Miami Heat Players Celebrate Rookie Center Kel’el Ware’s Continued Breakout

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra preached patience as fans clamored for rookie center Kel’el Ware to get an opportunity.

So far, everyone is coming out a winner.

Ware, the No. 15 pick in June’s draft, continued his recent breakout with nine points and seven rebounds in Monday’s 110-95 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. He added two steals and a block over 17 minutes.

“Kel’el is giving you just a little bit of a ‘wow’ factor right now,” Spoelstra told reporters. “There’s something that he’s doing every day … Just wanna build on that right now.”

After sparsely playing in his first month-plus, Ware spent time in the G League this month. He’s earned extra minutes in the Heat’s last two games with Kevin Love out.

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Heat players are ecstatic Ware is finally seeing minutes. Guard Tyler Herro said he loves playing with Ware; Miami has outscored teams by 33 points the last two games when the rookie is on the court.

“I just look forward to the growth of our chemistry, our two-man action, and then the growth of Kel’el himself,” Herro said. “He’s been really, really good since we’ve got him from the beginning of training camp.

“You see the glimpses and the skillset,” Herro added. “Just the raw versatility that he brings on both ends. He’s so effective defensively just protecting the rim, making everything difficult, and then on offense, you see the lob threat. You just throw it up there and he goes and gets it, and I love playing with guys like that.”

All-Star center Bam Adebayo is excited to see Ware’s continued development, especially as someone who had his own growing pains as a rookie. Adebayo averaged only 19.8 minutes and started 19 games in his initial NBA campaign.

“Like I tell him, I was like, ‘You’re lucky you get to play,’” Adebayo said. “I didn’t get to play my rookie year.”

Ware averages 8.3 minutes and is yet to draw his first start. If he keeps playing like this, one must wonder if Spoelstra will eventually experiment putting Adebayo at power forward and starting Ware at the five.

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Jake Elman works as a contributing writer to Miami Heat on SI. He can be reached at jakeelman97@gmail.com or follow him on X @JakeElman97.