Hassan Whiteside offers expletive-filled challenge to lack of playing time

[Hallstar]

He has reason to be angry, Heat has reason to move on... Srsly it's a sane solution

Whiteside's better than he's shown but this team isn't for his playstyle, he wants to be the focal point. He wants it to be one way but it's the other way

On a team with a legit first option and legit offense he might be more useful and cordial to his role. Watever that may be tbh

Thats the problem with the committe approach, only a few players have a defined role. Looking at this roster it feels like Dragic, Ellington, and Richardson are the only guys that really had a defined role in terms of what they are enabled to do on a night to night basis. And only one of them is an all star. Everyone else has to wear different hats and adapt as the situation calls for it. That said I dont think Hassan always did himself favors, he could be a top 15 talent if he wanted to be but he never developed the low post repertoire that he should have. Its going to be interesting to see what teams call this summer and who gets packaged with him.

I know what you're saying but there are no allstars on this team. None that are actually viewed like it anyway. This was ALWAYS my problem paying everybody that had a nice streak approach. Capped out with average players, they'll do the same with Ellington

[The Dawg]

I understand Whiteside's frustration, but he cannot be the focus on offense. He needs to embrace the blocks/put backs role. That being said, the Miami Heat has a bench caliber roster. Who cares about hustle and grit when you remain borderline lottery?

Dragic should have the ball in his hand at the end of the games.
Whiteside should be getting 30 mins per.
Bam is not the answer. (I wish the Heat moved up to get Mitchell)
Kelly O is not the answer.

The Heat need 2 legit players to push them past "hanging with teams" until there is 30 seconds left in the 4th. Keep Dragic, Whiteside, Richardson, Wade, Olynyk and James Johnson.

/rant

[LordRiley]

I understand Whiteside's frustration, but he cannot be the focus on offense. He needs to embrace the blocks/put backs role. That being said, the Miami Heat has a bench caliber roster. Who cares about hustle and grit when you remain borderline lottery?

Dragic should have the ball in his hand at the end of the games.
Whiteside should be getting 30 mins per.
Bam is not the answer. (I wish the Heat moved up to get Mitchell)
Kelly O is not the answer.

The Heat need 2 legit players to push them past "hanging with teams" until there is 30 seconds left in the 4th. Keep Dragic, Whiteside, Richardson, Wade, Olynyk and James Johnson.

/rant

He wasn’t complaining about touches, he wants more minutes. That’s the problem, and IMO a legit one.

[Kobewade11]

Maybe we should have tried to trade for Jabari Parker?

Stats from tonight
J. Parker

39 points 7 rebounds 2 steals 1 assist 1 TO

Jabari didn't have a lot of fans here around the trade deadline, i'll just say that

Was there any rumors about Whiteside for Parker?

It was reported Milwaukee was a team that had checked in on Hassan but I don't know if there were any substantial rumors.

[Sign5]

The funny thing about this "five games over 500 with Whiteside playing" is that he's been hobbled all year playing with bulky knee braces and has been out a good chunk of games as well. He doesn't play close too 100% in the majority of the games he played this year.

So 5 games over 500 with a hobbled Whiteside doesn't even paint the full picture . You could argue Heat would easily have a better record with his presence based on better play from him (due him being healthy) and or him just playing and excelling against teams where he'd flourish(vs him out completely due to injury) in the flip side the opponents could have bottomfeeders meaning him being out there wouldn't have mattered.

So basically I feel his knee seems to be the main issue that really complicates things from really assessing the future.

[DayofMourning]

There a lot of factors that go into wins. It's not all Hassan. Who were the opponents? What about back to backs? Who else was healthy? Was it on the road or at home? Blanket statements don't mean much.

[J-House]

Arguments can be made from both sides. I love Hassan but he’s just getting back from the hip injury so I understand the minutes restriction but then again we could’ve used him at the end of the Nets game. We don’t have to match up with a team just because they go small. Hassan is right in that he is a top 10 center in the league and he should at least get a chance at the end of games. I know Spo gets a little stubborn but having Hassan on this team is a luxury so we might as well use him.

[MettaWorldPanda]

I have no problem with Hassan complaining about his minutes but does it have to be in the same game when he decides he needs a breather after 4 minutes? Hassan has got me all confused but in the end it may be best for him and the organization to part ways in the off season.

[somerandomdude]

I understand Whiteside's frustration, but he cannot be the focus on offense. He needs to embrace the blocks/put backs role.

I'd like to see more effort in that area, too, but it's also a waste of talent to not run offense through him. Not many teams make it far by relying on jumpshots and Whiteside has proven that he can score inside the paint when he gets the ball in places he can do something with it.

If we look at the Nets game: Dragic, J-Rich, and Wade combined for 48 shots on 38% shooting in a game that went into OT.

There's a lot of wasted possessions that I, personally, would've loved to see given to Hassan for shot attempts in the paint. Even Olynyk deserved to get more shot attempts considering he was 6/9 from the field.

Another observation: we don't have the type of offense needed to take advantage of Hassan (which, considering his contract and capabilities, we should). We need a lot more plays where we can get him the ball in places he can do something with it. For example, PnR to help establish better positioning in the post or go for a lob.

