{"id":102695,"date":"2026-01-01T23:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/102695\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T23:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:33:16","slug":"miami-heats-kelel-ware-showing-unexpected-3-point-prowess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/102695\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat&#8217;s Kel&#8217;el Ware showing unexpected 3-point prowess"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The story at the start of the season was of a Miami Heat big man taking his game to the 3-point arc, spacing the floor, forcing opposing defenses to adjust.<\/p>\n<p>The story at the moment is the same.<\/p>\n<p>Only it\u2019s not \u2014 because the spacing big man hasn\u2019t been Bam Adebayo, but rather Kel\u2019el Ware.<\/p>\n<p>And the degree of efficiency has been hard to ignore.<\/p>\n<p>Entering Thursday\u2019s play, the 7-foot Ware not only was leading all NBA centers in 3-point percentage (among those with the minimum required qualifying attempts), but stood fourth overall among all players.<\/p>\n<p>As in .473.<\/p>\n<p>As in better than Nikola Jokic, Brook Lopez, Karl-Anthony Towns among centers. As in well ahead of fellow Heat big man Bam Adebayo, who entered Thursday 158th among all players and 11th among centers in 3-point percentage, at .318. As in 79 percentage points better than 3-point icon Stephen Curry.<\/p>\n<p>So who saw this coming?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would say I did,\u201d Ware said, before turning his attention to Thursday night\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2025\/12\/31\/current-ankle-sprain-not-as-serious-as-previous-sprain-for-heats-larsson-herro-again-out-vs-pistons\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">game against the Detroit Pistons<\/a> at Little Caesars Arena. \u201cI work on my shot. I have faith in my shot, enough to let it go and trust that it\u2019s going to go in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last season, Ware drained 35 3-pointers as a rookie, on .315 from beyond the arc. As a collegian, Ware made a combined 32 3-pointers in his two seasons. But after shooting .273 from beyond the arc as a freshman at Oregon, he was up to .425 as a sophomore at Indiana.<\/p>\n<p>All the while, there was a comfort from the arc dating to his prep days.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a coach growing up that wasn\u2019t like that,\u201d Ware said of big men being planted solely in the post. \u201cHe would always let me play around the perimeter. He didn\u2019t limit me to one role, one spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Heat coach Erik Spoelstra hasn\u2019t limited him, either, there is an understanding of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2025\/12\/30\/heats-spoelstra-casts-a-vote-for-ware-adebayo-the-double-big-lineup-thats-important\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">where Ware\u2019s primary residence should be<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve got a feel now,\u201d Ware said of his middle ground with Spoelstra. \u201cI\u2019m mostly in the paint most of the game, so I feel like it\u2019s not really that much of a big deal when I\u2019m out, as long as we\u2019re not five out or anything like that, as long as somebody is under there while I\u2019m out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the most part, Spoelstra has attempted to avoid giving too much legs to the notion of Ware as 3-point shooter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be open to the development of our young players,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cLike I said, in training camp, there\u2019s an element of unknown. But I want there to be some surprises. I want guys to improve. I want them to gain confidence as the season goes on. Young players, it doesn\u2019t happen for every single one of them at the exact same time. And it doesn\u2019t happen as linear growth. So I want to be open to that growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe spent a lot of time on his shooting. I don\u2019t want to overcoach that, because he has great touch. Because of how we do things, he\u2019ll be out there (at the 3-point line). And sometimes he\u2019ll be inside. I want him to be efficient in both areas. But I do want him to have confidence. His game is improving and he\u2019s finding more ways to impact winning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For now, Spoelstra won\u2019t go as far as to detail whether there are 3-point sets in place or being installed for Ware.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not going to over-talk it. I\u2019m not. Because how does it help us to walk through every step of our offense to you guys,\u201d Spoelstra said during a post-practice media session. \u201cThe general part of it is I want him to gain confidence. We\u2019re coaching him hard in the details.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With a seeming appreciation from Ware of the when and the where.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI pick and choose when I want to go out there,\u201d Ware said. \u201cNormally, I\u2019m in the paint more of the game. But whenever I pop out, I feel like I\u2019m warm enough to hit a three.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been putting in work, and I feel like I\u2019m comfortable in my shot and being able to shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The story at the start of the season was of a Miami Heat big man taking his game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-102695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-miami-news","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}