Hassan Whiteside: Road To The Max

[Rock Hardy]

Skolnick has hinted multiple times that Whiteside is not viewed as a max player by other GMs. This means the ones who will offer him that much are either trying to bait us into destroying our cap, or desperate.

If the current trend of poor Whiteside analytics continues to season's end, are fans still going to want us to pony up the bucks to keep him?

Statistics already say we have our best center at fair value, Bosh. He's making what Houston was willing to pay, so it's not like we overpaid. And his remaining years are a considerably below his potential max under the inflated cap. So do we need to invest a lot of money in a worse center? Shouldn't that $20M go into a position of need, like one of the 2 forward positions?

It's really too bad we didn't give Whiteside a 3rd year, then he'd be a tradable asset. As it stands, he's going to need to prove that he's actually helping the team on the floor, and not just compiling individual stats. Otherwise, we'd be smarter to grab a forward and a cheap backup stretch 5. All IMO.

[DayofMourning]

Skolnick has hinted multiple times that Whiteside is not viewed as a max player by other GMs. This means the ones who will offer him that much are either trying to bait us into destroying our cap, or desperate.

If the current trend of poor Whiteside analytics continues to season's end, are fans still going to want us to pony up the bucks to keep him?

Statistics already say we have our best center at fair value, Bosh. He's making what Houston was willing to pay, so it's not like we overpaid. And his remaining years are a considerably below his potential max under the inflated cap. So do we need to invest a lot of money in a worse center? Shouldn't that $20M go into a position of need, like one of the 2 forward positions?

It's really too bad we didn't give Whiteside a 3rd year, then he'd be a tradable asset. As it stands, he's going to need to prove that he's actually helping the team on the floor, and not just compiling individual stats. Otherwise, we'd be smarter to grab a forward and a cheap backup stretch 5. All IMO.

I don't know which stats to look at for Hassan anymore. The majority suggest he's a dominant force. I guess there will always be some stat suggesting he's not.

Some of the issue may rest with Hassan, but I'd say our level of coaching, this year especially, has been very poor. On paper, Hassan and Bosh should be dominating other teams. Hasn't happened. How can that be? How can that duo not be dominating? Poor perimeter shooting? Okay, but it's not like basketball didn't exist before the 3 point shot was introduced.

[3ballbomber]

How about a trade of Cousin. Rondo & Caron for Hassan, Dragic, Birdman & McBob?

with the Heat's cap space for next summer, they can add a PG like Conley or sign back Rondo, Wade, a max free agent like KD or maybe DeRozan...

Again, not even half way and people consider trading away key pieces. I can't understand this logic.

[Rock Hardy]

Skolnick has hinted multiple times that Whiteside is not viewed as a max player by other GMs. This means the ones who will offer him that much are either trying to bait us into destroying our cap, or desperate.

If the current trend of poor Whiteside analytics continues to season's end, are fans still going to want us to pony up the bucks to keep him?

Statistics already say we have our best center at fair value, Bosh. He's making what Houston was willing to pay, so it's not like we overpaid. And his remaining years are a considerably below his potential max under the inflated cap. So do we need to invest a lot of money in a worse center? Shouldn't that $20M go into a position of need, like one of the 2 forward positions?

It's really too bad we didn't give Whiteside a 3rd year, then he'd be a tradable asset. As it stands, he's going to need to prove that he's actually helping the team on the floor, and not just compiling individual stats. Otherwise, we'd be smarter to grab a forward and a cheap backup stretch 5. All IMO.

I don't know which stats to look at for Hassan anymore. The majority suggest he's a dominant force. I guess there will always be some stat suggesting he's not.

Some of the issue may rest with Hassan, but I'd say our level of coaching, this year especially, has been very poor. On paper, Hassan and Bosh should be dominating other teams. Hasn't happened. How can that be? How can that duo not be dominating? Poor perimeter shooting? Okay, but it's not like basketball didn't exist before the 3 point shot was introduced.