It seems our offense is better suited for an Olynyk type player, where he facilitates a lot of the offense in the high post.

Even when Shaq was here, we never had an offense that helped him establish good positioning in the paint. We pretty much relied on his pure strength and talent to create his shots.

[MartyConlonJr]

Just from counting his plus/minus

Record with him is 27-22
17 games of +
One game of 0
31 games of -

I'm not a huge believer in relying on plus/minus but it is as flawed to rely on our game win/loss with Hassan playing, it actually supports the idea that Hassan can not be played due to being a net negative. He is -2.8 on a +0.6 team.

[heatwillbeback]

I think Whiteside was okay to be mad. Not playing in the last 21 minutes is something that should make him upset.

Of course he was wrong to do to the media. Being upset is fine, but being a public malcontent brings other issues.

As of now, Johnson and Kelly have earned minutes at the end of games. KO especially has been clutch and simply dominant down the stretch in many games. Whiteside, it’s your job to go earn them back.

[heatwillbeback]

I’m not a big proponent of plus minus. With Hassan, I will describe it as this:

Hassan only plays with starters and it’s our starters job to keep it close. We do not have an elite starting lineup.

What wins us games is our depth and our bench. As such, the bench should have a much better plus minus on this team. It’s to be expected.

It doesn’t mean Hassan isn’t valuable- we need him to keep it close with the starters and he is a decent player.

[Sign5]

I’m not a big proponent of plus minus. With Hassan, I will describe it as this:

Hassan only plays with starters and it’s our starters job to keep it close. We do not have an elite starting lineup.

What wins us games is our depth and our bench. As such, the bench should have a much better plus minus on this team. It’s to be expected.

It doesn’t mean Hassan isn’t valuable- we need him to keep it close with the starters and he is a decent player.

Well said. Heat have one of the best benches in the league, the problem is... our starters aren't THAT much better at all. It's like 1-12 are all around the same level save for 2-3 guys thus our guys can pound other team's 6-12 but we dont have a STRONG starting lineup to take advantage consistently. All woes caused by not having a true bonafide star.

If we magically had a healthy Kawhi or Harden at the wing then instead of a 41 win team we'd have the same record as Boston. Of course you can say this about a lot of teams but it fits the heat well due to how solid the bench already is.

[El Alonzo scowl]

Bye Felicia. Make max money but can't make an all-star team, you're not needed here.

[MartyConlonJr]

I’m not a big proponent of plus minus. With Hassan, I will describe it as this:

Hassan only plays with starters and it’s our starters job to keep it close. We do not have an elite starting lineup.

What wins us games is our depth and our bench. As such, the bench should have a much better plus minus on this team. It’s to be expected.

It doesn’t mean Hassan isn’t valuable- we need him to keep it close with the starters and he is a decent player.

Yes, but then the starting lineup of Dragic/TJ/Rich/JJ with Hassan is -5.6 points, but +2.5 points with Bam. The same lineup hasn't played with Olynyk. Plus/minus doesn't tell the full story but i do think that the same type of discrepancies come out in Spo's advanced stats - where the team has better success with Whiteside sitting.

Miami is an equal opportunity organisation, they reward hard work, and play guys that earn it. If Spo is benching Whiteside, it is warranted because Miami has every reason, financial and otherwise, to want Whiteside to be 'the guy'.

[unowen85]

I’d fire Spo before I traded Whiteside.

[Slot Machine]

We'll trade Whiteside, he'll finally get the shackles off (that Spo has forever reason had on him since he first broke out with us) and ball out on another team and make us regret it the whole time while we use the cleared cap space to re-sign Ellington and win 39 games next year.

All the beat writers pushing this anti-Hassan narrative (because they're completely in the pocket of the Heat organization/front office) will look idiotic as always.

[DayofMourning]

I’d fire Spo before I traded Whiteside.

This coming from Spos biggest advocate. Dang. Package dealem.

[Heat3]

We'll trade Whiteside, he'll finally get the shackles off (that Spo has forever reason had on him since he first broke out with us) and ball out on another team and make us regret it the whole time while we use the cleared cap space to re-sign Ellington and win 39 games next year.

All the beat writers pushing this anti-Hassan narrative (because they're completely in the pocket of the Heat organization/front office) will look idiotic as always.

The constant negativity from certain writers and radio guys bugs me. They do the same thing with the dolphins players that Gase ships out.

[fishfuego.]

We'll trade Whiteside, he'll finally get the shackles off (that Spo has forever reason had on him since he first broke out with us) and ball out on another team and make us regret it the whole time while we use the cleared cap space to re-sign Ellington and win 39 games next year.

All the beat writers pushing this anti-Hassan narrative (because they're completely in the pocket of the Heat organization/front office) will look idiotic as always.

Exactly .

Spo was punched hard on the nose when HAssan broke out his first year, undermining Spo’s egotistical small ball game plan, and it took a lot of fans complaints for this coach to accept the obvious.

One of the reasons of many I don’t agree with this coach approach, to a point sometimes I want him replaced.