Miami Heat: Hassan Whiteside’s Team
Dwyane Wade is in Chicago. Chris Bosh‘s career might be over. The Miami Heat now belong to Hassan Whiteside.
Sometimes life comes at you fast in the NBA. In summer of 2010 LeBron James infamously made “The Decision,” joining forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form a polarizing super-team with the Miami Heat.
Six years later, none of the Heatles trio is left. LeBron James went back to the Cleveland Cavaliers two seasons ago to fulfill his destiny of winning a championship for his hometown team.
This summer Dwyane Wade elected to sign with the Chicago Bulls after negotiations in Miami got a bit too contentious. Most recently, Chris Bosh failed his preseason physical, and Heat team president Pat Riley said that Bosh’s career with the Heat was probably over.
What remains is a decent, if underwhelming, core of unproven players. A core that certainly does not have the makings of a championship contender. This isn’t LeBron’s team anymore. It’s not Wade’s and it’s not Bosh’s.
For better or for worse, this is Hassan Whiteside’s team.
Whiteside’s story is well known by now. The Gastonia, North Carolina native spent one season at Marshall University before being taken 33rd overall by the Sacramento Kings in the second round of the 2010 NBA Draft.
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Whiteside bounced around a bit after that, spending time overseas and in the D-League before finding solid footing in Miami during the 2014-15 season. He burst onto the scene that season showing a mouth-watering skill-set heavy with blocked shots and ferocious dunks.
After a stellar 2015-16 season, Whiteside signed a four-year deal to stay in Miami worth more than $98 million. In one and a half seasons Whiteside has gone from a basketball vagabond to a max player. Quite the Cinderella story. At the time of the signing Whiteside looked to be a building block around Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. Now, he’s the guy.
That’s exciting and terrifying if you’re a Heat fan. Whiteside has undeniable talent, he just doesn’t always harness it in the right way.
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Sometimes his emotions get the best of him. A memorable moment from last season saw Whiteside get suspended for intentionally elbowing then San Antonio Spurs center Boban Marjanovic in the head.
Whiteside has also elbowed Kelly Olynyk, gotten into a skirmish with Alex Len, and is famous for his on-court tantrums. That would be expected if he were a 19-year old rookie, but Whiteside is 27. The outbursts sometimes overshadow his play. That can’t happen this season.
On the court some debate rages on about whether or not the impact he makes is positive. The raw numbers are impressive. Last season Whiteside averaged 17.6 points, 14.7 rebounds, and 4.7 blocks per 36 minutes on 60.6 percent shooting. He’s a good pick-and-roll player and has an improving post-game, but he’s not the type of player you can dump the ball to inside and expect to drop 30 points all by himself.
Whiteside is most known for his shot-blocking prowess. His 9.7 percent block rate led the NBA season and his blocks frequently show up on highlight reels.
For his efforts, he was named to the All-Defensive Second Team. There is some debate, however, that Whiteside puts up gaudy defensive stats without making a significant impact on Miami’s team defense.
With Whiteside on the court Miami’s defensive rating was 105.1 last season compared to 104.2 without him. The same was true during his first season in Miami. The Heat allowed 108.9 points per 100 possessions with Whiteside and 106 without him.
His defensive real plus/minus rating last season was 2.94, 12th best for centers — not bad, but certainly not elite. It’s strange that the eye test and the metrics aren’t quite in sync with Whiteside’s defense. When you watch him play he looks like the second coming of Bill Russell, but the numbers show a great shot-blocker that doesn’t help his team’s defense.
That being said, his career with Miami is only 121 games of data. There’s plenty of noise in on/off stats. Perhaps Whiteside’s shortcomings in that area are more a product of the players sharing the court with him.
The offense will rely on a heavy dose of Goran Dragic/Whiteside pick and rolls, Josh Richardson‘s outside shooting, and whether or not one year at the Dwyane Wade school of back-cuts can help Justise Winslow become a reliable scoring option.
Tyler Johnson and Dion Waiters will have large roles as well, but the Dragic/Whiteside pick-and-roll should be their bread and butter. This is a very different team. No more Chris Bosh stretching the floor and no more using Wade as a safety valve when the offense sputters.
Defensively they’ll need Whiteside’s rim protection to start having more of an impact on their overall team defense, and for Winslow to turn into the lockdown perimeter defender many think he’ll become. Erik Spoelstra is one of the best coaches in the league; if anyone can figure out how to turn this team into a winner, it’s him.
Still, unless Pat Riley works some of his trade devil magic this looks like a team that will be fighting for the seventh or eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.
For what it’s worth, Whiteside seems ready to embrace this new challenge. In Linda Roberston’s recent article from the Miami Herald, he spoke about his plans for the upcoming season.
"“I’m looking to dominate,” he said. “We’ve got a lot to prove. It took me 27 years to get here. What would be the point if I stopped now? Since I was a 20-year-old rookie I wanted to be a Hall of Famer. People laughed at that. I would never give anyone the satisfaction of saying, ‘I told you so.’”"
Can Hassan Whiteside be the best player on a playoff team? I’m not sure anyone knows. He believes he can be.
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Everyone wants to be the star of the show. Whiteside is about to get his chance.