Miami Heat EuroBasket Update: Nikola Jovic, Pelle Larsson & Hassan Whiteside’s Legacy
He plays are advancing in the Euro basket tournament. We’ll break down the latest of Nicole Yoic and Pella Larson before we look at the surprising career of a center whose 2K rating can’t be denied on today’s episode of Locked on Heat. [Music] You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. All right, welcome to Locked on Heat, your daily podcast on the Miami Heat. Whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app, thanks for making Locked on Heat your first listen every day. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is closer than you think. And right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets. Download the FanDuel uh download the FanDuel.com. Download the FanDuel.com. Let this read. Download FanDuel app or go to fanduel.com is what it should say to get started. I am Wes Goldberg, the host of Real Jam Radio here with David Ramil. Both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day. And David, uh, we are recording this right after Turkey beats Serbia in their final game of group stage play. And there’s a lot on the line for both of these teams. But before we get to all of this, I just want I’ve really enjoyed watching this Euro Basket tournament. I spent the $20 on the pass to watch the games. They start early in the morning with my uh with my daughter here. I’m up at 4:30 in the morning anyway. And so these games are starting at five, six, you know, some of them eight o’clock in the morning. And so I’m up I’m up anyway. I’m watching all these games. Uh they go into the afternoon, but they’re over by the end of business hours. Uh and the games have been good. The games have been good. We just watched Turkey beat Serbia. Alber Shangun’s team over Nikolic’s team. It was a good game. Um it came down to the very end. A close game all the way through. If you go look at the final two minutes, Shane Larkin, former M stand out. He misses a three-pointer that could have put Turkey up. Yoic gets the rebound. Uh brings Nikolovic that is gets the rebound, brings the ball up, gets into a pick and roll right away with Nikolic. Uh Joic or Yoic misses the shot, but it get he gets it off the the rim there. Joic gets the put back. Serbia retakes the lead 90 to 89. Then it’s Shangun against against Joic again, which was basically the entire game, especially down the stretch. Shangun goes with the spin move, hit and then draws the foul there. Uh hits both of his free throws, puts Turkey back up 91 to 90. Uh the ball gets uh uh Serbia brings the ball back up. Number 23, whoever that is on Serbia, gets the ball stolen from him. Shangon kind of forces the turnover. Just an awesome game overall for Shangon. And then with 15 and a half seconds left, Serbia has another chance to take the lead here. Yoic is on the inbound. Inbounds it to Joic. Joic kind of forces up this three-pointer with plenty of time left in the clock. Looked like he was trying to draw the foul on the three-point shot. Doesn’t get the call. Ball goes the other way. Couple of free throws back and forth, yada yada. Game’s over. Turkey wins. And so, you know, Serbia had a chance at the end. Weird play there by Joic um off that Yovic inbound. But for our purposes here, David, I just it was a kind of a pedestrian 10-point game for Nico in this one. There was a lot on the line. Whoever won this game would have been uh first in group A. Loser falls to second in group uh in in their group A standings. Get a little bit of an easier path if you’re the first place team as opposed to the second place team in the next round that starts over the weekend. But I just I would have liked to see Nico involved more at the end of the game. There was the inbound was really the only time he was involved. There was another play where on again that that play where the ball got stolen from his teammate. He was just sort of standing in the corner waiting for the ball to come to him. It never did. Just it would have been nice to see Nico more involved. Was it a lack of aggression on his part? Because I think that might be a concern for E fans. And I I’ll be honest, I did not catch the last part of the game there. So, I’m not able to to assess exactly what it is that Nico was able to do or not do, but did you see a lack of aggression or was it just something that the Serbian team didn’t necessarily want to involve him or they wanted to work more through Joic rather than Yoic at that point in time? It’s a great question, right? Um I think it was just obviously you want to work through Joic a little bit. It’s not that they didn’t get him involved. Again, he was the guy on the inbound pass. He did have that pick and roll with Jokic. It was a little bit back and forth. A lot of kind of long rebounds. uh free uh free throws from Alpron Shenun and stuff like that. I think it was more happen stance than anything. Just like the ball just didn’t bounce his way. Uh we’re talking about like the last couple minutes. He’s mostly been involved in the offense. Uh and he was involved in the offense for most of this game. It was just it was tough for me to just watch him standing