Heat's first-round rookie reveals patient approach in hope of more minutes

11/04/2024 01:20 PM

As the Miami Heat prepare for the Sacramento Kings Monday night, the team will continue to look for every way to get further success of their group, with fans theorizing more playing time for rookies such as Kel’el Ware will have those results. After Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra sent a message to rookies such as Ware and Pelle Larsson, the former spoke about remaining patient.

Ware has only played in two games this season, but it was only because the score was lopsided in either for or against Miami as he had six minutes in the opener against the Orlando Magic and two minutes in Saturday’s win against the Washington Wizards. Ware would say to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald that “whenever my time comes,” he will be ready.

"I can't control what the coach does," Ware. "So whenever coach Spo [Erik Spoelstra] decides to put me in, I'll be ready…I'm just going day-by-day just doing everything that I can and just being prepared…So whenever my time comes, my time comes."

"It's kind of the same as what I've always been doing," Ware continued. "Coming to practice, showing up and doing what they tell me to do."

Heat’s Kel’el Ware feels he’s “ahead” offensively and defensively

Some fans believe the Heat could use more size and athleticism in the lineup which Ware adds as the team selected him with the 15th overall pick in the first round out of Indiana University. However, since he’a a rookie, Spoelstra could believe he is not ready yet for a full workload, though he mentioned to ClutchPoints how they are “fully committed” along with Larsson in developing them.

"It’s happening, it’s all-encompassing. We’re fully committed," Spoelstra said. "Yesterday was a terrific day for both of them. Really got after it, and of course, we worked them hard, but they played well, they’re making progress, and that’s what we’ve told them. We’re going to commit every single day to their improvement, and they’re committed to that process. Understand the big picture. But that big picture could also be, you know, at any time they could they could be thrown in a game."

Asked Erik Spoelstra about the message he gives to Kel'el Ware and Pelle Larsson who've received little time on the floor and about their development.

"It's happeneing….they're making progress..we're committing every single day to their improvement…" #HeatNationpic.twitter.com/SLIMAozSoq

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) October 30, 2024

After Ware impressed with the Heat in the Summer League, people are eager to see what he is made of, but if there is one aspect to be even more excited about, he feels he’s “ahead” on either side of the ball.

"I'm definitely ahead offensively, especially with me getting more and more comfortable with my game and what I can do," Ware said per The Miami Herald. "But also still defensively, too, though. Just being able to protect the rim, make better reads, being able to get more deflections, more steals. I feel like I'm just getting stronger on offense and defense."

Heat’s Bam Adebayo has message for Kel’el Ware

If there is one player that people want to see Ware play along with, it is Heat star Bam Adebayo who even says that he sees “potential” and gave advice to be “patient.”

"One Hundred percent, he has potential," Adebayo said. "You see certain stuff he does in practice, it's like eye-popping and obviously you've seen him win in summer league. So you know that he's about the right things, about the right stuff. He wants to play, he wants to compete. But right now he's being a great teammate and cheering us on."

"Just be patient, man," Adebayo continued on his message to Ware. "That's the biggest advice I can give him. The hardest thing to really believe in is patience because you don't know when your moment is going to happen."

Ware will likely continue to wait patiently as even with Kevin Love missing the first five games to start the season, he didn’t see much time and now with the veteran back, that will likely stay the same for the time being. Miami is 3-2 to start the season as they host Sacramento before going on a six-game road trip.

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