Indiana's Kel'el Ware Selected No. 15 by Miami Heat in 2024 NBA Draft
Following one breakthrough season at Indiana, Kel'el Ware is headed to Miami.
The Heat selected Ware with the No. 15 overall pick in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday night.
Ware joins a roster with headlined by All-NBA guard Jimmy Butler and All-Star center Bam Adebayo. The Heat went 46-36, finished eighth in the Eastern Conference and lost to the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. Ware will wear No. 7 for the Heat.
What will Ware provide for the Heat?
"Everything they need me to bring, whatever they need me to bring," Ware responded after being drafted. "That's all I gotta say. I'm so grateful they picked me."
Indiana coach Mike Woodson has now produced three NBA draft picks ahead of his fourth season coaching the Hoosiers: Ware, Jalen Hood-Schifino (17th pick in 2023) and Trayce Jackson-Davis (57th pick in 2023).
Ware is a 7-foot, 230-pound center with a 7-foot-4.5-inch wingspan. He's coming off a breakout sophomore season at Indiana, where he averaged 15.9 points, 9.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. He also made the All-Big Ten second team and the Big Ten All-Defensive team.
“Kel’el is the prototypical big man in today’s NBA," Woodson said in a draft night news release. "He can block shots at the rim, hold up defensively in the pick-and-roll, and is a great lob threat on the other end of the floor. He impressed me with his ability to catch and shoot the basketball at a high level and that is what the next level is looking for. He is a quiet kid that goes about his business in a professional way. He handled the adversity thrown his way to start his college career and responded in a big way for our ball club this season. We are really excited to see the way his career plays out in Miami.”
Ware most often scored around the rim, whether it was alley-oop dunks off pick-and-rolls or using his long wingspan to shoot over defenders with soft touch. He led the Big Ten in defensive rebounding percentage, and he finished sixth in blocks. With a developing 3-point stroke – he shot 42.5% on 40 attempts at Indiana – Ware, just 20 years old, has high upside.
Playing for Woodson, Ware had 15 double-doubles in 30 games, and he blocked three or more shots in eight games. At Indiana, Ware more than doubled his averages from his freshman year at Oregon, where he scored 6.6 points and grabbed 4.1 rebounds per game.
Out of North Little Rock High School in Arkansas, Ware originally committed to Oregon as a five-star recruit ranked No. 7 in the nation. He had an underwhelming freshman season with the Ducks but found his stride with the Hoosiers.
“I would say I'm more in a groove now with Coach Woodson giving me that role where he trusts me enough to just go make a play and attack the basket, score, even throw it out to my teammates and just play smart on the court,” Ware said during the 2023-24 season. “As long as I'm playing hard and just giving them that, then we should be good.”
Woodson said he pushed Ware to play harder at Indiana, and his center responded.
“After that first month, he's been a totally different player,” Woodson said after beating Michigan State. “I got to give tribute to my coaching staff and how they worked, and we pushed him as a unit and his teammates believe in him. I believe in him. He's been phenomenal. He’s been playing unbelievable.”
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JACK ANKONY
Jack Ankony is a Sports Illustrated/FanNation writer for HoosiersNow.com. He graduated from Indiana University's Media School with a degree in journalism. Follow on Twitter @ankony_jack.