in the corner wishing that he could get the ball and just selfishly being like, can Nico hit that shot to put Serbia ahead and we just never really got that opportunity. But look, they they still advance. It’s not the end of the world, right? They’re going to advance. are going to play Finland um and Larry Markin’s Finland team in the next round. Uh Turkey will go on to play Pella Lararsson’s Sweden team in the next round. So we’ll have Pella versus Turkey. Turkey Turkey or Germany, Serbia, one of these teams are going to be they’re probably going to win this thing. So it’ll be a nice test for Pella over the weekend. Uh and a good test also for Nico going up against Larry Markin. You can imagine that they’ll be playing up he’ll go one-on-one with with Markin quite a bit in the next game. Yeah. Uh interesting to see how his defense holds up there because I mean I think that should be a good challenge for him. Markin’s been playing really well and uh how Nico tries to match up I think is going to be a point of contention for a lot of Heat fans to see whether or not he can continue to develop defensively and and be the kind of player that Eric Spolster would like him to be. So here’s the headline and I don’t mean to bury it here but the headline to me is for Eurob basket for locked on heat purposes. Niko Yovic on Serbia, Pel Larson with Sweden, and Simone Fentio with Italy. All three heat players involved in Euro Basket, all three heat players advancing to the knockout stage. I think that’s huge. I think it’s a huge thing, not only for them and their development. I think it’s great for the Heat, for their purposes, and seeing these guys more. You could hear like like Bucks fans are a little concerned about Giannis playing for Greece and you even hear some of this with Lakers fans with Luca playing for Slovenia. They’re like, “Ah, how long do we really want these guys playing? How long do we want our stars out there risking injury, wear and tear for the start of the season?” And for those guys, I get it. Giannis is already taking off games for Greece. Um Luca with his durability, it’s always obviously a concern with him. Uh but for Miami, it’s not like Bam is playing right now. It’s not like Tyler Herro is playing right now. These are role players. I’m less concerned about wear and tear for these guys because they’re not going to be as high usage as a Giannis or a Luca. And if the Heat, I know, are very excited for these guys to move on because as Eric Sper talks about all the time, he likes to see these players playing in critical moments with stuff on the line. And now that they’re moving on to the knockout stage, stuff is definitely on the line. And all three of these guys have had huge performances in huge games. We’re talking about Nikolovic as one of the best players on a Serbian team that can win this thing. Fontio, we just talked about his 39 point game the other the other night. P Larson might be the best player on his team. I I’m very excited to see what they do with stuff at stake now. Yeah, I don’t see why there’s that much of a concern. I mean, considering that we saw this from Bam just last year in the Olympics and and maybe that’s might be why he was a little bit passive to start the season just projecting ahead and knowing that it well at least hoping that they would be able to make the playoffs and maybe make a push for a long playoff run, but it just didn’t work out that way. And so, we did see him trying to figure his way out in new offense and try to incorporate different things into his game. But as far as these players are concerned, specifically the Heat players involved, I mean, they really are role players and and they get a chance to shine and take something with them that will carry over into the Heat season. And I I really do think it’s nothing but a positive, you know, contribution to their overall confidence, their overall development, and and just continuing to explore different facets of their game. maybe they might not be able to incorporate it, but I I do get that sense from Nico and we’ve talked to him before about it that when he learns from these things over the summer, he is able to incorporate them into his NBA career as well. And so I I I I can’t see a downside to it. So, I mean, yes, there’s always the potential risk of injury. And guess what? That could happen anywhere. We’ve seen injuries already over the summer for players who were just getting some running or doing some training work, etc. over over the the off season. It could always happen. It’s not you can’t really I mean it happened last night consideration remember I mean the walking boot he was in the walking boot u but that that did not stop the heat for giving him permission to go overseas and do this thing which I like because they they understand that there’s a so much more value in him getting this opportunity especially playing next to Jokic man like any opportunity to play with that guy is huge even Bdon Bdonovich who’s hurt right now for Serbia but a pros pro you know has been in the league for a long time. His an a great coach there for Serbia as well. Somebody that Eric Bolster really respects. Like I think this is a big reason why they keep sending him over and allowing him to do this and and they don’t want to stand in these guys’ way. They get it too. Like this is really important to these guys. Um not just for Nico, but for Techo and for Pel Larson um as well. Uh we’ll put a pin in that for now. They like we said the knockout stage starts over the weekend. So of course we’ll be uh covering whatever happens over the weekend when next week begins. But for now, 25 of 25 is next. And honestly, David, I cannot believe how high we ranked this next player. