The Campaign: Discussing Hassan Whiteside’s Candidacy for Defensive Player of the Year
By Wes Goldberg
It took years for Hassan Whiteside just to make an NBA roster. Now the Miami Heat center is an early candidate to be the NBA’s defensive player of the year.
For all intents and purposes, Hassan Whiteside is entering his second NBA season. After a breakout first year with the Miami Heat, Whiteside has emerged as one of the league’s very best rim protectors. His presence in the middle has and will allow the Heat to play defense less feverishly, and conserve energy for the long haul of the season.
To say he’s the anchor of Miami’s defense is an understatement. Last season, Whiteside was the only starter with a positive Box Plus-Minus on defense.
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There is little doubt that Whiteside is and will be Miami’s most valuable defensive player this season. But, where does the 26-year-old center rank among the NBA’s best, and does he have a shot to win defensive player of the year?
Since 1996, a big man has won defensive player of the year every year except last season, when Kawhi Leonard took home the award.
The history of the game suggests that bigs have the best opportunity to win DPOY, so when we talk about Whiteside’s chances we have to look at how he stacks up against other bigs.
The top defensive centers in the NBA are, in no particular order, DeAndre Jordan, Rudy Gobert, Roy Hibbert, Serge Ibaka, Andrew Bogut, Tim Duncan and Whiteside. In the past, DPOY was given to the center with the most blocks and rebounds. However, NBA fans and those who cover it are getting smarter (hence why Kawhi won last season). Nylon Calculus created a metric to better measure the value of rim protection beyond just blocks.
According to Nylon Calculus, Gobert saves about 2.43 points per game at the rim. Bogut (2.08), Hibbert (1.84), Ibaka (1.76) and Whiteside (1.57) follow.
This is all a measure of last season. Of the aforementioned players, we can assume Bogut falls off with the Golden State Warriors playing more small ball (he won’t play enough minutes to warrant consideration) and Hibbert is an NBA party clown.
That leaves 25-year-old Ibaka, 23-year-old Gobert, 27-year-old DeAndre Jordan and Whiteside as our leaders in the polls going into the season. All of them are young and likely to get better. Not only that, but so are their teams. Good players on good teams are always more likely to win these awards.
So, when discussing Whiteside’s candidacy, what is his platform?
Yes, Whiteside ranks below Ibaka and Gobert when it comes to points saved at the rim, but he did contest a larger percentage of shots than either of them, according to Nylon Calculus. An inch to the left or the right, maybe he blocks or disrupts a shot that otherwise went in.
Whiteside’s problem is that he often goes all in on his first block attempt, and isn’t able to expend the same kind of energy on subsequent contests.
(GIF via Zach Lowe, Grantland.com)
That’s something that can be fixed with coaching, but the point is that he’s a natural shot blocker. When it comes to blocking shots, Whiteside is virtually even if not better than his competition. He also directs a ton of his blocks in bounds to his teammates, which leads to transition points.
As I said before, the people who decide these things are getting smarter in the way they watch basketball. Things like this will be considered.
Whiteside is capable of putting up freakish numbers, something that can give him a boost of momentum in the voting process. He’ll also play for what looks to be one of the main contenders in the Eastern Conference. If the Heat go far enough with Whiteside holding down the fort, he will get more time on national television to build his case. While it’s too soon to call a leader in the polls, Whiteside is certainly an early candidate to be the defensive player of the year.