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Expectations have sharply risen for the Miami Heat‘s Hassan Whiteside.
This summer, he signed a four-year, $98 million maximum contract to stay in South Beach before watching the face of the franchise, Dwyane Wade, leave for Chicago. Wade's absence creates a clear void in leadership for Miami's locker room.
Enter Whiteside. The lengthy 7-foot center followed his breakout 2014-15 campaign with an equally impressive season last year, averaging 14.2 points, 11.8 rebounds, and an NBA-leading 3.7 blocks per game. He also had a spectacular player-efficiency rating (PER) of 25.7.
Now, after signing with the Heat for the long haul, head coach Erik Spoelstra expects Hassan to rise to the occasion and live up to his max deal.
From Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel:
“He will be working on all of it,” Spoelstra said. “Low-post scoring, that's the number-one thing he wants to work on, and I'm all for it. He will also work on his skill level at the top of the floor, handling the ball, getting us into second situations as a playmaker, rebounding off the glass.”
…
“Just continue the overall development with his body, working on his conditioning, getting stronger while maintaining his weight and flexibility,” Spoelstra said. “And he will have to be able to absorb more minutes, more responsibility, more games, which is a different level of training in the weight room.”
After coaching Whiteside for a season and a half, Spoelstra is confident that Hassan has the work ethic and the drive to live up to the organization's lofty expectations:
“I'm not going to stand in his way and put a ceiling on where he can go and who he can become as a basketball player,” Spoelstra said in the team-produced video. “I want him to embrace all the challenges. And I want him to be one of the best players in this league. He has that type of potential.
“Hassan and I have really grown to get to know each other, the process of an NBA season, of competition, of ups and downs, of trying to reach a different level, to trying to learn how to shoulder more responsibility to help a team win. And in order for our team to accomplish what we want to accomplish, Hassan has to continue to improve and maximize his potential.”
Heat fans are surely still bummed that Wade is gone, but they have to be excited for continued development of Whiteside as a more complete-player and potentially the leader of this basketball team for years to come.