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season’s almost here. Game one starts a couple days from now. And FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’t miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. You’ll love using FanDuel. It fits however you like to bet, whether it’s player props, building a same game parlay, or even jumping in live as the action unfolds. It makes every game more exciting. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s the best way to add a little bit more energy to Sundays. And it pays quickly, too. So, if you’re ready to play, well, guess what? You can download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanduel.com to get started. That’s fuel.com to place your first $5 bet. We’ll be right back. [Music] Thanks again for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day. We have an important request. Lockdown wants to hear from you. We’ve put together a survey uh to learn more about our listeners and make sure that your favorite podcasts get even better. This is your chance to tell us what you like, what you don’t like, answer some questions about our advertising. Go to lockdownpodcast.com/servey to get started. Everybody who completes the survey will be entered for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Again, that’s lockedpodcast.com/servey. You can also find the link in the show notes. Thank you for helping us out. You mentioned the FanDuel odds there before. Miami uh the Dolphins that is our uh one and a half point underdogs on the road to the Colts to open the season. Uh that makes sense. Uh Dolphins are pretty beaten up here, pretty injured. Um I do kind of think people are sleeping on them a little bit. I don’t think that the Dolphins are contenders at all, but I think there’s been so many negative headlines. Come on. I think you predicted an undefeated season. Didn’t you predict an undefeated season coinciding with the birth of your daughter? I mean, come on. Now you’re letting the fans just You’re disappointing everybody here. We were at We We had a pretty good run there after my daughter was born of about four days only one loss by a South Florida sports team and it was the Marlins. Um, but everybody else was playing well and her Miami was playing well like everybody like like teams were winning. Um, I’m including Dolphins preseason games in this because just the timing of everything. The Canes won. I mean, the Canes won. It’s still been pretty good. The Marlins have slid a little bit. Fab loss to the Nationals the other day, but still a winning record right now uh that we got going here. But, um, this is our 25 of 25 series looking back at the top 25 Heat players of the last 25 seasons. Every episode, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at every player who made the list as voted on by us in our Lockdown Heat Insider community through the lens of what made them a definitive part of the franchise’s history. On our last episode, Shane Badier cracked the top 15. And now coming in at number 14. He’s the man with the koiish, sevenfooter who came out of nowhere and the only one doing it with blocks. It’s Assan Whiteside. Whiteside’s tenure with Miami is one of the most fascinating out of nowhere stories in recent NBA history. After bouncing around the league, overseas, and in the G-League, Whiteside was signed by the Heat in November of 2014 on a minimum low-risk contract. Almost immediately, though, he turned heads with his size, athleticism, and shot blocking instincts, quickly becoming one of the league’s most dominant defensive centers. Whiteside’s breakout came during the 2015 season where he posted multiple triple doubles with blocks and recorded a 12b block game against the Chicago Bulls. By the 2015-16 season, he was a centerpiece of Miami’s defense, leading the NBA in block shots with 3.7 per game and anchoring a team that made a deep playoff run. His rim protection and rebounding made him one of the league’s top producing big men, finishing third in defensive player of the year voting and even garnering two first place votes in a year where Kawhi Leonard and Draymond Green finished ahead of him. He became a fan favorite in Miami for his charis his charismatic personality and underdog story. And in 2016, ESPN ranked him the 32nd best player in the league, and the Heat rewarded him with a 4-year, $98 million contract. But the shine started to wear off, and Whiteside’s role gradually diminished as the NBA shifted toward faster, smaller lineups. He struggled to guard space and his block rate declined. Meanwhile, Bam Adabio was developing behind the scenes