One of the few positive takeaways of a 2024-25 season for the Miami Heat that’s been marked by mediocrity and an ugly exit from star forward Jimmy Butler has been the play of rookie big man Kel’el Ware. Ware has earned his spot as a fixture in head coach Erik Spoelstra’s rotation after he started out the season seeing just sporadic playing time.
Across 46 games played to this point in his inaugural NBA season, he’s averaging 8.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots per game.
A big beneficiary of Ware’s productive play over the last several months has been star Bam Adebayo. Per The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, Ware has helped unlock Adebayo on the offensive side of the ball.
“Even more than just Ware’s game, it’s helped unlock Adebayo, who was in the midst of a down offensive season,” Vecenie wrote. “In the minutes that Ware and Adebayo play together, per PBP Stats, Adebayo shoots 62.4 percent from 2-point range. In the minutes when Ware is off the court, Adebayo shoots just 52 percent inside the arc. His true-shooting percentage with Ware skyrockets to 67.4 versus 53.5 without him on the court. He’s given Adebayo some more space to operate, and it’s helping the Heat significantly.”
Adebayo is scoring the ball maybe as well as he ever has in the NBA lately. In March, he’s scoring a whopping 26.2 points per game while shooting 54.8 percent from the field. Not by coincidence, he put together big scoring games in every one of the three contests Ware suited up in so far in the month.
Back on March 2, he dropped 30 points in an overtime loss to the New York Knicks. Impressively, all but four of his 16 shots from the field found the bottom of the net in that game.
Fast forward several days to a March 8 matchup against the Chicago Bulls, and Adebayo chipped in 22 points. He then scored 23 points in a loss to the Charlotte Hornets on March 10.
Ware has been limited to just three games played since the start of the month thanks to the injury bug. He’s been dealing with a knee sprain.
For as productive as Ware has been since the beginning of the new year, he did look a bit rusty against the Hornets on Monday. He shot just 1-of-6 from the field and finished with merely five rebounds.
Ware will try to regain his rhythm scoring and rebounding the ball when the Heat take on the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. The Heat will also look to pick up their first win in a little bit, as the team has lost every one of its last four games played.