Erik Spoelstra still calling for Kel'el Ware to "Impact Winning"

It's been an interesting couple of months for the Heat's second year big man, Kel'el Ware, after being called out in Summer League by Coach Erik Spoelstra for his professionalism following some uneven performances.

Fast forward a few months from him starting in a playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he's now getting reps with the exhibit ten guys in garbage time of a pre-season game.

Kel'el Ware actually finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds on Monday night against the Milwaukee Bucks, much of his damage coming in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, while simultaneously posting a -21 plus minus.

After the game, Erik Spoelstra called for people to shy away from the bare numbers, and it being all about impacting the game: "There was a 3 minute segment where it actually impacted the game, the rest of it it has to impact the game. I'm not looking at the stat-line, I think everybody's looking at the wrong thing."

Spoelstra is a known believer in not looking at stats even following good performances, but he's stood strong in his stance that Ware isn't impacting winning basketball for long stretches in the current state.

"That does not matter if you have 18 and 13, if it's not impacting the game," Spoelstra continued on the matter. Also made sure to use Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez as reference points, noting that both put together performances that impacted winning.

Spo asked about Kel’el again tonight, and goes right back to wanting him to “impact winning” and not to look at stats:

“It doesn’t matter if you have 18 and 13 if you’re not impacting the game.”

Says there was a 3 minute pocket late where he felt he did

Says Niko and Jaime did
— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) October 7, 2025

Kel'el Ware commented on Spoelstra's comments as well, saying "It's all about getting to a point where I'm affecting winning basketball. So just being able to go out there and impact the game in a positive way."

In response to all of Spo's constant comments on his motor, both behind the scenes and to the media, Ware has said all of the right things. Hasn't been disgruntled about his role whatsoever.

But I think in some ways, Erik Spoelstra is trying to rile him up. They want a high tempo and extremely hungry version of Ware that we see at pockets of a time. He's coaching Ware in a way that we haven't seen with many guys over the past few years.

"I enjoy coaching Kel'el," Spoelstra has repeated over the last few weeks. But I do believe he has an understanding of how to appraoching this. How to motivate him to hit his max potential.

It's a work in progress. Now it's all about the very next on-court response.