Kel'e Ware hasn't been a complete disaster while playing for the Miami Heat's Summer League team, but he's certainly left much to be desired. The fact that he's already been "called out" by head coach Erik Spoelstra is 100 percent not a good sign and could indicate trouble ahead.
Speaking with reporters over the weekend, Spo clearly "challenged" Ware and singled him out. In the words of Spo, Ware must improve his "professionalism" and needs to "take ownership of it."
Those aren't glaring comments by any means, and it's not great if your head coach is going out of his way to share that. The fact that it's only summer league and Ware's effort and work ethic are already being called into question isn't great.
In fairness, Spo did praise Ware's talent. Spo doesn't believe that talent is the issue for him. It's clearly not. But, instead, Spo is looking for more intensity and effort from Ware on a night-to-night basis. Right now, that's the biggest issue Spo (and the rest of the fan base, honestly) has with Ware.
The unfair expectations on Ware
Honestly, it's not even the fact that Ware has looked just "fair" thus far in the NBA Summer League. Even though many assumed that Ware, the team's starting center, would dominate the competition when it was revealed he would be participating, that's not the issue here.
Ware doesn't necessarily need to be dominating the summer league right now. At this point, he just needs to show that he cares and is embracing the opportunity to improve his skill set through summer league, and I'm sure the coaching staff would agree. For now, that hasn't been the case.
What has to be the most frustrating part of this situation is that Ware has clearly put in the work. Alonzo Mourning spoke about how he's been training in the gym almost since the end of the Heat's season. Udonis Haslem has also spoken very highly of Ware.
Heading into his sophomore season, Ware will be operating under pretty big expectations. After the Heat made him an "untouchable" in trade talks with the Phoenix Suns for Kevin Durant, that was the moment the bar was raised for Ware heading into his sophomore season.
Fair or not, there's now a greater expectation for Ware.
Right now, it should be all about effort. It's simply not there for Ware. Maybe Ware has decided to take summer league slow to avoid injury or wear and tear, but it's something that the coaching staff is clearly not fond of.
It'll be interesting to see how the narrative evolves now that this concern from the coaching staff has been publicized.
Spo has clearly called out Ware. How will he respond now?