MIAMI — Typically, the numbers game in the preseason is about the final roster, who stays, who goes, and how to make it all work under the salary cap, luxury tax and tax aprons.
But Monday night, shortly after his team dropped to 0-2 in the preseason with a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at Kaseya Center, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra pointedly offered up another numbers game — and made it clear that he wouldn’t allow one set of numbers from the box score to game the system.
On the face of it, it was a highly productive outing for second-year Heat center Kel’el Ware, with 18 points and 13 points in 23:25.
To Spoelstra? Empty calories.
“There was a three-minute segment where it actually impacted the game,” Spoelstra said of Ware’s statistics. “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. It’s got to impact the game. I want him, the next game, to be a plus-20. Right? That’s what it’s about.”
Because this time, the Heat were outscored by 21 when Ware was on the court.
Typically coaches don’t go there, to the plus-minus column, at least on a single-game basis. Appreciate, now that he has been dropped into the second unit in favor of Nikola Jovic with the starters these first two exhibitions, Ware has found himself playing with some who won’t even be on the opening-night roster. Monday night, that had him entering for the first time alongside the likes of Myron Gardner and Trevor Keels.
But with Spoelstra, this clearly is about more than a single exhibition or even the decision in the first two exhibitions to play Ware in reserve.
This is about making sure there is a next step after Ware was named second-team All-Rookie after finishing last season as a starter.
“And that’s part of the maturation of a young player,” Spoelstra said of the current push-pull. “He does really good things, and then when you aren’t able to do it consistently, it doesn’t impact the game.
“And you don’t want to have deflating plays. You want to have inspiring plays.”
As Spoelstra noted, there was such a stretch Monday night for Ware. but it was fleeting.
“That steal he had at halfcourt was an inspiring play, that impacted the moment,” Spoelstra said of a play with 7:52 remaining, amid a stretch when the Heat went from a three-point deficit to a one-point lead. “And there was probably a three-minute stretch there. I want to take that three-minute stretch and see what his plus-minus was on that — because it impacted the game.
“And that’s part of him, as a young player, connecting the dots. It does not matter if you have 18 and 13 if it’s not impacting the game, really.”
If that sounds familiar, it should. No Heat big man feasted on as many empty calories on the stat sheet as Hassan Whiteside, during an uneven run with the team that drove Spoelstra to nothing short of distraction.
And that’s a critical difference amid Ware’s maturation from the No. 15 pick out of Indiana in the 2024 NBA draft. Unlike with Whiteside, who often would revel in his statistics even in defeat, Ware was cognizant of what mattered in the wake of Monday night’s loss.
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“It’s all about a point where I’m affecting winning basketball,” he said by his locker stall. “And so, just being able to go out there and affect the game in a positive way.”
The Heat eventually bailed on Whiteside, dealing him to the Portland Trail Blazers in the July 2019 trade that helped deliver Jimmy Butler from the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency.
This time, Spoelstra appreciates how much it means to his team to make it work with Ware, to strengthen the developmental pipeline that is so essential in this post-Butler era.
So even with his team at a loss, Spoelstra said he is not at a loss when it comes to the push for consistency.
“That’s part of it,” Spoelstra said of fueling Ware’s fire. “That’s part of being a young player. That’s why I enjoy coaching him, ’cause my responsibility is to help teach him how to connect the dots, and become more consistent, where it now leads to winning. And all the young players in this league have to go through that.”
