Despite a rough 2017/18 campaign that saw him miss 28 games and included a relatively infamous rant about a lack of playing time, Heat center Hassan Whiteside is ready for a fresh start, reports Shandel Richardson of the Sun-Sentinel.
“I feel great,” Whiteside said recently. “I feel a lot better than I did during (last) season. I’m completely healed. I feel like my regular self again.”
Whiteside, who dealt with both knee and hip injuries last season, averaged just 25.3 minutes per game, his lowest since his first season with the Heat in 2014/15. Moreover, he was often benched during fourth quarters and averaged a mere 15.4 MPG in the Heat’s first-round playoff series loss to the Sixers.
In regard to a recent meeting with both head coach Erik Spoelstra and team president Pat Riley, Whiteside says things are much better than a year ago.
“We had a great talk,” Whiteside said. “I just think it’s trust on both sides. I think that’s the biggest thing … It was about a four-hour meeting. It was a lot about life. It was two hours basketball, two hours life. It was a good meeting.”
Whiteside, 29, led the lead in blocks during the 2015/16 season en route to being named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team. He followed that up by leading the NBA in rebounds with 14.1 per game during the 2016/17 campaign. He will look to regain that form this season.
The Heat will be a dark horse in the East, if Winslow and Adebayo make the leap they’ll be downright scary. I’m expecting Richardson to have a huge season, I could see Miami winning 48-53 games this coming season but it’s time for Winslow to breakout, he was awesome against Philly.
Heat has had 2 issues the last couple of years, those being the entire team being injured and abhorrent free throw shooting. If they can remain relatively healthy for once, and if they can somehow just be bad at the FT line, instead of god awful/by far the worst team in the league in that regard, they will have a chance to won that many games for sure…the free throws cost them countless games the last couple of years, including arguably at least 3 of the 4 playoff losses to Philly
Winslow can’t shoot. He is what he is. Adebayo will be fun to watch for a couple years, though, to see what he becomes.
Winslow can’t shoot? Get off the pharmaceuticals bud.
He can’t. I’ve said it before. He’s a young PJ Tucker
Again, that comp makes no sense
Ok – we’ll see where he is in five years – muscular 6’4″/5″ defensive sub, corner threes, tweener in a useful way, like… PJ Tucker.
He is acting like it was just last year. I wanted him gone 2 years ago. At this point, I hope he can stay healthy, and he goes out there and plays hard, but there is no way I’m holding my breath for that last part. He only tries when he wants to
Why is this even a post!
Slow news day in NBA. scrapping bottom of barrel for news stories July 31….
Miami is gotta get more out of Whiteside, he is a total beast, I mean the guy did 17/14, they year before, leader in blocks, rebounds, 2nd All-NBA defensive team, he is the only player that can be stellar in Miami, can never understand why they don’t try to get the most out of him. As I have been saying for a long time, he is by far their best player… Though is not a proper star, which means that Miami has got a low ceiling, 1st round exit is all they can get, to win playoffs rounds you need stars, that was the difference with Philly they have 2.
You keep saying you dont understand. I keep telling you the answer. You also could try seeing 1 single game the Heat play to know the answer, b/c its immediately obvious that Whitesode is a quitter
It’s like you’re judging his game based on stats; he’s a stat chaser. He is constantly rolling his eyes, visibly frustrated if he doesn’t get the ball. The whole story is a little delusional too, in that him not playing much in the playoffs wasn’t due to his injuries, it was due to his inability to do anything other than chasing blocks on the defensive end, which made him and the Heat vulnerable. His contact and the playing time he expects in line with that is grossly inflated. He should expect and be content with Javale McGee-type money and minutes. I’d also rather have McGee on my team in a heartbeat
Mcgee really tries. He makes the most of his minutes and his length. He burns the Cavs
Garbage. Big ego, not that good a player. The only reason he got that ridiculous contract was because Chris Bosh went out and they felt a need to sign Whiteside. Big mistake.