Miami Heat: Hassan Whiteside is not the leader Miami needs
By Ivan Mora
The Miami Heat are relying on a deep core led by Hassan Whiteside to lead them back into the playoffs. Is he the right person for the job?
Dating back to 2010, not a single NBA champion that has been crowned has had a dominant, traditional center. Better said, they didn’t revolve their team around one superstar player that just so happened to be a traditional center. It hasn’t happened.
Is that the issue the Miami Heat are now facing having placed all their chips on Hassan Whiteside?
Let’s break down the past seven years to see if this intriguing statement is supported.
The 2011 Dallas Mavericks team had a surprising run and ended up upsetting the favored Miami Heat, to clinch their first ever NBA championship. They had Tyson Chandler at center. While he was important, no, he wasn’t the reason they won the Larry O’Brien trophy that year.
The 2012-13 Miami Heat had a combination of forwards shifting back and forth to the center position. Chris Bosh and Chris Anderson, A.K.A. “Birdman,” took on that task shaping up that frontcourt for the span of their two-year championship run in four years.
Those glory years were led by the current King, LeBron James, averaging a somewhat modest, by his standards, 26.8 points per game accompanied by 8.0 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game on .565 FG percentage.
Dwyane Wade came in second in scoring with 21.2 points per game on 52.1 field goal percentage. Chris Bosh was third with 16.1 points per game. So this team was built around the Big Three, but it wasn’t necessarily led by their third best player. It was a combination of depth and resiliency, not a center-based led team.
The end of the Big Three era saw the gritty San Antonio Spurs claim their fifth title in 16 years. They also had a similar Big Three with the rise of the Klaw, Kawhi Leonard.
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Now before anyone begins the argument, “What about Tim Duncan?” let’s remember, Duncan started his career as a power forward and continued to shift between those positions throughout his 19 year career. During his final years, he was able to retire with his fifth championship and the title of arguably one of the best “power forwards” to ever play the game.
Our last two NBA champions have been the current dominant teams for their respective conferences: another LeBron led team in the Cleveland Cavaliers and a now dominant and versatile Big Four led by two-time MVP Stephen Curry and the former MVP Kevin Durant. None of the players mentioned are centers.
In fact, for both teams, the center position has been the most underutilized in terms of consistency and production during the Warriors-Cavaliers trilogy. JaVale McGee is a +0.4 this year and is hardly the difference-maker during their early 13-4 streak. The same goes for Zaza Pachulia, who is having his worst year offensively, averaging just 4.4 points per game — his lowest output since his rookie year back in 2003.
The same can’t be said regarding the Cavs starting center Kevin Love. He is having a solid year with a respectable 18.3 points per game with 10.3 rebounds as well per game. More production from his end, but then again he is a traditional power forward — similar to the Tim Duncan position and something that is key to the modern small-ball game.
All these players and former and current NBA champions have had their share of spectacular players but none with a traditional center. Hassan Whiteside is, unfortunately, a traditional center.
That’s not to say he isn’t a valuable asset or offensive threat. He is averaging a double-double with 16.2 points per game and 13.5 rebounds per game. It’s been a minor drop from last year, but an effective post presence for the struggling Miami Heat.
He is just not a leader and definitely not the one Miami needs right now. If the Heat want to turn their season around they are going to need more production from their overall starters and collective bench. If nothing else, use that talent as trade chips. History is only proving us right, defying the unproven belief that a dominant center can take Miami to the NBA Finals. This isn’t the ’90s anymore, or the 2000s either, for that matter.
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It’s a new modern age game and if the Heat continue with that old school mentality that a center can take this team to the promised land, then fans are in for a whirlwind of pain and disappointment.