Whiteside is cast in playmaker role
Return from injury brings new challenge
This is where Hassan Whiteside always wanted the ball — in his hands. Now the question becomes whether he will know what to do with it amid the Miami Heat’s turn to more playmaking by their centers.
Amid the 13-game absence that ended with Whiteside’s Tuesday return from the bone bruise on his left knee, the Heat went to greater lengths to involve their big men in ballhandling, such as dribble handoffs.
The approach allowed Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo to thrive with the full menu of their skills.
Now Whiteside’s appetite for such play could determine whether the Heat continue on the roll that has produced seven victories in their last 10 games, with the Brooklyn Nets up next, tonight at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“The game changed,” Whiteside said of coach Erik Spoelstra’s offense while he was sidelined. “The big man controls the game a little more. He’s putting it in the center’s hands or big’s hands or whatever ya’ll want to call it, into their hands more.”
Olynyk has made the fake
handoff a staple of his approach, then darting for uncontested drives. Adebayo, the first-round pick out of Kentucky, has had at least four assists in each of the past three games.
Whiteside has not had more than one assist in any game this season, with a career high of three.
“You’re going to get assists when you handle the ball more,” he said. “It’s just part of the game. He’s putting it into the big’s hands more. I was sitting alongside Juwan [Howard, the assistant coach in charge of the big men] and just seeing that.
“I love it, man. I can’t wait to get my hands into that. It’s not as much pickand-roll as much as it was. It’s more handoffs, bigs flashing to the elbows, that sort of stuff.”
Stuff Whiteside insists he can handle.
“I love it, I love it. I love it all,” he said. “You really feel involved. I love the way that they’re flashing the bigs and letting them distribute the ball more.”
Forward Josh Richardson said there is no turning back.
“I think we’re getting more organized and the ball is popping a lot more,” he said. “I think we’re getting the bigs more involved in flash action and stuff like that, and being able to run and then screen and us play off that from the perimeter, as opposed to more straight post-up stuff that we were doing earlier.”
That “post-up stuff,” of course, had been Whiteside’s ticket to his fouryear, $98 million contract.
“Yeah,” Richardson said, “it will definitely be an adjustment, because I don’t know if he’s ever played like that before.
“I think he’s a good player and he’s a smart player, so he can figure it out. He already wants to be on the perimeter, so we’ll see how it works. I think it’ll be good.”
The adjustment figures to be gradual, as does Whiteside’s playing time, limited to 17:42 in Tuesday’s return.
“The rhythm, the timing, the cohesiveness, you can’t take it for granted,” Spoelstra said. “You actually have to spend time working at it and getting back into the swing of things. Also, just the pace of the game, it was different, when he’d been out from injury.
“It’s one thing to watch it. It’s one thing to drill with a couple of different guys. It’s different when you drill five on five.”
As for Whiteside’s minutes going forward?
“However he can handle it at the highest pace, he can play,” Spoelstra said. “I’m not in a rush.”
Whiteside said his discomfort level is down to a “one or two” on a scale of 10, heartened by both his return and Thursday’s time on the practice court.
“Today’s practice, we got up and down a lot,” he said. “I did a conditioning test before I played a game. I feel like I can play a lot more.”