Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Headed back to Heat?
What does future hold for Wade, Whiteside?
MIAMI — When it comes to the disconnect between Hassan Whiteside, Erik Spoelstra and the Miami Heat, the starting point is the closing statements.
Whiteside: “At least give me a chance.”
Spoelstra: “I think he grew this year.”
Dwyane Wade: “Hopefully he gets motivated from this.”
Wade’s comments were in regard to Whiteside, but just as soon could have been about Spoelstra.
Because in the wake of benchings, sanctions and a move away from the very playing style that made Whiteside such an attractive $98 million free agent in the 2016 offseason, something seismic could be next.
No, this won’t be like Alonzo Mourning having to get in between Pat Riley and Shaquille O’Neal before blows were traded. But this very much is about wills, Spoelstra admittedly stubborn at times, Whiteside undeniably frustrated.
If getting the two on the same page is the goal, getting Whiteside and Spoelstra on the same playbook has to be a starting point if the marriage is to continue.
The dribble-handoff, highpost, passing game that opened the offense with Kelly Olynyk
and Bam Adebayo is not Whiteside’s game. Never has been.
But the expectation of effort is not only within the right of a coach, it is an imperative. Effort also results from enticement. On an ensemble roster, the enticement is equally distributed, which can be problematic when a player believes he’s worthy of more.
From Wade, who might not be around to again mentor, the clarity is in the compromise.
“I think the thing is, as players, you don’t want to give yourself an excuse,” Wade said. “You want to look and see where you can be better at. It’s easy to say that this series wasn’t a big-man series. Or it’s easy to say that Coach did this or that or, ‘I got in foul trouble.’
“Don’t give yourself an excuse. Just go into the summer and work on what you need to work on mentally and physically and get yourself ready for when this opportunity comes again.”
In other words, Whiteside can’t make it about Spoelstra, because Spoelstra isn’t going anywhere. And Whiteside doesn’t want to go anywhere. A Whiteside confidant says he loves living in South Florida and has abiding affection for his teammates.
Whiteside, even with previous comments that led to a stiff fine from the team, has attempted to measure his words.
“We played a style of play Coach wanted,” he said of his diminishing returns. “He wanted to utilize more spacing, I guess, in the playoffs.”
Ultimately, it was neither a good look for Whiteside or Spoelstra, since the Heat fell meekly to the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs, now done for the season.
Whiteside wanted to do more, consistent minutes elusive because of the stylistic change in the offensive approach and the need to explore the possibilities of Olynyk and Adebayo in what ultimately turned into a transition season, one with limited prospects of deep postseason contention.
“At least give me a chance to fight,” Whiteside said. “At least give me a chance to fight. I can understand if I was playing 30 minutes and I played bad. At least give me a chance.”
When it was over, Spoelstra spun, as if the outside inspection was the genesis of the unease, instead of the factors that led to the diminished playing time.
“I look back on the season and he had a lot of great moments,” Spoelstra said, never one to publicly chastise. “It was a little bit uneven and a lot of it, to be fair, was in and out of the lineup with his injuries.
“Our team would evolve, and all of a sudden he would have to try to play back in and then do this all with the scrutiny and noise with everything outside.”
That noise does not go away. It only grows, be it the instant trade speculation, the second-guessing of the 2016 first-minute-of-free-agency commitment, the final report card written with higher season grades for Olynyk and Adebayo.
“But he learned how to manage things and handle things better, with more professionalism and class,” Spoelstra said. “That will serve him well going forward.”
But did he? Did he have to? Did he need to?
“It’s been a long year, man, up and downs, up and downs,” Whiteside.
With a longer offseason now at hand.