LOS ANGELES — It is starting to feel like an endless loop, as if all roads with Kel’el Ware lead to this intersection of uncertainty with Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.
Sunday night’s 130-120 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers was another example, benched for the balance of the first half after a single, ineffective opening stint, then not seeing the court again until only 69 seconds remained in the third quarter.
It took until midseason a year ago before the trust was there for a berth in the starting lineup for the No. 15 pick in the 2024 NBA draft out of Indiana. A miserable postseason then fueled doubts. In this season’s opener two weeks ago in Orlando, a reserve role was the role of choice by Spoelstra. And throughout the 3-3 start to the season taken into Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers, it largely has been an uneven ride.
Sunday, the action was limited to 11 minutes, 30 seconds. Four minutes fewer than Dru Smith. Seven fewer than Simone Fontecchio.
“I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating,” Ware said when asked if it felt just that. “I feel like you’ve got to trust the coach and the decisions that he comes up with and you’ve got to go in there and be ready when your name is called.”
To Spoelstra, it came down to Ware’s initial struggles Sunday night in pick-and-roll defense against the Lakers’ Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, with Doncic closing with 29 points, Reaves with 26.
“We’re just trying to get a handle on it,” Spoelstra said, with the entire Heat defense off the mark. “It’s very nuanced when you have two dynamic pick-and-roll players like they had. But I thought he bounced back in the third quarter and gave some quality minutes.”
That Ware did, at +4 in that stint, after opening -10 in his initial stint.
“I feel like we went on a like a little run to give the team a little spark, forcing them to call a timeout,” Ware said, with the Heat’s second half trimming what had been an 18-point early deficit down to two, before again fading late, when Ware was back on the bench for the final 7:32.
Ware said there was nothing pointed from Spoelstra when the lineup change was made at halftime, with Jaime Jaquez Jr., who closed with a game-high 31 points, inserted into the third-quarter starting lineup in place of Ware.
“He didn’t really say anything like you won’t be starting,” Ware said. “He just said, ‘We’re going to be going with Jaime.’ So we didn’t know who in place of Jaime it was going to be. But he said he was going to be going with Jaime.”
As for what Spoelstra perceives as pick-and-role defensive struggles, Ware, 21, considers it part of his NBA growing pains.
“I mean it’s only my second year,” he said. “So, you know, it’s still a learning process of that, and just getting it down.”
Asked if he appreciates what Spoelstra is seeking, Ware added, “It’s mainly just the defensive part of it. And like I said, I’m still getting that down.”
Center Bam Adebayo, who closed the loss to the Lakers with 17 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals, views Ware’s situation as part of the NBA growth curve.
“It’s just how are you going to grow from those lessons? This is a lesson for him,” Adebayo said.
Just, Adebayo said, as he experienced during his own maturation under Spoelstra from No. 14 Heat pick out of Kentucky in 2017.
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“I was up and down,” Adebayo said of his early Heat days. “I always make the joke that I hated Spo. He might be going through that phase. A second-year player, he’s got to get used to it, to a whole other offense, trying to figure out what his role is.”
Asked how he gained clarity, Adebayo said: “When I went in his office, my third year, close to the end of my second year. I started going in his office more. Chris Bosh actually told me to do that, go in his office more, just talk to him and figure it out, and then the conversations would get easier.”
So far, nothing easy at the start of this season for Ware. But, Adebayo said, also early, in terms of the season and in terms of Ware’s career.
“Just film and reps,” Adebayo said of the riddles of defending pick-and-rolls. “And then communication obviously makes it way easier. But that’s part of his development. And we’re not going to give up on him. We know how great he can be. We know he moves the needle for this team.”
