MIAMI — So where does Spoelstra v. Ware stand as the Miami Heat head out on the road for a five-game trip? Apparently where it previously stood, just with less verbiage.
With both Erik Spoelstra and Kel’el Ware having offered their thoughts on Spoelstra’s impromptu criticism of Ware last week, the fundamental element of the incident has not change, namely Ware’s lacking of playing time.
In Saturday night’s stunning 122-120 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Ware played 16 minutes — only the minutes when starting center Bam Adebayo was not on the court. For Ware, who on Saturday played off the bench for a fifth consecutive game after previously starting 27 games this season, it was his fifth consecutive game playing 17 or fewer, after playing at least 20 in the previous 11 games.
Saturday’s measure minutes came shortly after Spoelstra walked back some of his previous — somewhat harsh — comments.
“I didn’t articulate that in a great way, and that wasn’t fair to Kel’el,” Spoelstra said Saturday of the comments he offered two days earlier. “What I’ll say is I’m fully invested and invigorated about the opportunity to develop Kel’el, and our staff feels the same way and we’re gonna give him everything we have to make sure he becomes the player that he wants to become, that we need him to become.”
In the wake of Thursday night’s home loss to the Boston Celtics, Spoelstra was asked about Ware only playing 8:49 in that game, including no action in the second half.
Spoelstra initially characterized it as a matter of strategy.
“It was a tough matchup for him in Boston with all the coverages, and the same thing tonight,” Spoelstra said Thursday. “He just has to stay ready.”
But Spoelstra then took it another step during that postgame media session.
“Look, with Kel’el I know that’s a lightning-rod topic,” Spoelstra continued on Thursday. “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.”
From there, Spoelstra went in a highly atypical direction, having rarely criticized his players publicly during his 18-season tenure as Heat coach.
“I get it with some young players,” Spoelstra said. “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.”
That last comment drew rebukes from no less than former Heat players Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem during their work on Amazon Prime’s NBA studio coverage.
Ware said before Saturday’s game he was aware of Spoelstra’s Thursday comments, but that the two had yet to discuss them. He was not made aware of Spoelstra’s Saturday pregame comments when he spoke during the pregame media period minutes later.
“Honestly, I ain’t gonna lie, I think it’s crazy,” Ware said of Spoelstra’s Thursday comments. “But, I mean, it’s his comments.
“I’ve kind of learned to control what you can control. 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.”
Of potentially being in such a situation again, Ware said he will handle it professionally, amid expectations of returning to previous productivity.
“Just going out there and play, basically,” he said prior to closing with seven points and nine rebounds in his 16 minutes against the Thunder. “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.”
Ware said his view is he is maximizing his effort in the opportunities presented. As for Spoelstra potentially wanting more, Ware said, “That’s a question you’ve got to ask him. Like I said, it is what it is, control the controllable.”
Ware’s Saturday minutes were not addressed after the Thunder game, but prior, Spoelstra turned the focus into pouring into Ware’s possibilities, of wanting to take the second-year, 21-year-old center to the next level.
“I’m invigorated by it,” he said of that challenge, “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’ve all looked extremely promising, including Kel’el.”
The growth with the 2024 first-round pick has been there, Spoelstra said. The challenge, Spoelstra said, is inspiring more.
“I look back at where he was last year at this time and where he is now,” Spoelstra said, “I think he’s markedly improved, not only with his approach, but his work ethic, his professionalism and his game.
“I do have to figure out some things, and it might not happen immediately.”
So far this season, the Heat largely have struggled when playing Adebayo and Ware together in big lineups. Ware again was out of the starting lineup Saturday, even with Tyler Herro, Davion Mitchell and Jaime Jaquez Jr. sidelined by ailments. Instead, rookie Kasparas Jakucionis and second-year Pelle Larsson were injected into the starting lineup.
“There’s some rotations that they just have to produce a little bit better and the impact and on-court on and off has to be a little bit better,” Spoelstra said. “And that’s what I’m excited about the second half of the season.”
To Ware, minutes would lead to more.
“I feel like anybody would,” he said, with the Heat outscored by a team-worst nine points in his Saturday minutes. “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.”
As for the notion of full effort being given or not being given, Ware said, “They say do this and do this, I’m going out there and doing that, and doing that.”