It's not coaching because we're a really good team with Bosh at the 5. The simple truth is we're often getting outscored when Hassan is on the floor. When it comes to wins and losses, I think that's a very important stat. He doesn't defend the pnr well, which is one of the main offensive attacks in the league, especially in crunch time (that last bit is conjecture). He's also possible to neutralize by shooters, particularly shooting bigs. On offense, he's not a great screener, which Dragon has alluded to in the past. He's not good in the post, and is turnover prone. He is allergic to passing, and kills our spacing.

The stats he piles up are boards, blocks and dunks. The first 2 are largely individual stats, though they help the team in the area around the rim. The last stat is largely reliant on our guards setting him up, which is made more difficult by the limited spacing. Unless we gain more perimeter shooting, or he learns to pass the ball, that space will never emerge. It's how we regularly killed the Lakers' twin towers with our small ball. Bynum was almost as big of a black hole, but at least he had an elite post game. As each game passes, I feel more and more like we're pumping a dry well here.

[DayofMourning]

Skolnick has hinted multiple times that Whiteside is not viewed as a max player by other GMs. This means the ones who will offer him that much are either trying to bait us into destroying our cap, or desperate.

If the current trend of poor Whiteside analytics continues to season's end, are fans still going to want us to pony up the bucks to keep him?

Statistics already say we have our best center at fair value, Bosh. He's making what Houston was willing to pay, so it's not like we overpaid. And his remaining years are a considerably below his potential max under the inflated cap. So do we need to invest a lot of money in a worse center? Shouldn't that $20M go into a position of need, like one of the 2 forward positions?

It's really too bad we didn't give Whiteside a 3rd year, then he'd be a tradable asset. As it stands, he's going to need to prove that he's actually helping the team on the floor, and not just compiling individual stats. Otherwise, we'd be smarter to grab a forward and a cheap backup stretch 5. All IMO.

I don't know which stats to look at for Hassan anymore. The majority suggest he's a dominant force. I guess there will always be some stat suggesting he's not.

Some of the issue may rest with Hassan, but I'd say our level of coaching, this year especially, has been very poor. On paper, Hassan and Bosh should be dominating other teams. Hasn't happened. How can that be? How can that duo not be dominating? Poor perimeter shooting? Okay, but it's not like basketball didn't exist before the 3 point shot was introduced.

It's not coaching because we're a really good team with Bosh at the 5. The simple truth is we're often getting outscored when Hassan is on the floor. When it comes to wins and losses, I think that's a very important stat. He doesn't defend the pnr well, which is one of the main offensive attacks in the league, especially in crunch time (that last bit is conjecture). He's also possible to neutralize by shooters, particularly shooting bigs. On offense, he's not a great screener, which Dragon has alluded to in the past. He's not good in the post, and is turnover prone. He is allergic to passing, and kills our spacing.

The stats he piles up are boards, blocks and dunks. The first 2 are largely individual stats, though they help the team in the area around the rim. The last stat is largely reliant on our guards setting him up, which is made more difficult by the limited spacing. Unless we gain more perimeter shooting, or he learns to pass the ball, that space will never emerge. It's how we regularly killed the Lakers' twin towers with our small ball. Bynum was almost as big of a black hole, but at least he had an elite post game. As each game passes, I feel more and more like we're pumping a dry well here.

Well, we can't really say it's not coaching because we play well with Bosh at the five. Do we have lineups that are more successful than others? Yes. We actually have a couple that work really well for us. Good coaching should allow for development of more than just one or two good lineups. That's the definition of coaching. Development and learning. We can't just rest on our laurels. We have to be more dynamic. Player movement and ball movement has to improve. We are not doing it well right now. Who's to blame for that? Whiteside is the king of garbage buckets and second chances. We have to use that better, instead of trying to make him adjust. Everyone has their limitations and the reason Hassan was out of the league for so long is because his was between his ears. Don't ask him to be more than he is, coach the team to exhibit his strengths better, because his skills are rare.

[QUIZ]

I don't know which stats to look at for Hassan anymore. The majority suggest he's a dominant force. I guess there will always be some stat suggesting he's not.

Some of the issue may rest with Hassan, but I'd say our level of coaching, this year especially, has been very poor. On paper, Hassan and Bosh should be dominating other teams. Hasn't happened. How can that be? How can that duo not be dominating? Poor perimeter shooting? Okay, but it's not like basketball didn't exist before the 3 point shot was introduced.

I think the main problem is that he's being judged as a finished product due to the fact that he's 26 and in a contract year. Today I saw some things that I didn't like, he allowed Brook Lopez to get good post positioning far too often, the reason he did that was because in his mind he's saying to himself 'Let him shoot it, I'll just block it' It's the way he is and it gets him in trouble because there's more to defense than just swatting the ball away. He is learning that though.

One thing I did like was his PnR defense. Last year his stamina wasn't the best and we saw him get really lazy with his PnR defense when he got tired. Thats improved this year but Charles Barkley actually said something interesting when talking about Hassan, he said that he thinks that Hassan can be a great player not just a good one but he mentioned the fact that Hassan doesn't have the best motor which I think is very true. He has times where he'll sting together 3 or 4 blocks, run all the way down the court for a chase down block, and then he has times where he'll be slow to rotate to his own man once he cheats off of him to go to the ball.

Today though, I saw Hassan actually stepping up and pressuring the passer, keeping his hands active rather than resting them at his sides. This is a new and welcome development for a center that is so used to just sinking back towards the basket to block shots.

I think there are a lot of aspects of defense that he's still trying to get down mentally. He knows how to block shots, that's his bread and butter, always has been but he doesn't fully understand everything else beyond that.

It'll come though, just give it time. With experience and discipline he will become the one of the best defensive bigs in the league.

Hell I watched Bosh undergo that transformation in his transition from Toronto to Miami and he was average at best on defense before coming here. Someone with Hassan's base talents and physical ability... the sky's the limit for a player who hasn't even spent a full seasons worth of games in a Miami Heat uniform.

[RexBoyWonder]

I don't know which stats to look at for Hassan anymore. The majority suggest he's a dominant force. I guess there will always be some stat suggesting he's not.

Some of the issue may rest with Hassan, but I'd say our level of coaching, this year especially, has been very poor. On paper, Hassan and Bosh should be dominating other teams. Hasn't happened. How can that be? How can that duo not be dominating? Poor perimeter shooting? Okay, but it's not like basketball didn't exist before the 3 point shot was introduced.

I think the main problem is that he's being judged as a finished product due to the fact that he's 26 and in a contract year. Today I saw some things that I didn't like, he allowed Brook Lopez to get good post positioning far too often, the reason he did that was because in his mind he's saying to himself 'Let him shoot it, I'll just block it' It's the way he is and it gets him in trouble because there's more to defense than just swatting the ball away. He is learning that though.

One thing I did like was his PnR defense. Last year his stamina wasn't the best and we saw him get really lazy with his PnR defense when he got tired. Thats improved this year but Charles Barkley actually said something interesting when talking about Hassan, he said that he thinks that Hassan can be a great player not just a good one but he mentioned the fact that Hassan doesn't have the best motor which I think is very true. He has times where he'll sting together 3 or 4 blocks, run all the way down the court for a chase down block, and then he has times where he'll be slow to rotate to his own man once he cheats off of him to go to the ball.

Today though, I saw Hassan actually stepping up and pressuring the passer, keeping his hands active rather than resting them at his sides. This is a new and welcome development for a center that is so used to just sinking back towards the basket to block shots.

I think there are a lot of aspects of defense that he's still trying to get down mentally. He knows how to block shots, that's his bread and butter, always has been but he doesn't fully understand everything else beyond that.

It'll come though, just give it time. With experience and discipline he will become the one of the best defensive bigs in the league.

Hell I watched Bosh undergo that transformation in his transition from Toronto to Miami and he was average at best on defense before coming here. Someone with Hassan's base talents and physical ability... the sky's the limit for a player who hasn't even spent a full seasons worth of games in a Miami Heat uniform.

And that's the elephant in the room.

That's a very unusual situation : a 26YO, who's basically a rook, becoming a unrestricted free agent, with high market value. Non of us can know for sure how much can he improve on his weakness, and how soon. And that's an issue when you're not playing under your rookie contract, but under a massive max contract.

As of this moment today, he's not a max player to me.

Can he become one by next year's playoffs? No doubt. A bit more experience, a bit more attention to details on defense, improved FT, and a bit better passing out of the post. He does that and he's bonafide max money defensive Center.

Can he Also stay exactly the same or even regress a little? Get lazy with all the money in pocket, sulk when things aren't going his way? I can't rule that option out.

And that's the issue, you never want to be put in a position where you give max contracts with a sense of a gamble on it. Gambles can fail, and that's a max fail if they do.

[QUIZ]

I don't know which stats to look at for Hassan anymore. The majority suggest he's a dominant force. I guess there will always be some stat suggesting he's not.

Some of the issue may rest with Hassan, but I'd say our level of coaching, this year especially, has been very poor. On paper, Hassan and Bosh should be dominating other teams. Hasn't happened. How can that be? How can that duo not be dominating? Poor perimeter shooting? Okay, but it's not like basketball didn't exist before the 3 point shot was introduced.

I think the main problem is that he's being judged as a finished product due to the fact that he's 26 and in a contract year. Today I saw some things that I didn't like, he allowed Brook Lopez to get good post positioning far too often, the reason he did that was because in his mind he's saying to himself 'Let him shoot it, I'll just block it' It's the way he is and it gets him in trouble because there's more to defense than just swatting the ball away. He is learning that though.

One thing I did like was his PnR defense. Last year his stamina wasn't the best and we saw him get really lazy with his PnR defense when he got tired. Thats improved this year but Charles Barkley actually said something interesting when talking about Hassan, he said that he thinks that Hassan can be a great player not just a good one but he mentioned the fact that Hassan doesn't have the best motor which I think is very true. He has times where he'll sting together 3 or 4 blocks, run all the way down the court for a chase down block, and then he has times where he'll be slow to rotate to his own man once he cheats off of him to go to the ball.

Today though, I saw Hassan actually stepping up and pressuring the passer, keeping his hands active rather than resting them at his sides. This is a new and welcome development for a center that is so used to just sinking back towards the basket to block shots.

I think there are a lot of aspects of defense that he's still trying to get down mentally. He knows how to block shots, that's his bread and butter, always has been but he doesn't fully understand everything else beyond that.

It'll come though, just give it time. With experience and discipline he will become the one of the best defensive bigs in the league.

Hell I watched Bosh undergo that transformation in his transition from Toronto to Miami and he was average at best on defense before coming here. Someone with Hassan's base talents and physical ability... the sky's the limit for a player who hasn't even spent a full seasons worth of games in a Miami Heat uniform.

And that's the elephant in the room.

That's a very unusual situation : a 26YO, who's basically a rook, becoming a unrestricted free agent, with high market value. Non of us can know for sure how much can he improve on his weakness, and how soon. And that's an issue when you're not playing under your rookie contract, but under a massive max contract.

As of this moment today, he's not a max player to me.

Can he become one by next year's playoffs? No doubt. A bit more experience, a bit more attention to details on defense, improved FT, and a bit better passing out of the post. He does that and he's bonafide max money defensive Center.

Can he Also stay exactly the same or even regress a little? Get lazy with all the money in pocket, sulk when things aren't going his way? I can't rule that option out.

And that's the issue, you never want to be put in a position where you give max contracts with a sense of a gamble on it. Gambles can fail, and that's a max fail if they do.

Well unless we get Durant does the gamble really matter? I mean the alternative is letting him go for nothing. If we do that great we have an extra $20mill to spend! But if Durant isn't the one taking it who're we going to spend it on?

I've watched a lot of DeAndre Jordan and I don't see how Whiteside is any worse than he is. DJ got 4yr/$88mill and I'd be willing to give Whiteside the same.

[DayofMourning]

If we don't get Durant, then we're just spinning our wheels, as far as a championship is concerned. You have to have a super duper star to get it done, and we don't, anymore. 29 year old Wade? Different story.

Our chances are slim, but they were nonexistent to get Lebron.

P.S. We need to keep Hassan. Hopefully at less than full max.

[RexBoyWonder]

I think the main problem is that he's being judged as a finished product due to the fact that he's 26 and in a contract year. Today I saw some things that I didn't like, he allowed Brook Lopez to get good post positioning far too often, the reason he did that was because in his mind he's saying to himself 'Let him shoot it, I'll just block it' It's the way he is and it gets him in trouble because there's more to defense than just swatting the ball away. He is learning that though.

One thing I did like was his PnR defense. Last year his stamina wasn't the best and we saw him get really lazy with his PnR defense when he got tired. Thats improved this year but Charles Barkley actually said something interesting when talking about Hassan, he said that he thinks that Hassan can be a great player not just a good one but he mentioned the fact that Hassan doesn't have the best motor which I think is very true. He has times where he'll sting together 3 or 4 blocks, run all the way down the court for a chase down block, and then he has times where he'll be slow to rotate to his own man once he cheats off of him to go to the ball.

Today though, I saw Hassan actually stepping up and pressuring the passer, keeping his hands active rather than resting them at his sides. This is a new and welcome development for a center that is so used to just sinking back towards the basket to block shots.

I think there are a lot of aspects of defense that he's still trying to get down mentally. He knows how to block shots, that's his bread and butter, always has been but he doesn't fully understand everything else beyond that.

It'll come though, just give it time. With experience and discipline he will become the one of the best defensive bigs in the league.

Hell I watched Bosh undergo that transformation in his transition from Toronto to Miami and he was average at best on defense before coming here. Someone with Hassan's base talents and physical ability... the sky's the limit for a player who hasn't even spent a full seasons worth of games in a Miami Heat uniform.

And that's the elephant in the room.

That's a very unusual situation : a 26YO, who's basically a rook, becoming a unrestricted free agent, with high market value. Non of us can know for sure how much can he improve on his weakness, and how soon. And that's an issue when you're not playing under your rookie contract, but under a massive max contract.

As of this moment today, he's not a max player to me.

Can he become one by next year's playoffs? No doubt. A bit more experience, a bit more attention to details on defense, improved FT, and a bit better passing out of the post. He does that and he's bonafide max money defensive Center.

Can he Also stay exactly the same or even regress a little? Get lazy with all the money in pocket, sulk when things aren't going his way? I can't rule that option out.

And that's the issue, you never want to be put in a position where you give max contracts with a sense of a gamble on it. Gambles can fail, and that's a max fail if they do.

Well unless we get Durant does the gamble really matter? I mean the alternative is letting him go for nothing. If we do that great we have an extra $20mill to spend! But if Durant isn't the one taking it who're we going to spend it on?

I've watched a lot of DeAndre Jordan and I don't see how Whiteside is any worse than he is. DJ got 4yr/$88mill and I'd be willing to give Whiteside the same.

Your response would've made sense if it was a 1 year max we would be giving him. But that's 4 years of a massive chunk of our cap space we're talking about. If things go south, that's an unmovable contract.

[QUIZ]

Your response would've made sense if it was a 1 year max we would be giving him. But that's 4 years of a massive chunk of our cap space we're talking about. If things go south, that's an unmovable contract.

Well the Heat know him better than we do so they're in a better position to decide but I mean how bad can things get? Lol

I personally don't think that he'll get fat and lazy once he's paid but that's just me.

[DayofMourning]

Things are going to go south if we don't win now. Wade is in the twilight of his career, and Bosh will be joining him soon enough. We have no draft picks. We have to gamble on Hassan, and keeping him will take a multi year contract, especially if we want him to take less than max.

[3ballbomber]

If we don't get Durant, then we're just spinning our wheels, as far as a championship is concerned. You have to have a super duper star to get it done, and we don't, anymore. 29 year old Wade? Different story.

Our chances are slim, but they were nonexistent to get Lebron.

P.S. We need to keep Hassan. Hopefully at less than full max.

We landed Shaq, Bosh, Lebron, Ray Allen, Dragic out of nowhere......to lesser extent Green and Amare discounted. Hell we could have even had signed LA if we had something to offer. Riles continues to show his magic and people doubt. I am very excited for the offseason and what Riley has planned. I know he has already conjured up plan A to Z. Back up plan for the back up plan. If we don't get Durant he may have something cooking that could still make us serious contenders. I ride and die w/ Riles!

[DayofMourning]

If we don't get Durant, then we're just spinning our wheels, as far as a championship is concerned. You have to have a super duper star to get it done, and we don't, anymore. 29 year old Wade? Different story.

Our chances are slim, but they were nonexistent to get Lebron.

P.S. We need to keep Hassan. Hopefully at less than full max.

We landed Shaq, Bosh, Lebron, Ray Allen, Dragic out of nowhere......to lesser extent Green and Amare discounted. Hell we could have even had signed LA if we had something to offer. Riles continues to show his magic and people doubt. I am very excited for the offseason and what Riley has planned. I know he has already conjured up plan A to Z. Back up plan for the back up plan. If we don't get Durant he may have something cooking that could still make us serious contenders. I ride and die w/ Riles!

Oh yeah, Riley is a beast. We wouldn't be the team we are today without him. He's made earth shaking moves routinely. Getting Durant though, would be second only to Lebron in my mind, and that's a tall task. The team's mission is to seriously contend for a spot in the Finals this season, or Durant won't bat an eyelash.

[3ballbomber]

If we don't get Durant, then we're just spinning our wheels, as far as a championship is concerned. You have to have a super duper star to get it done, and we don't, anymore. 29 year old Wade? Different story.

Our chances are slim, but they were nonexistent to get Lebron.

P.S. We need to keep Hassan. Hopefully at less than full max.

We landed Shaq, Bosh, Lebron, Ray Allen, Dragic out of nowhere......to lesser extent Green and Amare discounted. Hell we could have even had signed LA if we had something to offer. Riles continues to show his magic and people doubt. I am very excited for the offseason and what Riley has planned. I know he has already conjured up plan A to Z. Back up plan for the back up plan. If we don't get Durant he may have something cooking that could still make us serious contenders. I ride and die w/ Riles!

Oh yeah, Riley is a beast. We wouldn't be the team we are today without him. He's made earth shaking moves routinely. Getting Durant though, would be second only to Lebron in my mind, and that's a tall task. The team's mission is to seriously contend for a spot in the Finals this season, or Durant won't bat an eyelash.

Deep playoffs run in the EAst i think may be good enough for Durant. We don't necessarily need to make finals for him to be interested. After all Riles words breaths magic intertwined with harmony and energy force of the cosmos. He knows if he is added to a team like Miami that he will take them over the top.

It is a long shot i agree because Durant is as competitive as they get. OKC are also only a few pieces away from being great so quitting the team may not even be an option. But again, he still has to sit down in a room with Riles. He has to look into his eyes while listening to the sound of enchantment, wonder and magic.

[DayofMourning]

We landed Shaq, Bosh, Lebron, Ray Allen, Dragic out of nowhere......to lesser extent Green and Amare discounted. Hell we could have even had signed LA if we had something to offer. Riles continues to show his magic and people doubt. I am very excited for the offseason and what Riley has planned. I know he has already conjured up plan A to Z. Back up plan for the back up plan. If we don't get Durant he may have something cooking that could still make us serious contenders. I ride and die w/ Riles!

Oh yeah, Riley is a beast. We wouldn't be the team we are today without him. He's made earth shaking moves routinely. Getting Durant though, would be second only to Lebron in my mind, and that's a tall task. The team's mission is to seriously contend for a spot in the Finals this season, or Durant won't bat an eyelash.

Deep playoffs run in the EAst i think may be good enough for Durant. We don't necessarily need to make finals for him to be interested. After all Riles words breaths magic intertwined with harmony and energy force of the cosmos. He knows if he is added to a team like Miami that he will take them over the top.

It is a long shot i agree because Durant is as competitive as they get. OKC are also only a few pieces away from being great so quitting the team may not even be an option. But again, he still has to sit down in a room with Riles. He has to look into his eyes while listening to the sound of enchantment, wonder and magic.

I wonder if Durant will be as enigmatic as Lebron, and be willing to part ways with his buddy Westbrook, and find glory elsewhere. That's a lot to ask. OKC needs to have a dysfunctional season to increase our odds.

This is going to be an interesting offseason for the Heat, with all the potential space they have. We just need some Riley magic to shake the cosmos.

[Tony15]

I don't really have any interest in ponying up max $$ to Whiteside, but he isn't the guy you let walk for nothing in return. The only hope we have I think is if Hassan's willing to wait & see if we can get KD down here and work off of that. But that's a lot to ask of a guy who not even 2 years ago was playing at the YMCA.

[KingDavid]

I don't know which stats to look at for Hassan anymore. The majority suggest he's a dominant force. I guess there will always be some stat suggesting he's not.

Some of the issue may rest with Hassan, but I'd say our level of coaching, this year especially, has been very poor. On paper, Hassan and Bosh should be dominating other teams. Hasn't happened. How can that be? How can that duo not be dominating? Poor perimeter shooting? Okay, but it's not like basketball didn't exist before the 3 point shot was introduced.

I think the main problem is that he's being judged as a finished product due to the fact that he's 26 and in a contract year. Today I saw some things that I didn't like, he allowed Brook Lopez to get good post positioning far too often, the reason he did that was because in his mind he's saying to himself 'Let him shoot it, I'll just block it' It's the way he is and it gets him in trouble because there's more to defense than just swatting the ball away. He is learning that though.

One thing I did like was his PnR defense. Last year his stamina wasn't the best and we saw him get really lazy with his PnR defense when he got tired. Thats improved this year but Charles Barkley actually said something interesting when talking about Hassan, he said that he thinks that Hassan can be a great player not just a good one but he mentioned the fact that Hassan doesn't have the best motor which I think is very true. He has times where he'll sting together 3 or 4 blocks, run all the way down the court for a chase down block, and then he has times where he'll be slow to rotate to his own man once he cheats off of him to go to the ball.

Today though, I saw Hassan actually stepping up and pressuring the passer, keeping his hands active rather than resting them at his sides. This is a new and welcome development for a center that is so used to just sinking back towards the basket to block shots.

I think there are a lot of aspects of defense that he's still trying to get down mentally. He knows how to block shots, that's his bread and butter, always has been but he doesn't fully understand everything else beyond that.

It'll come though, just give it time. With experience and discipline he will become the one of the best defensive bigs in the league.

Hell I watched Bosh undergo that transformation in his transition from Toronto to Miami and he was average at best on defense before coming here. Someone with Hassan's base talents and physical ability... the sky's the limit for a player who hasn't even spent a full seasons worth of games in a Miami Heat uniform.

Actually, last night was his 82nd game in a Heat uniform.


Additionally...

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( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

I hate all of you.

Leaves thread

[dolphinatik]

If Whiteside wasn't a max player we wouldn't even be talking about it. We can downplay his value all we want but he is getting max money unless he chooses to sign for less. With the touches he is a 20/12 with 4 blocks type force. He is commanding a double team (heck teams are now sending 4 in the paint, which come to think of it spo should be posting him on one block and spread our offence around the other). Few in the league right now are getting double teamed. As many fumbled as turnovers as he has and as awkward as he looks trying to get his non dunk shots him and tj still lead the Heat in fg percentage. He is getting max. The question is with who?

[MettaWorldPanda]

Is it anyway possible to have an early opt out in his contract so we can at least sign him down the road using Bird Rights? I feel like Hassan will be willing to work with us no matter what. This is home for Hassan. No way he is leaving his BFF DJ Khaled. "WE THE BEST"