MIAMI — Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem are no strangers when it comes to Erik Spoelstra’s demanding nature and the demanding nature of the Miami Heat.

So when the two former Heat mainstays saw Spoelstra on Thursday night call out Kel’el Ware over the second-year center’s uneven play, there was a nod to their familiarity with the approach.

“If you have a Miami Heat jersey on, this is just a part of the cloth of Miami,” Wade said, as he sat alongside Haslem during Prime’s NBA studio coverage, with both serving as analysts for the network. “They’re going to challenge you physically, but they’re also going to challenge you mentally.”

Spoelstra’s tact after benching Ware for the second half of Thursday night’s 119-114 loss to the Boston Celtics nonetheless had Wade and Haslem questioning their former coach’s approach.

Asked about limiting Ware to 8:49 in the loss, Spoelstra touched on elements both strategic and otherwise.

“It was a tough matchup for him in Boston with all the coverages, and the same thing tonight,” Spoelstra said of his team’s 0-2 record against the Celtics this season. “He just has to stay ready.

“Look, with Kel’el I know that’s a lightning-rod topic. He needs to get back to where he was eight weeks ago, seven weeks ago, where I felt and everybody in the building felt he was stacking days, good days. He’s stacking days in the wrong direction now. He’s just got to get back to that. Stack days, build those habits, make sure you’re ready and play the minutes that you’re playing to a point where it makes me want to play you more.”

But it was what Spoelstra also offered up that had Wade and Haslem debating the merits of the tough love.

“I get it with some young players,” Spoelstra said. “You sometimes subconsciously play poorly to say, ‘Hey, I’ll play poorly until you play me the minutes I think I deserve. Then I’ll play well.’ That’s not how it works.”

That latter comment became a takeoff point for Wade.

“Well, the first part of the comments, I understand, lockstep with understanding the days that need to be stacked for a young player,” Wade said of the 21-year-old 7-footer.

“The second part of it, I don’t really understand, the subconsciousness of saying, ‘I’m going to play bad.’ I don’t get that. And I’ve watched Ware. I don’t know him personally, but I’ve watched him from afar. The kid was playing so well earlier in the year, where It looked like he was a centerpiece. And you hate to see that we got right here. But I don’t think he’s intentionally trying to play bad.”

Wade continued with his empathy.

“I don’t think subconsciously this kid is trying to go out there and sabotage his own minutes and his own career,” he said. “It’s hard to get a rhythm and a flow when you don’t know when it’s coming. But I agree with Spo on the stacking of the days.”

Haslem, who holds the Heat title of vice president of basketball development and has jumped into Heat practices alongside Ware, said he had no issue with calling out less-than-optimal effort.

“What I will say about Kel’el and what I would tell any young basketball player is that there’s going to be so many things that are out of your control,” Haslem said. “And I understand that’s frustrating. But if you step out on the basketball court and you’re playing in a situation where you’re frustrated, where you’re not enjoying the game, where you’re not playing with joy, you’re not playing your minutes hard, you’re not giving that effort and energy, then you allow everything that those coaches or whoever said to be right.”

Haslem, like Wade, also put a degree of the onus on Spoelstra.

“Put them in a position to earn their money,” the former Heat captain said, with Ware having been shifted to a bench role the past four games, after several highly productive starts. “Put them in a position to say, ‘He is one of our top seven or eight guys, he should be playing. Let me figure out ways to get him more minutes  because he deserves those minutes.’

“I understand your minutes are going to fluctuate based on the situation with coaches. There is nothing you can do about it. But what you can do is every time you step out on the basketball court, make sure your minutes are impactful, make sure your minutes are positive.”

Haslem then turned to other players who have been having coach/playing-time issues, such as Golden State’s Jonathan Kuminga and Memphis’ Ja Morant.

“When you walk out on the basketball court, with your head up your you know what, you allow them to be right about everything they’re saying, you allow them to be right about taking your minutes, you allow them to be right about saying, ‘He can’t handle these situations,’” Haslem said. “Don’t give them the satisfaction. They make a lot of money to make the tough decisions. Put them in tough decisions by playing well.”