Despite some well-documented butting of heads with Erik Spoelstra throughout his six-year tenure with the Miami Heat, Hassan Whiteside is adamant there's no ill will between he and the team now that he's finally continuing his career elsewhere. Of course, considering how thrilled he is to be playing for the Portland Trail Blazers, perhaps the veteran big man is simply letting bygones be bygones to focus on what he calls a “perfect situation.”
Whiteside was officially introduced by the Blazers at Las Vegas Summer League on Thursday. He was acquired by Portland earlier this month in a massive, multi-team trade that sent Meyers Leonard to Miami and Moe Harkless to the LA Clippers.
“Perfect situation,” Whiteside said when asked about the trade, per Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. “… This is a fresh start. I really think this team is on the verge of doing something really special.”
The Blazers are coming off their first Western Conference Finals appearance since 2000. Though they were swept by the short-handed Golden State Warriors, Portland held double-digit halftime leads in two of the series' four games, a moral victory made all the better given the absence of starting center Jusuf Nurkic, playing the best basketball of his career when he suffered a devastating leg injury in late March.
Whiteside will start for the Blazers until Nurkic is ready to return, and perhaps even as the latter re-acclimates to the speed of the game after so much time away. An elite pure shot-blocker and pick-and-roll finisher, Whiteside's true impact has consistently lagged behind his numbers given his tendency to needlessly challenge most every shot at the rim and deviate from his team's offensive scheme. He averaged 12.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game last season.
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