and winning over coaches was with his work ethic and his versatility. The Heat decided to shift their defense toward Bam. And in 2019, they traded Whiteside to Portland in a 14 deal that helped bring Jimmy Butler to Miami and start the Jimmy Butler era. Maybe it’s no surprise that his NBA career lasted just three more seasons after that. But overall, Whiteside’s heat career was defined by an improbable rise, dominant defensive stretches, and a reminder of how the right opportunity can transform a player’s career. But his time also echoes the disputing way that so many Heat greats see their time with the team come to an end. one uh in which they no longer jive with heat culture and kind of flame out towards the end. David, when you think about Hassan Whiteside’s tenure in Miami, what do you think about I can’t help it. I’m listening to you describe his career, it’s I I feel guilty about even admitting this, but I really only just remember the bad parts. And uh it’s kind of unfortunate because I mean I know that I had him higher ranked than where he wind up being cuz I I know how productive he was, but I just can’t separate post$und00 million contract and preund million contract because and it’s unfortunate and I tend to and you know this about me. I tend not to care too much about a player contracts nor do I assess a player’s value based on his contract. But I do almost get that sense that once he signed that deal, the foot was off the gas pretty considerably. And he just did not necessarily continue being as productive as he had been prior to the deal. And yes, it also coincided with changes across the league in terms of how the center position was being viewed. And he was somewhat limited in that. But you also, can we underrate that part? Because looking back at this, cuz I’m with you. I kind of remember the latter stage of his career when he just refused to step up and pick and roll defensive coverages and couldn’t set a screen to save his life. Couldn’t stop setting screens, stopped working hard. Just all the stuff that got him to the $98 million went away. And he did leave heat coaches and like this is why I said like it’s the way that so many players have flamed out Miami, whether it was Shaquille O’Neal, right? Like some of the greatest players of all time, they just they they’re over it at a point where they’re just like, you know what, I don’t want to do the body fat test. I don’t want to be running suicides after every drill during practices. Like I’m kind of over this and whites it got the better of whiteside as well, but at the same time he only lasted in the league for three more years. It’s not like a different situation with leaner lean more lenient kind of rules and things like that was a better situation for him. So I I was surprised what stood out to me in looking back at his career doing the research for this episode. Maybe we didn’t give enough credit at the time to the league just changing because that was 2015 the Warriors win 2016. It’s the Warriors Cavs again. Draymond Green, small ball, everybody trying to match what it was that Golden State was doing, right? Even even LeBron’s Cavs putting Kevin Love at the five and stuff like that. They’re just really wasn’t a spot for Whiteside. And we’re only kind of recently coming back into a point where drop coverage and the guys like Hassan Whitide who can protect the rim are back in fashion a little bit. This is only recently happening over the last couple of years. I know what you’re saying. Um, but it so much of it felt like simple effort and and I don’t know how many times even in this podcast we said if you could just put Udonis Hasslam’s will and his heart in a talented physique like Hassan, you might get a top five player in the league. And it was just it always felt like he just wasn’t trying so much once he inked the deal. And again, maybe those two are just coincidental, but it felt like it was a big part of why he wasn’t necessarily giving the same level of effort as he had before. So, I I recognize the change was something, but there would still have been an opportunity for him to thrive. And heck, he did try. I remember him taking three-pointers, trying to step back, and he’s like, “What are you doing?” Uh, and it his shot was actually not bad. Like, he he did have good form. It just didn’t seem like it was the right thing for him to be doing, but he wasn’t he just wasn’t dominating the way he once had. He didn’t look like he was as engaged on a night-to-ight basis. Conversely, you had Bam who was so much smaller but diving all over the place. And I’ll never forget what it was his rookie year where we had over the matter of a couple games when the the heat and run a west coast road trip that coincided with Hassan being injured that B was getting significant playing time and B was guarding LeBron James, Steph Curry and I can’t recall another player of somebody from the Clippers and he was doing it so efficiently and just making life hell for everybody that he was defending and it was like I I don’t want to see another minute from Hassan Whiteside. It just really, it was just his versatility, his ability to switch defensively made Hassan