Hassan Whiteside flourishing in increased role
By Cory Sanning
Hassan Whiteside has gotten off to a great start for the Miami Heat this preseason.
Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside enters the new year with an increased workload on his broad shoulders. With nearly 40 percent of the team’s offense ready to be redistributed, all signs have pointed towards the budding star to fill the void.
Through three games of preseason action, Whiteside has accumulated a total of 58 points on a superb 71 percent shooting rate. In 73 minutes of action, the 27-year-old has missed just 10 shots (25-for-35) while grabbing an impressive 39 rebounds in the process.
Myself a self-proclaimed Whiteside skeptic, there was plenty of reason to doubt both he and the Heat heading in to the new season: Attitude problems and attention issues for Whiteside, and plenty of new faces for the Heat, all leave plenty of room for caution.
Though it’s only preseason, Whiteside is easily on pace for the best statistical season of his young career, and he’s all for it.
“It’s what I do,” Whiteside said. “I’m just getting more shots than what I got last year. It’s a different team.”
With the Big 3 era officially in the books and everyone on the roster (aside from Dragic) essentially a support player, the shots are going to shared.
With Dwyane Wade now in Chicago and the system primarily built around a space-the-floor system (a la Dwight Howard in Orlando,) expect Luke Babbitt, Derrick Williams, Dion Waiters and Wayne Ellington to get plenty of open looks.
Unlike the typical lobs off pick-and-rolls Whiteside often was the beneficiary of last year, he now finds himself with more paint touches, and when double teams come, somebody will always be open.
“It’s just a lot different when it’s so much space,” Whiteside pointed out. “I’ve got so much space down there. And guys are throwing me the ball. I’m not just a pick-and-roll, lob guy. So guys are throwing me the ball and trusting me with the ball. It’s a lot different.”
Indeed it has been different. Unlike the pack-the-paint style of defense opposing squads often would use against Miami last year (mostly due to lack of outside shooting), coaching staffs won’t be able to ignore Miami’s perimeter game.
Ellington is a career 37.6 percent shooter from deep and Babbitt (40.3 percent) and Josh Richardson (46.1 percent) have the potential to be elite in that department. Given that Winslow has loads of potential offensively and Dragic is already an established scorer, the Heat have a chance to be sneakily dangerous on offense, barring everything goes as planned.
The crazy part about Whiteside, though?
It doesn’t appear the Heat playbook is quite built around him, not judging by his recent comment:
“I got a couple of plays, I’ve got like one or two plays,” Whiteside noted. “The majority, I’d say about 85 percent, the ball just finds me.”
With Whiteside averaging nearly 20 points per game in the past three outings, it seems as if the strategy might just pay dividends.
A year ago, Pat Riley had an unproven, short-tempered kid with fiery passion. Today, Whiteside carries a new ease about himself. He smiles a lot, has fun and doesn’t give a damn what anybody thinks. Four years and $98 million will do that to a man.
“It was just a relief when I signed the contract, because I knew what I was looking at next year,” Whiteside willingly acknowledged. “I knew the coaching staff, regardless of the roster. I know I still had Pat Riley and Micky (Arison) as an owner, so everything was going to be OK.”
Whiteside is comfortable in Miami and, if he keeps this up, the Heat should be comfortable handing him the keys.