Hassan Whiteside: Foul Body Language. Foul Mood. Foul Game.

Hassan Whiteside has undoubtedly established his sheer dominance and place in the league this season. But when the talented big man gets into foul trouble, his play drastically changes for the worst.

Hassan Whiteside is a force to be reckoned with.  His per-minute stats and sheer dominance can attest to it.

No one in today’s NBA landscape can match the Miami Heat’s emerging center’s combination of size, length, coordination and hands.  Without really knowing what he is doing out there, Whiteside still stumbles on nightly double-doubles and outrageous shot-block totals.

The scary thing is: Hassan is still figuring this NBA thing out.

Despite his rather mature age (about to turn 27 in June), Whiteside is still a baby in terms of NBA experience. By now, his journey into, then out of, then back into, the league has been well-documented.

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Early on during his career, his gaudy numbers did not exactly translate into tangible impact on winning. Slowly but surely as the season progressed, Mount Whiteside gradually evolved into an unadulterated beast on both ends of the floor.

In fact, after the All-Star break, the 7-foot pterodactyl with a 7-foor-7″ wingspan averaged 17.5 points, 13.3 rebounds and 3.4 blocks a contest on a Stephen Curry-esque 64.1 percent true shooting percentage.  He did all that while protecting the rim at an elite rate, leading the league in points saved per game, according to Nylon Calculus.

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However, something happens to Whiteside’s overall play when the gangly enforcer gets into foul trouble — an event that happens far too often.

More explicitly, he becomes extremely timid and selective on which shots he contests and which rebound he lunges for after picking two quick, and often, needless fouls.  And while such habitual instincts can be chalked up to basic human tendencies–after all, no one likes to get yanked from a game when you have it rolling–his drop off is often far too blatant to ignore.

Seth Partnow of Nylon Calculus recently conducted a study on Whiteside’s defensive impact when he was in foul trouble — defined as a situation where getting one more foul would result in sending him to the bench — compared to a foul-free Hassan.

Sure enough, the difference is startling.  Not only did the opponent’s effectively field goal rise from 47.5 percent without foul concerns to 51.5 percent when facing the prospect of going to the bench with another foul, the Heat’s collective defensive rating rose to 102.7 from 90.2.  That is a difference of 12.5 points per 100 possessions.

His hordes of troubling defensive habits rear their ugly head when he is plagued with a couple of fouls — most notably, refusing to leave the lane to challenge open 3-point snipers, thrusting himself out of rebounding position when he sees a clean block opportunity looming and sinking far too deep in his pick-and-roll coverage, thereby, allowing opposing point guards a clean look at a pull-up three and/or a clear path for a defense-bending pocket pass.

The question now becomes, what coach Erik Spoelstra should do when his ultra-talented big man picks two incessant fouls.

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Although some pundits lament at the thought of benching their star players after picking up an arbitrary number of fouls, but in Hassan Whiteside’s case, such a strategy is duly needed.  The problem is: can Miami find a sufficient back-up big to fill the sizeable shoes of Count Blockula when he does accumulate an inconsiderate amount of fouls?

Both Amar’e Stoudemire and Udonis Haslem look to be a tad bit old and stiff to contribute in 2016.

Can the Miami Heat find a pertinent solution in time to contend for a championship this season?