Best At Social Media
Tachauer: Because of my adoration for him, Dragic’s Twitter and Instagram feeds kept me smiling all season. Between his tweets about not sleeping enough and his team photos from various plane rides, I couldn’t get enough.
Blood Brothers! @MiamiHEAT #family pic.twitter.com/NvMgvgv2fH
— Goran Dragić (@Goran_Dragic) April 9, 2017
However, I think we can all agree that Hassan Whiteside’s Snapchat account is one of the best out there. He definitely needs his own offseason reality show.
Coaching Decision of the Year
Goldberg: Taking the ball out of Hassan Whiteside’s hands and giving the rock to the combination of Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters. For the first half of the season, Whiteside was the focus of the offense. The team threw the ball to him in the post, and Whiteside did what he does, which is a whole lot of jumbled movements and shotputs to the rim.
Spoelstra may have been hoping that Whiteside would pass out of the post more in order to facilitate the inside-out game he wanted. That didn’t work, and Spoelstra made the switch. Dragic and Waiters became two of the best drive-and-kick players in the NBA, finding open teammates in the corners and the Heat began draining three-pointers and improving their record.
It took half a season, but Spoelstra figured out the winning formula.
Smith: I concur with Wes. Less possessions for Whiteside meant more driving and dishing for Dragic, Waiters and James Johnson. This in turn led the Heat from ranking 27th in three-point percentage in the first 41 games, up to 3rd in the league over the final 41 games.