Report: Miami Heat are ‘thrilled’ with Kel’el Ware, didn’t expect him to contribute like this as a rookie

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The Miami Heat drafted big man Kel’el Ware with the first non-lottery pick of the 2024 NBA Draft, and he has been one of the better first-year players in the league this season. Despite being in and out of the rotation until about a month ago, he ranks in the top 12 among rookies in points, rebounds and blocks per game across 29 games played and three starts to this point.

According to Ethan J. Skolnick of Five Reasons Sports, the Heat are “thrilled” with how Ware has looked in his inaugural NBA season.

“The Heat are thrilled with Ware,” Skolnick wrote via Discord.

It sounds like Miami didn’t foresee Ware contributing like this until he was at least in his sophomore season in the league.

“They didn’t see him contributing like this until next season at the earliest,” Skolnick wrote.

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has seemingly also been encouraged by what he’s seen from the youngster.

“Spo will give him tough love publicly but he’s happy with him too,” Skolnick wrote. “Work ethic has been excellent.”

Ware’s style of play has gotten a lot of people excited, with some fans even seeing a little bit of San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama in him.

Still, there will be growing pains. For as promising as Ware has looked overall as of late, he is fresh off probably his worst individual performance in some time. The Heat earned a nine-point victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday, but Ware wasn’t his usual efficient self on the offensive side of the ball.

He took 11 shots from the field, yet only three of those attempts found the bottom of the net. Ware finished the game with seven points, marking his lowest scoring total in a couple of weeks.

At least Ware somewhat made up for his quiet scoring game against Brooklyn with his impact on the other end of the floor. He totaled three steals and two blocked shots in the victory.

The rookie headed into the contest on a roll from a scoring standpoint. He had dropped 20-plus points in each of his past three games played, leading to increased excitement.

Ware will try to regain his groove in terms of putting the ball through the bottom of the net when the Heat take on the Orlando Magic on Monday. The Magic just recently snapped a five-game losing streak with a win over the Detroit Pistons on Saturday.

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Jesse is a 23-year-old sports journalist with extensive experience covering the NBA.