Heat first-round pick Kel’el Ware looks back at productive and encouraging summer league

Kel’el Ware’s first month with the Miami Heat was productive.

While Ware is still two months away from the start of his first NBA training camp, the 20-year-old center has already won a championship ring since being selected by the Heat with the 15th overall pick in the first round of this year’s draft on June 26.

Yes, the championship ring was won in summer league. But Ware’s play over the last few weeks to help the Heat win its first Las Vegas Summer League title immediately became one of the most encouraging parts of the team’s offseason.

“That was my first summer league,” Ware said during a Thursday appearance to interact and take photos with young campers at Jr. Heat Basketball Camp at SLAM! Miami charter school. “So just being able to be part of that with the guys that I played with and to come out on top was definitely a great feeling.”

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Ware averaged 18 points, 8.3 rebounds, one assist, one steal and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 61.8 percent from the field and 3 of 10 (30 percent) from three-point range during the Heat’s six-game run to the Las Vegas Summer league championship. As a result of that production, Ware earned a spot on the All-Summer League First Team.

The others who earned that All-Summer League First Team honor this year were GG Jackson II of the Memphis Grizzlies, Jordan Miller of the Los Angeles Clippers, Scotty Pippen Jr. of the Grizzlies and Reed Sheppard of the Houston Rockets. Sheppard (third overall pick) and Ware (15th overall pick) are the only players drafted this year who made that list.

Including the California Classic that preceded Las Vegas, Ware averaged 18.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 58.4 percent shooting from the field in eight summer league appearances this month. He recorded double-doubles in five of those eight games.

“We challenge him daily and he loves the challenge to get as many rebounds as possible,” Heat summer league head coach Dan Bisaccio said when asked about Ware. “... We said you can’t get anything less than 10 [rebounds]. We need you going after those, we need you cleaning the boards and we need you protecting the rim. That’s something that he’s really taken that challenge and he’s running with it. It’s just something that he’s embraced daily and we’re going to continue to challenge him. I told him we’re going to continue to challenge him until he retires from basketball.”

Retired Heat captain and forward Udonis Haslem and current Heat captain and center Bam Adebayo were among those who sent a congratulatory text to Ware following the summer league championship.

“Just having more confidence in myself to go out there and play basketball the way I’ve always been playing and just going out there and competing,” Ware said of what he took away from his first summer league experience.

All of this led to ESPN’s Kevin Pelton labeling Ware as the best rookie in this year’s summer league. The Athletic’s John Hollinger picked Ware as “the best rookie big man in Vegas.”

“Ware still has some work to do on the defensive end, but if he’s going to be this productive on offense, he’s playable while he takes his lumps on D,” Hollinger wrote. “With Ware’s Vegas success, the Heat likely can go into next season more confident that he can fill the backup center minutes behind Bam Adebayo and develop further from there.”

Ware’s role with the Heat in his first NBA season will be smaller than the one he had in summer league. The competition he’ll face will be tougher, too.

But Ware’s size at 7 feet with a 7-foot-5 wingspan, and ability to serve as a rim protector on the defensive end and dynamic roller on the offensive end will help the Heat. Ware is the tallest player on the Heat’s roster and brings a different skill set than the other centers on the team (Adebayo, Kevin Love and Thomas Bryant).

Ware also continues to make clear that he believes he can play alongside Adebayo in the Heat’s frontcourt to anchor bigger lineups.

“Me and Bam can definitely play beside each other because we complement each other so well,” Ware said Thursday when asked about the possibility of playing alongside Adebayo. “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.”

The two-month whirlwind that took him around the country to take part in pre-draft workouts with different teams, to New York for the NBA Draft, to Miami for his introductory press conference and then to the West Coast for summer league is over. Next up for Ware is an extended stretch in Miami to continue working with Heat coaches in preparation for his rookie NBA season.

“For right now, Miami is home,” said Ware, who grew up in Arkansas. “So I’m here right now getting ready.”