6 million. Now, Miami will still have to make this decision next year for the 2728 season, which would be his last year of his rookie deal. It would be a $7.1 million contract for wear in 2728 if the Heat ultimately pick up that team option a year from now, which barring disaster, I would have to imagine he does get that picked up and then he would be a restricted free agent in the 2028 off season before that 28-29 year. And sticking on wear here, we’re obviously expecting a big second year for the big man out of Indiana. He had a really good rookie season. It was much better than I anticipated. I don’t think anyone could have expected him to be as productive and impactful as he was as a rookie, especially because I thought he was more of a raw prospect that needed to develop and hone in on his footwork and his mental makeup and his work ethic. But once the season started to go a little bit downhill, Jimmy Butler got traded, the Heat played him more and more and more, starting him alongside Bameio and he looked to the part of a starting caliber NBA center. I mean, I really think that you can just break down his two or season into two kind of segments here. Pre-allar break and postall-star break. Now, the pre-allar break, 38 games played, 19 minutes, started with Bam probably for like 6 to 10 games cuz remember he started in the lineup mid January all-star breaks early February. So, you only had about three to four weeks of wear in the starting lineup, but obviously post allstar break he was alongside Adabio and starting almost consistently. Now, I would have liked to see him be a little bit more efficient. A center only shooting 53 57% from the field. That’s not ideal. And you saw his three-point numbers kind of fall off a cliff from 35% to 24% from pre-allar break to postall-star break. And they were about the same attempts per night. It was about 1.4 to 1.6. So, it’s not like he started taking more threes post all-star break. Um, you would have liked to see him get more involved offensively for sure, but the rebounding numbers going up was a major plus. Like you see the vision with Kel Wear, but you do need more consistency and effort from him. And I will point back to this past summer league. I was disappointed with KL Wear. I expected him to go to Las Vegas in the California Classic, absolutely dominate, and after two or three games, Heat fans be like, “Okay, take Kel Wear off the summer league team because we don’t need to see anymore. This guy’s prime for a big second year in the NBA.” That wasn’t the case for Kel Wear. He came out lethargic. He looked like he didn’t even want to be there and he wasn’t dominating like we expected him to do. You go back a year ago, Haimeh Hake Jr. did that. He dominated in summer league the second year and it’s like okay dude two games take him out which Miami did. That wasn’t the case with wear and it was all because of his effort. If he really just put himself and applied himself he would have dominated but he didn’t. And that’s a concern because one of his biggest red flags coming out of college as a prospect was his work ethic and motivation. Just not what you wanted to see from where give me better effort. And this is not because of what I saw in summer league, but I do want to make it clear that I think the Heat should move KL Wear to the bench. I know he started for the second half of last season and him and Bam look like the starting front court for the Miami Heat in the future, but the way this Heat team is constructed as I’m currently speaking, we don’t have a third big man. And with Tyler Herro’s injury, you to me have to have Yoic in the starting lineup to have more shooting and more playmaking. Because if you just start Da’Von Mitchell over hero, that is a lineup that is going to struggle offensively because there is no onball creators and there’s a lack of spacing and shooting with Wear, Bam, and DaVon all in that lineup. So to me, you got to start Yoic. You also have a backup big off the bench now with wear and your front court should be Wiggins, Yoic, and um Adabio with DaVon and Powell in the back court. I think that should be the case to start off the year. But either way, where will be called upon to have a large role for this Heat team? But let me know who should start for Miami. Should it be Nicole Yoic or should it be KL Wear? I’ve asked this question a few times, but let me know your thoughts. I’m curious on what you guys have to say. Let’s look at Himemehz Jr. now, whose team option was picked up for the 2627 season. And due to him being a pick three selections behind wear was where was 15th overall. Hawz was 18th. His rookie contract is slightly cheaper. He’s under a contract the next two years fully guaranteed 3.8 million. And then that team option Miami selected at 5.9 million. He is a restricted free agent following that season in the 2027 off seasonason. So only two more years guaranteed of Hawz in Miami. And this is a big year for Haimeay. It really is. After a down second season, you have to wonder, all right, was the rookie year more of an outlier, more of a all right, we shocked the league and now we’re going to regress towards a unproductive player. That is a concern for me because you saw his minutes decrease, you saw his efficiency decrease, you saw his everything decrease other than rebounds per game. And that’s not a number where it’s like, oh, oh, okay. Like so like when everything goes down, minutes, efficiency, points, that’s a red flag for me. And it seemed like NBA teams just took him more serious in terms of their defensive game plan. And whenever Haime Hawz Jr. would drive to the rim, defenses sat on that spin move, which Haime loved to get to, and he had no counter for that. The Heat are relying on Haime Hakees Jr. to have a bounceback third year. This was a guy we were talking about after his rookie season as the eventual Jimmy Butler replacement. And I know that replacement came a little bit sooner rather than expected because Jimmy got traded last year and that wasn’t what anyone projected. But Haime looking as bad as he did last season was a major concern. And if he doesn’t pick up his play over the next two seasons, the Heat might ultimately just let him walk in restricted free agency following the next couple of years. More coming up here in a second, but join the family at the Heat Report today. Daily coverage, Heat news, Heat rumors, everything that