Miami Heat: The good and the bad of Hassan Whiteside

Whiteside has struggled against other elite centers

After Dwight Howard’s explosion last night, I decided to take a look at how Whiteside has fared in games against other top-notch centers. I looked at both, up-and-coming guys and established veterans at the position. And the results were not pretty.

First off, I used eight games so the sample-size wouldn’t be too small. I looked at both matchups against Marc Gasol, both matchups against Rudy Gobert, both against Howard, and single-game samples against Andre Drummond and Steven Adams. A couple of those guys have already won defensive player of the year awards, and others are considered the future of the position.

In those eight games, Whiteside has averaged 10.1 points on a meager 39 percent shooting, to go along with 13 rebounds, and just one block per outing. He’s played a total of 260 minutes in those contests, and the team has been outscored by 84 points with him on the floor. The Heat lost six of those eight games, and were outscored by 50 points in total.

Those numbers are concerning, any way you slice it. Often times, it felt as if the opposing center took playing against Whiteside as a challenge. And if he doesn’t start matching their level of intensity, the Heat will continue to lose those games handily.