Miami Heat big Kel’el Ware averaged 9.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game as a rookie. (Mandatory Credit: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)
While consistency — or lack thereof — troubled Kel’el Ware throughout his rookie season, he undoubtedly showed plenty of flashes last season with the Miami Heat.
The former No. 15 overall pick averaged 9.3 points and 7.4 rebounds on 55.4 percent shooting and 60.3 percent true shooting.
After an uneven Summer League, an anonymous Heat executive recently opined to Spotrac’s Keith Smith that this upcoming season will be “big” for him and his development.
“Big, big year coming for him. He’s another guy who won’t settle for anything other than being great,” a Heat front office executive said. “We’re looking forward to watching the leap he’s going to take as a second-year guy. Perfect fit with Bam (Adebayo) in our versatile frontcourt. Couldn’t be happier with how he’s coming along.”
The 2025-26 season will be big for Kel’el Ware:
I would disagree with the executive that he was or will be a “perfect” fit with Adebayo.
He started 36 games alongside the Heat’s three-time All-Star, and over his final 20 games, he averaged 10.6 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.
The on-court fit alongside the Heat’s three-time All-Star wasn’t perfect — in fact, the spacing was clunky far more often than not. He did help ease pressure off Adebayo. However, the two still occupied the same spaces more often than you’d like, and they were still a middling offense despite grading in the 91st percentile in effective field goal percentage and 98th percentile in 3-point percentage, according to Cleaning The Glass.
Correlation doesn’t equal causation, but there’s merit to how well they fit — or don’t fit — together on the court.
All that said, this year is big for Ware. First of all, the Heat don’t have any backup big; Vlad Goldin, while he was good in the Heat’s final Summer League game, isn’t quite ready, and there’s no shame in that.
I think they should kick the tires on Richaun Holmes, though I am not anticipating them to go deeper into the tax before they get out of it. You’d be hard-pressed to find another playable backup big option in free agency.
Thus, I am expecting Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra to stagger him and Adebayo as much as humanly possible. In fact, I think there’s a world where Ware doesn’t start for that very reason — but we’ll see what the roster looks like come October.
He was also objectively underwhelming in Summer League. He finished strong, but he was still below average as a(n offensive) rebounder, rim deterrent and screener. He took what Erik Spoelstra said as a challenge — and succeeded — but he will need to be far more consistent than he was over the last six months.
There’s no doubt that the talent is there. His ceiling is sky high if he can consistently put it all together, and he’s going to need to for the Heat to have success in 2025-26.
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