you need around this basketball team. Join the channel right now. The reason why I expect a big year for Haime and say that the Heat are relying on them. Well, this is what I project and expect and want the Heat starting lineup to be after the Tyler Hero injury. Obviously, Hero on the bench there. That’s why he’s got the asterk. But I’m starting DaVon Paulo, Yovic, Bam, and Wiggins. Well, because Da’Von gets moved in the starting lineup because I have Yoic starting. Well, the bench for Miami becomes a little bit more bleak. You have where is that first man off the bench but then you talk about the top guys coming off the bench being Hakez Larson Fonteio Yakonis Rosier potentially early on in the year and I’ll say it again with Tyler Hero out for at least the first 12 to 13 games a projected return is around November 17th November 19th which is game 14 or 15 of the seasonaga Jr. may very well be the number one scoring option off the bench for Miami. Like, let’s be real here. Are you going to ask Hal Wear to be a main offensive guy off the bench? No. Are you going to ask Larson to do that? No. Are you going to ask Drew Smith to do that? No. Are you going to ask Simone Fonteo to do that? No. So, when you look at the Heat’s bench right now, if you start Yoic and Davon, Haime Hakez Jr. is the number one offensive option on that bench unit. Now, you will never have him be the number one guy on a lineup. You will stagger minutes to have a Powell, a Wiggins, a Bam on the floor at all times, or at least you hope Eric Spolster does that. But the point remains, Haimehaka Jr. will have a large offensive role coming off the bench for this Heat team with Tyler Herro out. And I know some fans will be like, “We’ll just start where with Bam and have Yoic be that lead guy offensively off the bench.” I’ll go back to the point I made earlier in the video to where I think the Heat need Yoic’s spacing and creation in that starting group with Hero out. All right, we’re going to round out the show here in a second, but take advantage of this clearance sale. 30 stainless steel Turvvis/Mug $16 off, usually 42, now available for 26 when you go to chatsports.com/heatmug. links in the description and comments of today’s video. Saw in the comments that someone picked up too on yesterday’s video we put out. Love to hear it. Go grab yours today. All right, the last couple of moves that we should think about and look forward to when it comes to the Heat this off season is on Tyler Hero and Nicole Yoic. So, we saw the team options for um Hakez and Wear get picked up. Well, now the Heat have to make decisions on potential extensions with Nicole Yovic and Tyler Hero. Hero becomes eligible for an extension starting October 1st. That window to extend him is October 1st to the 20th. Yoic is also extension eligible as he heads into the final year of his rookie contract. Briefly on Tyler Herro, I am not extending him under any circumstances right now. He is eligible for a max three-year $149.7 million extension with him getting injured and missing the first 14 games of the season. I am not dealing with an extension. I didn’t really want to extend him before the injury. I wanted to see how that played out in terms of this season. Could he have another big year? Could he stay healthy for the second straight year? Well, we’re now looking at a player in Tyler Hero that has had injury problems in the past and is already having him again. Like, I don’t want to make this a apples to apples thing, but Hero and Tua get compared a lot if you’re a Dolphins and Heat fan. and the Dolphins paid to a massive contract extension after he finally stayed healthy for a full 17game season and played extremely well. Well, if you’re going apples to apples, it would be the same thing. All right, you reward here with a massive extension because he finally was an all-star and stayed healthy for 77 games for the first time of his career. Well, I think the Heat should almost learn from the Dolphins mistakes of, okay, they extended to now they want to move off of them. All right, Miami, do not extend Hero right now to that max contract that he’s eligible for unless he gets a max discount deal. Like, if you are getting him at $35 million per season over three years, okay, sign me up for that. But 48, 47, 49, no, no, no, no, hold on. Do not do that. I would extend Nola Yovic though. This is a move that I do think Miami should look to make and it’s almost contradictory of why I am not extending Hero because we haven’t seen Hero be able to stay healthy consistently. But we haven’t seen Yoic done it either. The last two years he’s played 46 games in each of those two seasons. As a rookie, I don’t really count that because he was never expect to have a rules developmental year for Yovic, but he hasn’t played more than 46 games in a season of his career. But with him continuingly getting stronger, progressing, how he looked at Euro basket for team Serbia and his expanded role that is forecasted, I think you should try to get ahead of the curve and then extend him now. I think an extension of three years, $45 million where it’s AAV of 15 per year makes a lot of sense for the Miami Heat. And the part that concerns me is if you don’t extend him now, he finally stays healthy, takes that step forward in a larger role for Miami in the starting lineup or off the bench and has a good start to the year with Tyler Herro out for a month. Well, then he might command 20 million per season because it’s hard to find a player that is 610, 611 that possesses the shooting, playmaking, and IQ that Nola Yoich does. I do expect him to take another step forward. And if he does take a step and plays 65 plus games this season, finally is able to stay healthy, well then I mentioned it, I think you’ll be left here next season with Yoic entering restricted free agency potentially making $20 million per season. And if Miami doesn’t view that as a good move, maybe Yoic walks. Well, I don’t want Yoic to walk. And I get it. 20 mills a lot, which is why I think if you offered him three for 45 right now, he would ultimately take it. Those are the last two moves Miami might make this off season before the season gets underway. We’re a week away from training camp getting started in Miami. It’s going to be a lot of fun. For more updates around Miami, make sure you subscribe, but make sure you also follow me over on Twitter, Nick Rolloloff. [Music]

