Miami Heat: 2017-18 player grades for Hassan Whiteside

Strengths

Whiteside’s combination of size, power and athleticism are desirable attributes for any team in the league.

However, due to a combination of factors, the Heat were not able to procure the best out of Whiteside on a consistent basis. Having said this, it’s a credit to the product of Marshall that when given extended playing time, he delivered.

In his 58 games played, Whiteside played 30 or more minutes on 12 occasions. Over this stretch, Whiteside averaged 18.8 points, 16.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. Notably, Whiteside posted an incredible defensive rating of 90.2 during this time, far above his season return of 103.8.

Whiteside kicked the season off in style, posting 26 points and 22 rebounds in a loss to the Orlando Magic. However in a sign of things to come, Whiteside would be sidelined for the next four games with a knee injury, thwarting his chance for a flying start to the season. In fact, the following tweet exemplifies just how impressive the performance was by Whiteside:

At his best, Whiteside presents the Heat with a high-level rebounder and rim protector, whose interior presence is able to significantly affect opponents’ forays into the paint. Longtime Miami TV play-by-play caller, Eric Reid, tweeted the following just 12 games into his debut season with the Heat:

So even though Whiteside may have struggled mightily in the postseason, these highlights from the Heat’s penultimate game of the regular season against the Oklahoma City Thunder are a sneak peek into just what Whiteside is capable of producing:

Moving forward, it’s clearly going to be a high priority for the Heat to extract such performances from Whiteside on a much more consistent basis.