Miami Heat: The future of Hassan Whiteside

After an incredibly frustrating performance against the Golden State Warriors, the Miami Heat may need to consider the future of Hassan Whiteside.

The Miami Heat‘s most recent loss to the Golden State Warriors represented Hassan Whiteside‘s fifth game of the 2017-18 NBA season.

Granted, the game was on the second night of a road back-to-back, with the Heat losing 97-80.

But again, this was just Whiteside’s fifth game of the season and furthermore, it was against the defending NBA champion Warriors.

If there was ever a time during the season you would expect a player of the caliber Whiteside to be up for the challenge, it’s early in the season against the defending champions.

But alas, this was not to be the case. By the end of the game, Whiteside had played only 16 minutes, producing just three and six rebounds on 1-of-9 shooting from the field, and played just 1:16 in the second half.

Whiteside’s talent and overall level of production have certainly not been the issue since arriving in South Beach. It’s the reason the Heat signed him to a four-year, $98 million contract extension in the summer of 2016 after just 140 career games since his NBA debut in 2010.

But there was also a reason that Whiteside took so long to establish himself in the league. Bouncing around the league with the Sacramento Kings and the Memphis Grizzlies, along with stops in Lebanon and China thrown into the mix, Whiteside’s maturity levels were a constant source of concern.

While his episodes of immaturity in recent times have certainly decreased, they unfortunately still appear from time to time.

A prominent occurrence last season occurred during a home game against the Orlando Magic. The game was in the midst of the Heat’s 30-11 record to finish the season, and therefore every game was crucial as the team made its ultimately unsuccessful attempt to reach the postseason.

In this particular game, Whiteside was benched just 2:58 into the opening term due to some completely unacceptable efforts at the defensive end of the floor. One example is the following play, where Whiteside’s inattentiveness causes a simple rebounded to spill away, from which was quickly sent to the bench.

Following this game, and despite Whiteside finishing with 12 points and 19 rebounds, head coach Erik Spoelstra made mention of Whiteside’s effort level:

"“It just shows you how tough this league is. Every single night, it’s a challenge. There are a lot of teams that are bunched up. We didn’t play near our best defensive game, really the last two games we didn’t really get to our identity.”"

But Whiteside had an interesting response when asked about his early game benching:

"“He just took me out because the guy got a rebound. It went over my head. It happens, man. I lead the league in rebounds the last time I checked. So I know how to rebound. It just went over my head. We talked about it and I came back in and I led both teams in rebounds.”"

Unfortunately for many Heat onlookers, the Warriors game brought back many unwanted memories in regards to Whiteside and what seemed to be a lack of effort.

The sticking point for coach Spoelstra in this game was Whiteside’s unwillingness to get back on defense for a possession, leaving his opponent Zaza Pachulia open under the rim, from which Whiteside was called for goaltending. After the next stopped ball, Spoelstra removed Whiteside from the game, not to return.

When pressed after the game, Spoelstra stated bluntly:

"“This is one game, he understands how important he is to our ball club, to play at a high level. And we’ll move on to Phoenix and look to have a much better game, a much more committed game, in all facets.”"

These words are strikingly similar to those Spoelstra uttered following the Magic performance.

For his part when pressed about his benching, Whiteside told Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald:

"“Um, I made a mistake, man, Zaza got behind me. I was really in here at halftime contemplating like, ‘Let’s get ‘em this half. I’m going to really come out and dominate the second half.’ I guess he thought it was better if I didn’t come back in. I don’t know. I really don’t know.”"

During the game, Navarro tweeted the following picture of the Heat bench after the Warriors had called a timeout midway through the third period. As can be seen, the Heat players all huddled together, with Whiteside sitting despondently by himself to the side.

Granted, this is just one game of a long 82-game season, and no one is immune from making mistakes or having a poor performance.

But when a franchise has invested $98 million into a player to be close to their leading player, games such as this are completely unacceptable, regardless of the opponent.

Certainly Whiteside won’t be the only center this season to endure major struggles when coming up against the might of the Warriors. But for a franchise that prides itself on hard work and culture, these no-shows from their dominant big man simply can’t be tolerated.

So while team president Pat Riley is certainly not prone to making rash decisions, this is clearly not the first time such a performance has occurred.

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With the Dec. 15 date soon arriving at which time free agents signed this past summer are eligible to be traded, it’s certainly not inconceivable that Whiteside’s name be brought up for discussion. Considering Riley’s history with big time trades, we’re fully aware he’s not afraid to pull the trigger.