For all you that have been following the NBA this season, you have heard of the 7 foot tall 265 lbs Center from Marshall University. He's having a magical year. A year in comparison to the rise of Jeremy Lin. He shows you what opportunity brings to a hungry individual just waiting to get it. Now we still have to wait to see if he continues this high level of play, but I believe that he has it in him.
I remember first hearing about Whiteside my senior year of high school. The talk of the country were the Fab freshmen like John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, and Lance Stephenson. Out of nowhere we hear about a freshman averaging 13 points 9 rebounds and 5 blocks per game from Marshall University. I started watching him and analyzing his game. He seemed like he could potentially be a player in the likes of Marcus Camby minus the jump shot. Only thing I thought he needed was to get more muscle on him and to become that mean gritty guy. As the season went on his draft stock rose. Offensively he had no skill but I believed in his potential as a rim stopper. He enters the draft as I expect and ends up going low as a second round pick. As his career begins he really was on the wrong team in my opinion. Being on a team who just drafted Demarcus Cousins I felt that was not a good place for him to develop. He struggles and ends up going to the NBADL and eventually overseas in places like China and Lebanon. At that point I thought his NBA career was pretty much at his end. I nearly forgot about him until I saw he was finally back in the NBA.
Now what's interesting is that Hassan was on a team about a week before he was signed to the Miami Heat. He was on the Memphis Grizzlies. He didn't even play. He's let go, suits up for Miami on November 25, 2014 and really didn't get a true opportunity until late December. Out of nowhere he is dominating. He is putting up double doubles and even a triple double. Most recently he posted a box score of 18 points, 25 rebounds, and 4 blocks against the Lakers which made me just think about how far this guy has come finally being on the right team.
Now the NBA has transitioned their style of play over the years. It is different slightly in my opinion from even 4-5 years ago. The Center position has improved by how they are used now. This made Hassan's position for the Heat ideal for him. A new trend has been brought up which seems like the new formula for success. Having your man in the middle be focused on dominating defensively and on the rebounds. These players don't get plays offensively ran for them. They are scoring off simply putting all their effort into getting rebounds and running the floor. You see players like Rudy Gobert, Andre Drummond, DeAndre Jordan, and of course Hassan Whiteside become focal players and even borderline All Stars because these type of player's value has risen.
Hassan Whiteside will never be an elite nor decent post scorer in the NBA but if he keeps this passion for defending and grabbing rebounds up he could be a potential All Star no question in my mind. He is only 24 so the sky is the limit for him to improve once teams bring more focus to him.
