Miami Heat searching for answers with Hassan Whiteside
Figuring out Hassan Whiteside is a huge part of the Miami Heat off-season.
The Miami Heat have a dilemma on their hands, and it concerns their highest played player.
Hassan Whiteside had a frustratingly disappointing first round series against the Philadelphia Sixers, averaging 5.2 points and 6.0 rebounds during the five game series. When you remove Game 4 from those numbers (in which he had 13 points and 13 rebounds), he only averaged 3 points and 4 rebounds in the other four games. That’s not ideal for a max contract player.
Because of that, Pat Riley took to the podium during the Heat’s exit interviews to voice his frustrations:
"“By the time we got to the playoffs, I don’t think he was ready,” Riley said Monday, six days after the Heat were eliminated by the Sixers in five games. “He wasn’t in great shape. He wasn’t fully conditioned for a playoff battle mentally. He and we got our heads handed to us.”"
Riley has a reputation for not mincing his words, thoughts, or feelings when he deems it necessary, and he didn’t hold back on Whiteside. The only problem is, he created this Whiteside issue.
Signing Whiteside to the max contract in 2016 was a nice story, because of where Whiteside came from, but it presented plenty of issues. First, there were people who believed that Whiteside had potential, but was merely excelling in a contract year.
Probably more importantly, Whiteside represents the old guard of NBA basketball: a slow-footed big that has limited range. It was never more prevalent than during the Sixers series, even with Joel Embiid missing the first two games.
Whiteside could never make an impact on the series because he just couldn’t keep up with the Sixers’ pace. Coach Erik Spoelstra responded the best he could by limiting Whiteside to just 15 minutes a game but it left everyone trying to figure out how to work out the kinks:
"“The disconnect between (Whiteside) and Spo, that’s going to take a discussion between them and it’s going to take thought on the part of coach and also Hassan,” Riley said. “How will Hassan transform his thinking — 99 percent of it to get the kind of improvement that Spo wants so he can be effective? How can Spo transform his thinking when it comes to offense and defense and minutes or whatever?’"
Whiteside has talent, even really good potential, but something is missing. For as much as Riley likes to toot his own horn, he knows something is missing too.
Next: Should the Miami Heat’s off-season include Kawhi Leonard?
Addressing the issue is the first step in figuring out what it is and how to fix it.