Kel'el Ware #7 of the Miami Heat looks on in the second half against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on December 21, 2025 in New York City. Evan Bernstein Getty Images
Two days after benching Miami Heat second-year center Kel’el Ware and then calling him out after Thursday’s home loss to the Boston Celtics, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra clarified his postgame comments.
“I didn’t articulate that in a great way and that wasn’t fair to Kel’el,” Spoelstra said during his pregame media session ahead of Saturday night’s matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Kaseya Center. “I wasn’t even frustrated. So what I’ll say is I’m fully invested in and invigorated about the opportunity to develop Kel’el, and our staff feels the same way. We’re going to give him everything we have to make sure he becomes the player that he wants to become, that we need him to become.”
This comes after Ware was benched for the entire second half of Thursday’s loss to the Celtics after struggling on the defensive end in his first-half minutes.
Ware, 21, logged 8:49 in Thursday’s first half in a reserve role before spending the entire second half on the Heat’s bench. The 7-footer recorded three points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting from three-point range, five rebounds and a plus/minus of minus-8 in his lone stint of the night.
In the second half, Spoelstra opted to play a smaller lineup that featured 6-foot-10 forward Nikola Jovic at center while starting center Bam Adebayo was resting.
“It was a tough matchup for him in Boston with all the coverages, and the same thing tonight,” Spoelstra said after Thursday’s defeat when asked about Ware’s second-half benching. “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.
“I get it with some young players. 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.”
When asked for his response to Spoelstra’s postgame challenge from Thursday, Ware stood in front of his locker before Saturday’s game against the Thunder and said: “Honestly, I ain’t gonna lie, I think it’s crazy. But, I mean, it’s his comments.”
Ware said he has not yet spoken to Spoelstra about the comments to clear the air.
“I’ve kind of learned to control what you can control,” Ware said Saturday. “You know, it is what it is. If I didn’t play in the second half, that was his decision that he felt like he needed to make.”
Along with expressing remorse for how Thursday’s comments about Ware came off, Spoelstra also made clear Saturday that he’s “invigorated” by the task of developing Ware.
“I’m invigorated by the challenge of developing a young big like him,” Spoelstra said Saturday. “And we’ll have to figure some things out. That’s part of the development of young guys. They’re all not going to develop at the same time, at the same rate. It’s not all going to be linear. We have more young guys than we typically have had all at once. And at different times, they have all looked extremely promising, including Kel’el.”
Ware has flashed his intriguing upside during stretches this season, grabbing double-digit rebounds in nine straight games in November. He also posted seven double-double stat lines during that nine-game stretch.
Ware entered Saturday’s matchup against the Thunder averaging 11.7 points, 9.9 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game while shooting 54.3% from the field and 41.9% on 2.9 three-point attempts per game through the first 41 games of his second NBA season. That’s up from Ware’s rookie production, when he averaged 9.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game while shooting 55.4 percent from the field and 31.5 percent on threes to earn a spot on the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.
But Ware’s production hasn’t led to positive minutes this season, as the Heat has been outscored by 3.2 points per 100 possessions while he has been on the court. With Ware on the bench, the Heat has outscored opponents by 5.9 points per 100 possessions this season.
“I look back at where he was last year at this time and where he is now, I think he’s markedly improved not only in his approach but his work ethic, his professionalism and his game,” Spoelstra continued on Saturday. “I do have to figure out some things and it might not happen immediately. There are some rotations that just have to produce a little bit better, and some of the impact and on/off court has to be a little bit better.”
Ware’s playing time has diminished recently. After starting in 27 of his first 37 appearances this season, he entered Saturday’s game against the Thunder with four straight appearances off the bench. He has played under 20 minutes in each of those four games as a reserve.
“Just going out there and playing, basically,” Ware said Saturday when asked how he has learned to handle Spoelstra’s public challenges. “In order to produce, I guess, like he said eight weeks ago, I would say I had more minutes eight weeks ago. But I guess to try to bring that same productivity to the minutes that I’m getting now.”
Does Ware feel like he plays better when he gets more minutes?
“I feel like anybody would,” Ware said Saturday. “You’re more in the flow. You’re out there longer. You just have more of a feel when you play more, the more experience that you have with it. Everything just comes naturally instead of just going in for plug minutes.”
What does Ware think he needs to do better to get more playing time?:
“That’s a question you got to ask [Spoelstra],” Ware said Saturday. “Like I said, I’ve learned it is what it is. Control the controllables. I don’t know what my minutes will be.”
Does Ware feel like he has given his full effort at all times for the Heat?
“I try to,” Ware said Saturday. “With the minutes I get, like I said, it’s sort of hard to go out there when you really don’t know what your role is. It changes from one thing to the next. So I’m just trying to go out there and try to do what I was doing eight weeks ago when I had those minutes with the little minutes I get now.”
Spoelstra hopes Ware’s continued growth will help spark a Heat turnaround during the second half the season. The Heat enters Saturday’s game against the Thunder in eighth place in the Eastern Conference with a 21-20 record.
“That’s what I’m excited about in the second half of the season. I think we have great potential,” Spoelstra said Saturday. “I think we have an opportunity for this to really start to click. We’re all a little bit disappointed in where our standing and where our record is right now. But we have an opportunity with the second half of the season to make amends for that.”