Miami Heat president Pat Riley made two Heat roster moves that are REALLY SMART! Miami picked up the third-year team option for Kel’el Ware, and the fourth-year team option for Jaime Jaquez Jr. Ware is now under contract through the 2026-27 NBA season while Jaquez is under contract through the 2026-27 season before being a restricted free agent in the 2027 NBA Offseason. Heat Report host Nic Rohloff breaks down the Heat news on September 23rd, 2025 and the Miami Heat rumors to follow. Nic also takes a look at the projected roles for Jaquez and Ware on this Miami Heat roster.

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Kel’el Ware’s contract:
2025-26: $4.4 MM
2026-27: $4.6 MM
2027-28: $7.1 MM (TO)
2028-29: RFA

Kel’el Ware rookie stats:
Pre All-Star break (38 GP/19.1 MPG): 8.6 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 1.0 BPG, 53.5 FG%, 35.7 3P%
Post All-Star break (26 GP/26.8 MPG): 10.3 PPG, 9.7 RPG, 1.3 BPG, 57.6 FG%, 24.4 3P%

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– Miami Heat Rumors: WAIVE Terry Rozier & SIGN Russell Westbrook?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hv2bm3BagU
– Miami Heat Rumors AFTER Tyler Herro Injury: Norman Powell & Andrew Wiggins Trade Coming Soon?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1KfEVlj6d0
– Miami Heat Fans Get AWFUL NEWS On Tyler Herro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avaCWd0WMQM

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Jaime Jaquez Jr. contract details:
2025-26: $3.8 MM
2026-27: $5.9 MM
2027-28: RFA

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– Who should start? Type ‘NJ’ for Nikola Jovic or ‘KW’ for Kel’el Ware

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