Are more good days ahead for Heat frontcourt of Adebayo and Ware? ‘They both want to make it work’
For the Miami Heat to reach its ceiling this season, Heat coaches know they need the double-big frontcourt of Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware to produce positive minutes together.
The problem is Adebayo and Ware have struggled to do that so far this season ... until recently.
The Adebayo-Ware frontcourt enters the All-Star break with some momentum, albeit momentum built against some of the NBA’s worst teams, as the Heat outscored opponents by an eye-opening 68 points in the 42 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together over the past three games. This is notable, considering the Heat had been outscored by 7.5 points per 100 possessions in the 266 minutes that the 6-foot-9 Adebayo and 7-foot Ware had played together this season prior to this three-game stretch.
“I like it,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat now at the start of the NBA’s week-long All-Star break before resuming its schedule on Friday against the Hawks in Atlanta. “I think they’re both in a different place than where they were six, eight weeks ago, three months ago for different reasons. But that gives us a different look and the versatility of being able to play the two of them together and pound the glass on both ends is a weapon for us.
“They both want to make it work. And they both know where we have to improve to make it work for it to be really effective for us. And I appreciate that.”
The Adebayo-Ware lineups were so bad through the first two-plus months of the season that Spoelstra actually went away from them for a while. Adebayo and Ware didn’t play together for 16 consecutive games before the Heat’s injury issues led to Spoelstra using them together in each of the three games leading up to the break.
“We just got to be active,” Adebayo said when asked what it’s going to take for him to get consistent minutes alongside Ware moving forward. “It’s not necessarily about the boards. Everybody is going to point to that. But if we’re active on offense and defense, it looks great and it can help this team.”
It was just a month ago that Spoelstra called out Ware for regressing in his play and approach, saying after a Jan. 15 home loss to the Boston Celtics: “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. I get it with some young players. 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.”
Before the following game, Spoelstra clarified those comments and walked them back, saying: “I didn’t articulate that in a great way and that wasn’t fair to Kel’el. I wasn’t even frustrated. So what I’ll say is I’m fully invested in and invigorated about the opportunity to develop Kel’el, and our staff feels the same way. We’re going to give him everything we have to make sure he becomes the player that he wants to become, that we need him to become.”
Ware’s minutes have continued to be uneven since those comments, but he has taken advantage of his recent opportunity to play alongside Adebayo with a chunk of the Heat’s rotation sidelined by injuries.
“We never really spoke about it directly,” Ware said Thursday on SiriusXM NBA Radio when asked about Spoelstra’s rebuke from last month. “We both know it was more of a miscommunication. But yeah I never went on the court and tried to play bad. That would just make myself look bad. I would say it was more trying to get used to playing in a different role.”
Ware, 21, has averaged 14.3 points, 10.7 rebounds and one block per game during the Heat’s past three games. More importantly, the Heat has outscored its opponent by a total of 50 points with Ware on the court during this three-game stretch.
Prior to this three-game stretch before the break, Ware had a team-worst plus/minus of minus-100 this season.
“I also appreciate Kel’el’s process the last three weeks or a month, since whenever that game was, the infamous postgame quote,” Spoelstra said after Wednesday’s 123-111 win against the Pelicans in New Orleans that closed the Heat’s pre-All-Star break schedule. “But his process really improved, and you’re going to go through stretches where it’s up and down.
“But he just came in every day since then, just trying to work on getting better in the shootarounds and practices and film sessions. And it’s translating to the court. It doesn’t always guarantee that it will. But I appreciate his approach of late.”
Adebayo will remain a fixture in the Heat’s starting lineup. There’s no question about that.
Ware’s spot in the Heat’s starting lineup is less certain, as he has played as a starter 29 games and a reserve in 23 games this season.
But whether Ware begins games in the starting lineup or on the bench, the question is: Will Ware continue to play alongside Adebayo for extended stretches when the Heat returns from the All-Star break?
Adebayo and Ware want to make it work. But those Adebayo-Ware lineups have to lead to positive minutes for the Heat to continue to play them together.
“It all comes down to just reps doing it and being more comfortable out there,” Ware said.
