Miami Heat: 5 Reasons Hassan Whiteside Is For Real
Reason No. 4: There Is A Precedent
Hassan Whiteside entered the NBA Draft as a raw, clearly athletic, high-upside prospect. His downfall ended up being with maturity issues – more about his attitude than his ability to play the game of basketball.
Attitude issues can undermine even the most talented person, at any level of any profession. If you take a look at professional sports and the evolution of scouting, teams value high character guys now more than ever. So, there should have been legitimate concern if Whiteside was not up to par in his professionalism.
However, if he was able to grow up in terms of working on his game – and it seems as though he has, at least enough to earn the trust of his coaches – then there is little reason to doubt his performance as “for real.”
Hassan Whiteside always had immense talent. He had an attitude issue, starting before he even was noticed at Marshall, that held him back
— Adi Joseph (@AdiJoseph) January 11, 2015
There is a similar player in the NBA that had a nearly identical breakout timeline, under similar (yet less severe) circumstances.
When DeAndre Jordan left Texas A&M after his freshman season, he slipped in the draft for a few of the same reasons: he was raw, and “maturity” issues tarnished his reputation. (Note: ESPN ran an interesting feature on Jordan here.)
Ages 20 and 21 were relatively uneventful for Jordan; he played limited minutes as a reserve for the Los Angeles Clippers. Ages 22-24 saw his production increase, but he still never averaged double-digit points or rebounds.
Then, at age 25, he broke through. His opportunity grew with arrival of new coach Doc Rivers, and Jordan played a career-high 35 minutes per game. He averaged a double-double, including 13.6 rebounds per game.
Last year was Whiteside’s age 25 season. His story isn’t a one-for-one comparison to Jordan’s, a major reason being he did his developing outside of the NBA. But there are similarities in both players’ skill sets and outlook coming out of college.
Whiteside’s breakout came out of “nowhere” because he was developing overseas and shrouded in the D-League. But, just because you didn’t see the development happen at the NBA level, doesn’t mean that it never happened.
There is precedent to Whiteside’s growth at his position, even if he did so in an alternative manner.
Next: We Know What We Know