It might be time for the Heat to think big
Could post-Whiteside era be at center of the team’s plans for future?
MIAMI —
There was a time when Hassan Whiteside was the future at center for the Miami Heat. That was the stroke of midnight on July 1, 2016, when a four-year, $98 million contract was offered.
There soon will be a time when Whiteside will be past tense for the Heat, either with a trade in the interim or when his contract expires on the eve of 2020 free agency.
All of which means the Heat could be back in the center market soon enough, be it eventually in free agency or perhaps as soon as the No. 13 pick in Thursday’s NBA draft.
The question becomes whether Bam Adebayo has cemented himself as Pat Riley’s center of the future, or whether more is needed than a rim-running, shot-blocking big man.
And that, ultimately, is a referendum on the this year’s draft, whether rim running and shot blocking is all that is required from the modern-day five spot.
“Except somebody still has to guard a five,” an Eastern Conference scout said in addressing this draft class. “I mean, somebody’s got to guard [Joel] Embiid, somebody’s got to guard [Marc] Gasol. You’re not thinkPat Riley is confident the Heat will field a competitive team, but oddsmakers aren’t as optimistic.
(Last in a five-part positional series in advance of Thursday’s NBA draft)
call it, you got to tighten the screws,” Riley said after his season-ending news conference on April 13. “If there is some slippage, and there may have been some slippage in some areas across the board, not just player conditioning, but across the board in a lot of things. Then you jot that down ... about what needs to be changed. And there will be changes next year. Not a new culture, but to tighten the screws on a culture that sometimes erodes just a little bit.”