It was late December when Hassan Whiteside finally earned his chance. He played meaningful minutes in a Friday game against the Washington Wizards just days before Christmas, broke into the 20-minute mark on the final day of 2014 and recorded his first double-double on Jan. 4. By the time the month had ended, Whiteside had emerged as a real NBA player at long last.
The Heat’s success hinges on Hassan Whiteside
Miami’s biggest question as it heads into the season is whether Whiteside can duplicate last year’s breakout.
Performing well in a lost season where the Miami Heat missed the playoffs is one thing, but now, with a new season quickly approaching, Whiteside and the Heat have expectations. Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade clearly have familiarity in Miami while Goran Dragic is a proven NBA player, even if he struggled in the two short months after he was traded to the Heat. Whiteside remains a question mark. He only played 48 games with the Heat last year, and ended up starting 34 of them. Calling him a known commodity is premature.
Much of this is because of the path the 26-year-old Whiteside took to get here. He’s played with three NBA teams, three D-League teams, three Summer League squads and a couple of international basketball programs in China and Lebanon. Until Miami, he never stuck, despite obvious talent. Something inevitably went wrong and, despite some flashes, Whiteside was out of a job.
After the Memphis Grizzlies signed him in November and released him just days later, Miami took a chance on a player who was quickly running out of them. Finally, Whiteside delivered, finishing the year with stellar averages: 24 minutes, 12 points and 10 rebounds on 63 percent shooting from the floor.
Given his history, though, it’s hard to take those numbers for granted until Whiteside can actually replicate them this season. Even last year when he was playing his best, Whiteside’s temper flared, leading to two ejections and an additional suspension for the second one. There’s always a worst-case scenario lurking around the corner for Whiteside.
How he fits
But there's reason to hope that the best-case scenario is well within reach, too. The Heat, just a summer removed from LeBron James leaving South Beach to return home, have rebounded remarkably well. Stumbling across Whiteside is just part of it: with Dragic at the point, Justise Winslow bolstering the bench and the quick-triggered Gerald Green giving the Heat a bench scorer, Miami is ready to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers in a battle for the Eastern Conference -- and if nothing else, at least take the No. 2 seed.
It’s going to take everyone and Whiteside is the one with the most questions. It starts with his fit next to Bosh, whom he only played 310 minutes with last season before Bosh’s season ended with a blood clots scare. With that duo on the floor, the Heat ran and rebounded better with upticks in both their offensive and defensive points per 100 possessions, although part of that is the weight of Miami’s injury-depleted lineups late in the season.
Given his years playing power forward in Toronto, Bosh should make the adjustment. He’s turned himself into a prolific three-point shooter the past two seasons, hitting 35 percent combined, which will help keep the floor spaced while Whiteside prowls about inside. Miami, the seventh-worst rebounding team in the NBA last season, should flip that script entirely as it plays bigger while not using it as an excuse to slow the tempo.
Defensive impact
The Heat played worse defensively with Whiteside on the court than off, but there’s a lot of noise in that stat, considering that most of Whiteside’s minutes came in the final third of the season where Miami in general played its worst basketball. On that late-season roster, Whiteside may also have been asked to do too much.
Regardless, Whiteside is a premier shot blocker, averaging an absurd 2.6 blocks per game in his 24 minutes, and the threat of a rim protector helping prevent drives to the rim is an element of the game that’s hard to measure. A full roster and offseason should be enough for Whiteside to take the next step, but he will need to prove himself as an impact defender.
Miami has other questions, most of them revolving around Luol Deng, its bench defense and -- as always -- Wade's health. Whiteside is the biggest one, and if the Heat want to push back at James' Eastern Conference hegemony, Whiteside has to meet all his expectations as the man in the middle.
It’s a lot to ask of a guy who was playing basketball in Lebanon two years ago, but it’s a real chance to become a meaningful NBA player on a team that matters. For someone who may have been down to his final opportunity, Whiteside will take it.
See More:
