There is growing concern within the Heat organization about center Hassan Whiteside‘s maturity and self-control, Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post writes. Whiteside was ejected from Monday night’s game, which was the second time in the last five games the big man was tossed from a contest, and it resulted in a one game suspension. When asked if he was disappointed in Whiteside, Dwyane Wade said, “Very. We all are. As a Heat fan you are. In this locker room we are. Everybody. He’s gonna have to learn and he’s gonna learn the hard way. He’s doing it his own way. Hopefully he changes his mentality pretty quick. Players gotta understand how important they are to an organization and continue to understand that moment when you finally got that call-up, how you felt. You would’ve done anything to get that, just to be here. Sometimes you start feeling yourself a little too much. A lot of us are guilty of that. You’ve gotta humble yourself. Hopefully Hassan gets it.”
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- With Garrett Temple expected to miss at least a week due to a hamstring injury, the Wizards are likely to fill their final roster spot, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post tweets. The team is currently weighing its options on available players, but no signing appears imminent, Castillo adds.
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer was the driving force behind Atlanta matching the four-year, $32MM offer sheet that the Bucks had signed Jeff Teague to back in 2013, Lee Jenkins of SI.com writes. Teague is certainly rewarding his coach’s faith this season, averaging 16.8 points and 7.2 assists in 31.2 minutes per contest.
- The trade for Reggie Jackson cost the Pistons two starting players, but the long-term benefits of the trade should outweigh the short-term setback, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. “It’s not like we didn’t think about [the present] this year,” Detroit coach/executive Stan Van Gundy said. “We knew as far as for this year that it was a gamble. Just because of continuity, we would’ve been better off not making moves. We knew that. We thought we could make those moves and still stay right in the playoff race and we were willing to take that gamble because of what we thought it did for the future.“