Heat’s perfect role for Kel’el Ware is painfully obvious

The Miami Heat are learning plenty about themselves as they navigate the preseason. None of these lessons, though, are more important than the discovery that Kel’el Ware needs to play with the second unit.

Kudos to head coach Erik Spoelstra and the rest of the staff for recognizing this to begin the year. They must now resist the temptation to experiment more following Ware’s mesmerizing performance against

 Victor Wembanyama, and the San Antonio Spurs.

The Heat’s bench personnel is better suited to Kel’el Ware

Playing with the second unit ensures that Ware will be alongside players who both get off the ball quickly, and are more prone to deep drives.

It says a lot that Kasparas Jakucionis has assisted Ware more than anyone else on the Heat so far. His downhill attacks not only draw two the ball, but routinely culminate in paint touches:

There’s one thing you get with a natural play-maker like Kas:

He gets off the ball quick

That’s what good passers do

Denies the double screen again here, (draws two in the paint), and makes that dump-off to Ware before he even spins inside

He just reads and reacts pic.twitter.com/vkraIXns4F — Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) October 9, 2025

This type of play is not the strength of an Andrew Wiggins, Bam Adebayo, or even a healthy Tyler Herro. And if you’re worried about Jakucionis having 

a limited role as a rookie, bench-mob lineups are sure to incorporate Pelle Larsson, someone else who excels at extending his drives deep into the paint.

Once Herro returns from his ankle injury

, Miami is also bound to roll out more Norman Powell-plus-the-bench units. We saw a glimpse of it when the Heat played the Spurs, and he shared the floor with Ware, Jakucionis, Larsson, and Keshad Jonshon.

Guess what Powell is also good at doing? That’s right: putting pressure on the basket out of his drives.

Ware is wired to thrive alongside these types of players. He can rim-run after setting screens, but also duck in from the corners or the wing when his teammates get going downhill. And while he won’t be operating beside an A-plus playmaker, this is basically true of any Heat lineup. Sprays and dump-offs out of drives are reads that Powell, Larsson, and Jakucionis 

are more than capable of making. Plus, if Miami does turn out to have an A-plus passer on its roster, it’s probably going to be Kas himself. 

There’s another major benefit to bringing Ware off the bench

Letting Ware run with the second unit likewise limits his time alongside Adebayo. Few want to talk about it, but this is probably the right move. 

For as much range as Bam has flashed, his outside shot remains theoretical. Despite shooting 50 percent from three in the preseason, the same goes for Ware’s three-point touch. 

More critically, Ware isn’t hard-wired to be a space-in-place threat. He is at his most effective when he has the freedom to screen and cut and roam. It gets much harder to use him in that way if he’s playing alongside Bam.

Last season proved as much. Ware shot 59.3 percent on twos with Adebayo on the court, and 64.6 percent without him. Though his rim frequency actually went up in dual-big lineups, the quality of looks wasn’t that great, and his finishing rate dropped. With guys like Powell, Larsson, and Jakucionis getting run in secondary lineups, there’s also a chance Ware’s rim frequency dramatically improves this season when he’s the lone big. 

The entire point of preseason is to experiment. If the Heat really want to test out more Ware-plus-the-starters looks, they’re free to go ahead. Ultimately, they will come to the same conclusion: that their 21-year-old big man is at his best coming off the bench—at least for now.