The Patient Rookie: Heat’s First-Rounder Eyes Long-Term…

As the Miami Heat prepare for the Sacramento Kings on Monday night, the team will continue to look for every way to get further success for their group, with fans theorizing more playing time for rookies such as Kel’el Ware will have those results. After Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra sent a message to rookies such as Ware and Pelle Larsson, the former spoke about remaining patient.

Ware has only played in two games this season, but it was only because the score was lopsided either for or against Miami, as he had six minutes in the opener against the Orlando Magic and two minutes in Saturday’s win against the Washington Wizards. Ware would say to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald that “whenever my time comes,” he will be ready.

“I can’t control what the coach does,” Ware said. “So whenever coach Spo [Erik Spoelstra] decides to put me in, I’ll be ready…I’m just going day-by-day, just doing everything that I can and just being prepared…So whenever my time comes, my time comes.”

“It’s kind of the same as what I’ve always been doing,” Ware continued. “Coming to practice, showing up, and doing what they tell me to do.”

Heat’s Kel’el Ware feels he’s “ahead” offensively and defensively

Some fans believe the Heat could use more size and athleticism in the lineup, which Ware adds as the team selected him with the 15th overall pick in the first round out of Indiana University. However, since he’s a rookie, Spoelstra could believe he is not ready yet for a full workload, though he mentioned to ClutchPoints how they are “fully committed” along with Larsson in developing them.

“It’s happening, it’s all-encompassing. We’re fully committed,” Spoelstra said. “Yesterday was a terrific day for both of them. Really got after it, and of course, we worked them hard, but they played well, they’re making progress, and that’s what we’ve told them. We’re going to commit every single day to their improvement, and they’re committed to that process. Understand the big picture. But that big picture could also be, you know, at any time they could, they could be thrown in a game.”

After Ware impressed with the Heat in the Summer League, people are eager to see what he is made of, but if there is one aspect to be even more excited about, he feels he’s “ahead” on either side of the ball.

“I’m definitely ahead offensively, especially with me getting more and more comfortable with my game and what I can do,” Ware said, per The Miami Herald. “But also still defensively, too, though. Just being able to protect the rim, make better reads, being able to get more deflections and more steals. I feel like I’m just getting stronger on offense and defense.”