Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Cooling the Heat
Whiteside regrets outburst.
Hassan Whiteside regretted his outburst and said he was “just frustrated that we lost,” which was the right play for him, no matter how angry he was sitting through the end Saturday night.
Erik Spoelstra said Whiteside used, “poor judgment, poor timing,” but assured, “Hassan is still one of our brothers,” which was a coach smartly filling his role, too.
By Monday, the waters calmed around the Heat. The wind of discontent stopped. And nothing changed in how this scene plays out.
Which is with Whiteside on the bench again, if need be.
And the Heat finding him a new home at season’s end, if possible.
And everyone wondering how the most dynamic talent on the team, the one player who can make opposing teams worry, couldn’t tap that talent consistently enough to change the narrative around him.
Good but unfocused. Special but inconsistent. That’s the book on Whiteside, and it hasn’t budged into his fourth Heat season. The old football coach, Jimmy Johnson, said focus and discipline are as much talents as strength and foot speed. They’re just harder to see.
Spoelstra hasn’t seen enough to treat Whiteside any differently than the other versatile, but average players he’s used on a night-to-night, sometimes quarter-toquarter basis, depending on the matchup.
“Why we matching up?” Whiteside said
“When he’s into it, he’s one of the most dominant centers in the game. ... If he plays like it.” Dwyane Wade, on teammate Hassan Whiteside
after Saturday’s loss to Brooklyn. “We got one of the best centers in the league. Why we matching up? A lot of teams don’t have a good center. They’re going to use their strength.”
Whiteside really should stop complaining about not playing more and start thinking about doing more when he does play. Everyone knows what he can do. Everyone’s seen it. You just don’t know if you’re going to see it on any specific night.
“When he puts his mind to the game, and he wants to go out there and dominate, it’s hard for people to go to a level that a big guy like that can go to,” teammate Dwyane Wade said Monday.
Wade then said: “When he’s into it, he’s one of the most dominant centers in the game.” And later: “If he plays like it …” If. When. Whiteside is a conditional phrase. When he’s on, he’s great. And, when he’s off, he can sound like Kramer in a Seinfield script:
Kramer: “I was wide open underneath! I had three inches on that guy. You two were hogging the ball.”
George: “Me? It wasn’t me. I never saw the ball. All you do is dribble.”
Jerry: “I have to dribble. If I give it to you, you just shoot. You’re a chucker.”
It’s not hard to see Whiteside going somewhere else at year’s end. Not after a few years of this. Not when rookie center Bam Adebayo can do much of Whiteside’s work with a more Heat-centric mindset.
Not in today’s game, either, where a center is becoming as relevant as a football fullback. That’s a prime issue here. Just look at the possible playoff matchups for how much Whiteside’s role can change.
Toronto? He’d be needed against a big center in Jonas Valanciunas. Cleveland? He’d be on the bench a lot if Kevin Love plays center. Boston could go either way, depending if it uses new pick-up like Greg Monroe or shifts power forward Al Horford to center.
This is the issue for Spoelstra. He’s matching chess pieces at this point, just as he’s always done. Whiteside was back on message Monday, saying he just wants to win and passing on a question if he’d back next season.
“There’s nothing guaranteed except death,” he said. “It’s a business at the end of the day. Right now, I definitely would like to be here. But the Heat make all the decisions.”
Said Wade: “When I got back here, all we talked about was everyone was all into the team. Don’t worry about anything. Don’t worry about who’s going to be the scorer, who’s going to take more shots. It’s going to vary from night to night. Once you put your hands and say you’re all in, you’re all in. That’s how it’s got to be.”
That’s how it was again Monday. The waters calmed. The volume lowered. But nothing changed. Not really. Not when we’re four years in with Whiteside and still don’t know what he’ll bring on any night.