Spoelstra more comfortable with Ware/Bam duo. Insight, what to know on pairing
You might have gone through periods where you gorge on a particular snack food, then don’t want to taste it for weeks, then develop a liking for it again.
For Erik Spoelstra, it’s very much like that with the Bam Adebayo/Kel’el Ware frontcourt pairing. At times, the Heat coach craves the two-big look. At other times, it’s seemingly the last thing he wants to try.
As two-man pairings go, it’s the quintessential love/hate relationship between a coach and a lineup.
Whether their partnership gets a third year to grow together hinges on whether Ware departs as a trade chip in the Heat’s renewed efforts to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo or another star in a trade.
But if Ware is retained, that frontcourt tandem seems likely to get another extended look, after a season in which they played just 505 minutes together, which equates to 6.9 minutes per game in the 73 games when both players suited up.
They didn’t play at all together in 24 of the 73 games. They started together only 25 times this season, with Miami finishing 14-11 in those games.
But Spoelstra, who soured on the pairing after several poor performances earlier in the season, indicated Thursday that he has emerged more comfortable playing them in tandem.
“They were able to do it in more impactful games, down the stretch,” Spoelstra said.
“We credit them for putting the time and the intention to make it work, but also doing it in pressure games. Certainly, both of them took a jump from where it was a year ago or even at the beginning of the season. Also, their skill sets improved; their versatility improved.
“Kelel’s shooting really helps, and Bam’s shooting [helps], and his ability now in offense to be able to make plays off the catch. You need that kind of versatility in this league now. You need to be able to play big. You also need to be able to play small.”
Adebayo and Ware have made clear that they benefit from their minutes together.
“I feel like we can be great,” Adebayo said of the duo, adding that playing with a seven-footer with Ware’s diverse skill set helps him focus more on his offense and allows him to roam on defense and further seize on his unique ability to guard wing players.
Ware likes it because it allows him to play significantly more minutes, though he insists “starting doesn’t matter” to him and finishing games is more meaningful.
“Kel’el is more comfortable when I’m out there because someone is always talking to him,” Adebayo said. “My job is to help him.”
Ware said that perfecting the lineup alongside Adebayo “takes time; it takes reps. If we got more reps at that, we would progress more. I was hoping to see that.”
But after starting Ware 40 of the final 42 games in 2024-25 (including 37 of those 42 with Adebayo), Spoelstra used his two centers simultaneously for only segments of this season.
After 22 starts together scattered through the season, he started Ware with Adebayo for the final three games, when Spoelstra removed Pelle Larsson from the starting group and inserted Ware because it allowed him “to get some more minutes out of the gate. We all know about his upside.”
When Spoelstra has periodically soured on the Adebayo/Ware pairing, it has usually happened because they’re not rebounding and defending well enough (Ware, in most cases).
“If we play two bigs, it has to be dominant defensively and on the glass in particular,” Spoelstra said.
But they have also had plenty of encouraging moments, too.
Last season, the Heat outscored teams by 44 points in their regular-season minutes together, before those two — and everyone else — struggled badly in the first round sweep against Cleveland.
This season, Miami outscored teams by 85 points in their 505 minutes together — the best plus/minus of any Heat two-man combo that played less than 530 minutes, and the Heat’s 12th best two-man plus/minus overall.
Asked where he believes he has improved in his minutes alongside Adebayo, Ware said: “Being able to play with more spacing with him. Knowing the spots to be in. Being able to contest shots more. He’s there to help anchor defensively and help me out.”
Ware can be exploited in pick-and-rolls, which is one negative of the Adebayo/Ware pairing.
But Adebayo strongly disputed any notion that the two-big lineup leaves the Heat at a disadvantage when Miami plays against teams that spread the floor, saying Ware mostly needs to worry only about guarding the opposing center (though switching and offering help defense on shooters also is sometimes required).
On the issue of playing Ware with Adebayo against teams with smaller lineups, Spoelstra said this week: “Kel’el has definitely gotten better. But there are also some nuances. You have to be able to cover ground. There is no way around it. You are going to have to scramble. You can’t park him in the middle of the paint and tell him to guard the rim. That’s not the reality of some of these modern day offenses. But he’s definitely made some progress.”
Heat guard Davion Mitchell said the upshot of the Ware/Adebayo lineup is having “Kel’el’s rim protection and Bam all over the place. Offensively, they can offensive rebound. They can both shoot the ball now. They can both put the ball on the floor.”
But that pairing also requires more from the Heat’s wings.
Mitchell explained it this way: “Pelle was our guy to do all the little things, the cuts. When we’re stagnant, he always spaced the floor out for us better to give us more spacing. With two bigs, they’re not cutting-type of guys. So one of us [wing players] has to [move] when we get stagnant.”
Ware made significant strides as a three-point shooter; his 39.5 percent accuracy led all NBA centers.
“That may be the area he’s had the most consistent improvement,” Spoelstra said. “He was a very good 18-foot shooter in college. Now he’s gaining confidence so he earned the right to shoot some trail threes…I think he’s improved with his decision-making there.”
He also was 10th in the NBA (two spots behind Adebayo) in rebounds per game at 9.0, to go along with 11.1 points per game.
Ware’s offseason mission? He said he must improve “in the post and defensively.”
Then he cracked that he must work on his “plus/minus,” perhaps aware that he was second worst on the team in that area and fully aware that plus/minus is a meaningful statistic for his coach.
Miami was outscored by 66 points with Ware in the game; only Dru Smith was worse at minus 83.
How much of that is Ware’s fault? “It’s 50-50,” he said, noting “I can’t control what threes teams shoot, but I can control the paint.”
This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 9:06 AM.
