Miami Heat rookie big man Kel’el Ware seems to believe that he will fit like a glove playing alongside star Bam Adebayo.
“Me and Bam can definitely play beside each other because we complement each other so well,” said Ware. “His position is really the four, and so me coming in as the five man, I can protect the paint and just being able to do what I always do.”
Ware did a bit of everything on the floor for the Heat during Miami’s stint in the Las Vegas Summer League.
From an offensive standpoint, he scored the ball at an efficient rate and flashed a capable 3-point shot. Across six games with the Heat in Las Vegas, he averaged 18.0 points per game on 61.8 percent shooting from the field and also shot 30.0 percent from deep on a low volume of attempts (1.7 per contest).
But for as productive as Ware was on the offensive side of the ball in Summer League, he perhaps was equally effective on the defensive end of the floor. He consistently gobbled up defensive rebounds for the Heat (averaged 6.7 per contest) while also altering opponents’ shots as a rim protector, as he blocked 1.5 shots per game.
The Heat drafted him with the first non-lottery pick in the 2024 NBA Draft — No. 15 overall — after Ware played two seasons of college basketball: one at the University of Oregon and another at Indiana University Bloomington.
Ware flashed the same skills in his one season with the Hoosiers that he did during Miami’s time in Summer League. He converted 42.5 percent of his shots from deep on just 1.3 attempts and also averaged 1.9 blocks per game.
It’s easy to understand why Ware thinks he’ll be an ideal fit playing with Adebayo in Miami’s frontcourt, considering Adebayo also excels at making life difficult for opposing teams on the less glamorous end of the court.
Adebayo was named to the All-Defensive First Team last season and also finished third in the Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama.
Only time will tell how often Ware will see the floor in his rookie season with the Heat, but here’s to hoping that fans will get multiple chances to see him play alongside Adebayo.
