Hassan Whiteside, Portland Trail Blazers.
Portland Trail Blazers pending free agent Hassan Whiteside may be one of the most polarizing NBA players to analyze. You look at his counting stats and wish he was on your team. His career numbers of 13.7 points, 11.7 rebounds, 2.4 blocks per game while shooting 62.1 percent from the floor and 68.6 percent from the charity stripe are enticing.
Many NBA teams would love to have a center who can put up those numbers. Add in that within the last three years, Whiteside started to shoot the 3-ball, and this is a burgeoning elite star! It takes a deeper dive than just the surface numbers to get a better picture of his abilities and liabilities.
Because he has a reputation for blocked shots, Whiteside has a reputation of being a tough defender. In reality, the opponent’s offenses are better when he’s on the floor then when he’s off.
Wait; what? Yes, Whiteside’s personal defense is really good, but it comes at the cost of team defense. For example, he often leaves his man to chase blocks. That leads to easy buckets for the opponent as the help defender is out of position. His total games and minutes played in 2020 are the third-highest of his career.
I’ll be honest. I approached this article with the idea that resigning Whiteside is not be a good idea. The center is fresh off a four-year $98M deal he signed with Miami in 2016. That was the year of the NBA’s major influx of TV revenue. Lots of players got paid large sums of money. I’ve changed my opinion on resigning him.
Jusuf Nurkic is the Trail Blazers starting center, no question. Zach Collins is the starting power forward or backup center when they go small. Whiteside if he returns would backup Nurkic.
The bubble showed us what those three quality big men could do. Resulting in some interesting matchups that the Trail Blazers took advantage of. Nurkic and Whiteside are both more of your classic centers. Backs to the goal, playing on the low block. They didn’t necessarily play well together. Then again, they didn’t have much practice time to develop chemistry either.
Collins is more of your modern-day big. Face up game that can play on the low block also. The problem is today’s NBA is all about small ball, space, and pace. Playing two big men is a way of the past. He and Nurcic made it work. If Whiteside gets time with Collins, they could play a nice inside/outside game together. Each man in the trio has shown that he can each shoot the three-ball. Collins is the best, shooting a career 32.4 percent. Nurkic shot a career-best 20 percent in the bubble, and Whiteside hit on 57.1 percent of his shots from deep last year (on seven shots).
The threat of the big men nailing trifectas allows the Trailblazers to have one go on the block with another out in space, with catch and shoot opportunity on drives from Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum.
What every team is wants in the Steph Curry era is more shooting. The more shooters a team has on the court, the better the spacing. With better spacing, driving lanes get bigger. The bigger the driving lanes, well it’s just easier to score points. In conclusion, getting buckets is what it’s all about.
Another reason the Portland Trail Blazers need Hassan Whiteside is that Collins hasn’t exactly been the model of health in his NBA career. He’s only played in 62 percent of his career NBA games. Therefore the Portland Trailblazers are probably going to be playing small ball more often. Last season they used 6-6 Carmelo Anthony at the four after Collins was lost to injury.
In a normal season, the cap would rise as league revenues rise. Due to the pandemic, the NBA salary cap will be flat next year, and it’s not feasible to project cap numbers past 2021. With the market price down across the league, and changes in the NBA’s style of play, what kind of price is Whiteside targeting? Keep in mind Whiteside turned 31 in June.
Sorry to let Blazers fans down. I don’t have that kind of insider knowledge. After leading the league in blocks and finishing second in rebounds, he’ll be looking for a raise over the $27M he made in 2019-20.
All this is to say that Portland Trail Blazers need to bring back Whiteside. Being able to have a center on the court at all times that rebounds well and blocks shots are critical in today’s NBA. Above all, the ability to space the floor for Lillard and McCollum with other shooters, especially big men, will greatly help this offense. If the price is right, re-sign him.
Do you think the Portland Trail Blazers should resign Hassan Whiteside? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.