Last summer, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside was one of the most coveted players of the free agent crop. He’d garnered serious interest from several teams, including the Mavs, Blazers, Lakers, and others. But ultimately, Pat Riley and the Heat opted to re-sign him to a long-term deal worth about $98 million. With Dwyane Wade’s stunning departure to Chicago and Chris Bosh’s ongoing health problems effectively ending the Big 3 era, Whiteside was suddenly the team’s best and most important asset.
That’s a lot of pressure for a player of his caliber, especially given the roster’s unexpected makeover. The new-look Heat were always going to struggle this season. With a record of 7-17, they’re in the middle of a five-game losing streak, and they’ve lost seven of their last 10. At first glance, Whiteside appears to be playing well. He’s averaging 17.3 points, 14.3 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game. But as in years past, the plus-minus numbers have never been kind to him. Translation: the Heat have often been better when he’s not on the floor.
In four games last week, he was a dreadful minus-74, which led to Erik Spoelstra benching him in the second half of their loss to the Cavs on Friday. If that wasn’t bed enough, an anonymous NBA scout recently offered Ira Winderman of ESPN.com a rather troubling assessment of the big man’s game. Here’s what Winderman had to say on The Big O Show, with a tip of the hat to SliceMiami.com for the text of that segment:
“I’m preparing for the game in Chicago, a scout is sitting a couple of seats down to me,” Winderman said on the Big O Show. “And he turns around to me — we’re talking about a couple Heat players — and he goes, ‘Whiteside, the kid has no motor,’ and O, that is the ultimate inditement [sic] you can give of a player in Hassan Whiteside’s role, that an outside team, a scout, a leading scout, believes you don’t have the motor to push through during a season.
“The last thing you ever want to hear anybody in the NBA say about you is you don’t have a high motor because with Hassan Whiteside you have to be a high-motor player because. So I think every time that motor is not revving you make a statement because this is the year you learn your lessons for when you’re playing in the playoffs down the road.”
The way things are going, the Heat likely don’t have to worry about a playoff push this season, but an evaluation like that, along with ongoing statistical evidence that appears to support it, should probably give the Heat organization pause about building around Whiteside as a franchise cornerstone for the future.
(The Big O Show; h/t SliceMiami.com)