look like a dinosaur out on the floor. It’s such a great point, right? Because they literally were the transition of the NBA where we were moving away from the White Sides and moving into the Bams, right? And now every team in the league wants a BAM, right? Like the Cavaliers drafted Evan Mobley because they thought he could be the next BAM. And they were right. Evan Moley’s awesome, right? Like the Hawks drafted Ankya Kongu because they thought he could be the next BAM. and they were a little wrong. Even though Kongu’s fine, but he’s not Bam. Like, it was sort of just, okay, we’re moving from this era to the next. And then obviously Bam and Jimmy Butler and all of that coincides with with that uh great five-year run in Miami. So, it it was a fascinating career. By the way, it doesn’t You said it felt like the effort stuff was there. It wasn’t a felt like. It was an effort thing. That’s a fact. Like the effort wasn’t where it was. We know that, you know, we know that from reporting. We know that talking to people like we know that. And so, um, unfortunately, that’s just the way it is. But it’s also really hard at the same time. I thought Whiteside was just one of those players who were just sort of kind of just left out in the wilderness in some respect. Like, as we transitioned to this new era, there was a lot of centers like Whitside that were just like, where do I fit in? And that’s why all of them started shooting threes, even though none of them should have been shoot. They’re like, I this is what you want me to do, okay? Like, I’ll do this. I was like, no, we don’t really want you to do that, but we don’t really know what we want you to do either. So it it just felt like all these guys kind of left the league in short order like the Roy Hibberts and all this stuff like they were just gone overnight and and for Whiteside to maybe even hang on the the next three years it it might be just a minor miracle. Also, you know, he was still under contract for a couple years. So it was hard to get rid of him. Um highest he was ranked was nine. The lowest he was ranked was 25. You and I both had him at 12. He comes in here at uh what do we call it? We’re at 14 now. So, right around the right spot. We’ll talk about that and get to trivia after this. So, when it’s all said and done, you and I, this is the first time we have agreed on the same ranking. We’ve been close on other teams, but this is the first time you and I had the exact same ranking for the same player. I had Whites Side at 12. You ranked Whites Side at 12. You ranked him ahead of I have your list right in front of me. Uh you had him in front of uh Josh Richardson, Mario Chalmer’s, Brian Grant, um Tim Hardaway. You know, you had him ahead of a lot of guys we’ve already talked about. Obviously, you’ve had them in front you had him in front of some guys we haven’t yet talked about either. Uh what made you rank him as high as you did despite the way that this thing ended? because those years were productive and he did have like a longer stint that I mean we just talked about Shane Badier and while those three years of Shane’s helped unlock the best most successful era in Heat history you can’t deny Hassan’s impact like he was starting alongside Chris Bosch he allowed Bosch to slide down to the four because Hassan was a starter uh you know and those were expect those were teams that were expected to make some noise in the playoffs. I I look back and I had almost forgotten this. He actually joined the team the year after LeBron left and he made the trade of somebody we talked about earlier, Chris Anderson uh almost necessary because you wanted to give Whiteside more opportunity to flourish and he was the better player at that point than Anderson was at that stage in his career. And so there were I mean he he just he really was a lot better than what we remember him because we remember the bad parts a little bit more brightly. But the impact was there. I mean, I remember in the infancy of this podcast just talking about Hassan and uh the high impact plays, the blocks, the effort being at such a high level, the physicality because he was I mean he was really impressive in terms of his height and size and strength and and just that’s what I remember about him and that’s why I had him at so highly ranked. So I had him at 12 as well. I had him in front of Duncan Robinson, Shane Badier, Ray Allen, Antoine Walker, Chris Anderson, Jason Williams, Kale Martin, all these guys. And the reason I had them as high as I did was because like the production, like you mentioned all these, like the production just jumps off. You go to basketball reference, he aaged a double double for five straight years in Miami. 