Miami Heat: Hassan Whiteside flourishing so far in bench role

Hassan Whiteside has had an uneven season thanks to injuries and shifting roles and expectations. With his move to the Miami Heat bench, perhaps he’s found his best spot.

It’s been an up-and-down season for  Hassan Whiteside. With a shifting minutes load and nine games out of the Miami Heat lineup, it’s been hard for he and the organization to get on the same page.

After suffering a hip strain that kept him out of the lineup for three games (one a win over the Golden State Warriors, another a close loss to the Houston Rockets and the third a blowout win over the Brooklyn Nets), coach Erik Spoelstra opted to bring him off the bench upon his return.

This allowed Bam Adebayo and Kelly Olynyk, a duo Spoelstra is invested in playing together, the opportunity to start with Whiteside getting the opportunity to feast on opposing reserve bigs.

The big-man-combo of Adebayo and Olynyk has thrived with a net rating of +3.4 over the course of the season, but it’s shone in particular over the seven games since they began starting together with a glittering +10.9 net rating

With Adebayo and Olynyk shouldering the starting load, Whiteside has had the opportunity to batter lesser bigs. In games where he has come off the bench, Whiteside has flourished with a net rating of +18.5.

It’s worth remembering that small sample net rating is a noisy stat, especially when applied to just one player. So this is far from a reliable metric to indicate sure success, but things are off to a good start especially when we remember that Whiteside could start on the majority of teams in the NBA from a talent and ability perspective, so it tends to confirm the theory that he is simply overwhelming his counterparts.

Perhaps nearly as important as the play on the floor, Whiteside appears to have bought in to Spoelstra’s rotation, regardless of what they may be from a game-to-game basis.

In an interview with Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, Whiteside said the following:

"“We haven’t talked about it,. I’m not back 100 percent. I’m going to keep coming in and try to play the best I can out there. It’s going to be a different unit out there. I get to play with D-Wade more. I get to look at the bright side. You’re going to play against the backup guys. It’s a little different. You can read the game a little more, kind of see what’s going on, who’s hot, what kind of schemes they’re going with. It gives you some advantages. As far as being a starter, you come out warmer.”"

Whiteside has quietly had a productive season, especially on the boards. He leads the NBA in offensive rebounding percentage, defensive rebounding percentage and overall percentage for the first time in his career at 16.4, 35.9 and 26.1 percent . He’s set his own career-high in rebounds per 100 possessions and per 36 minutes.

With a content Whiteside, willing to play whatever role is asked of him, the Miami Heat have remarkable flexibility going forward from a rotational and matchup perspective.