12 points and 10 rebounds the first year that he broke out. 14 and 12, 17 and 14. He he led the league in rebounding that year. That’s not nothing. Uh he had three point he led the he and I didn’t even talk about the blocks yet. 2.6 six blocks his first year, 3.7 which led the league in his second year, 2.1 um in his third year. And then in the fourth year and the fifth year, it starts to go down a little bit. Fourth year was 14 points, 11 rebounds, 1.7 blocks. Fifth year was 12 points, 11 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, kind of going back to the league starting to trend small, not as many opportunities to defend at the basket and things like that. dwindling effort, all these things, but he still managed like this guy was just so freakishly athletic that he just rolled out of bed averaging a double double and damn near a triple double with blocks on some nights. It just looked so effortless and so easy for him, especially early on when he was kind of taking the league by surprise, but be and then you look at the accolades. I mean, third in defensive player of the year voting. I’d forgotten that in 2016 he had two first place votes. Two people voted for Asan Whitide to win defensive player of the year over Kawaii in one of the greatest defensive seasons we’ve ever seen. And Draymond Green, who was one of the great best defenders of his generation, two voters were like, “Nope, Whiteside, that’s my number one guy.” He made all defensive second team that year. He was defensive. He was fifth in defensive player of the year voting right after that. I mean, the production is just undeniable that you really couldn’t rank them any lower than this. But then it’s all you’re right. And then at the same time then you start to remember like why is he always chasing blocks? Why isn’t he just being a little bit more physical and trying to keep somebody from getting the shot off? I know the whole defense was basically about routing guys off the three-point line and funneling them towards Han because he was such a presence down the middle, but eventually it just seemed like that was all he was doing. He was just chasing these stats. so unfortunate because there were moments there. I remember you you were almost giddy about talking about him sometimes because he was just such a goofball. He was so silly, but he also had like a young kind of energy to him in terms of he was excited to be there and he you really liked his story about being almost out of the league. What was he playing for Makabe Tel Aviv? Yep. Uh, and you know, he was he was out of the league after being a bust with the Sacramento Kings and he just never really he could have been a really bad story in terms of like a guy who just never had an opportunity and never got another opportunity in the league. Instead, he wound up flourishing it and it was just it seemed like such a good fit yet another successful reclamation project for the Miami Heat. So, it it’s unfortunate that it didn’t stay that way. It didn’t sustain in terms of that kind of a likability. Uh, let’s get to some trivia here. First trivia question. I got three of them for you. David wid is third in Heat history with 783 career blocks. Who’s first and who is second? Uh I’m going to go Alonzo Morning and Dwayne Wade. First that’s right. Yep. That was the easy one. Alonzo Morning 16 1,625 career blocks again. White out at 783. Dwayne Wade 812. Most blocks ever by a player 6’4 or shorter. You bet. Um, I think you’re going to get this one. I don’t know that a lot of people would, but I think you will. Whiteside was born in Gastonia, North Carolina. Oh, yeah. What NBA legend who played for Pat Riley also hails from Gastonia? Uh, who play NBA legend? James Worthy. James Worthy. That’s correct. Yep, you got it. All right. All right. I would not have guessed. I did not know he came from Gonia. I just know he played at UNCC. So, I hoped for the best. That’s uh deductive reasoning, kids. That’s That’s what we call that one. Um last one here. You got a chance to for your first um would this be your f this? Yeah. First uh chance for your first three and 0 here in trivia. Wow. There’s no way you’re going to get this though. This is a hard one. On the OG’s podcast recently, Hassan Widside recounted the toughest practice he was ever a part of. Pat Riley ran the workout and told him to run through multiple P&Rs and fullcourt simulations. Whiteside said he nearly blacked out. How many dunks does Whiteside estimate that he had to do? This is the one where he said uh Riley made him lick his hand and touch as high on the backboard as he could. I don’t know if that refreshes your memory at all if you’ve heard this this snippet, but I could just imagine on making uh I don’t know like does he give this is cheating a little bit. Does he give it an exact number? Because probably he’s there’s an exact number he he gives a million 120. It’s 120. But that was good. You got two. You got two. Uh, let’s get to some of our categories, recurring segments. First one is sliding doors. This is a what if moment that could have changed the way that this player is remembered for better or for worse and could have changed the trajectory of his career. Um, I came up with that it’s a timeline sliding door. What if he had played more than just one and a half seasons with Chris Bosch and Goran Drag as a trio? So, Whiteside’s breakout is the 2014-15 season. Drag comes over at the trade deadline of that same season. Bosch then misses the second half of that season with the first sort of occurrence of the blood clot and then he’s plays half of the next season 2015-16. We see a little bit of that trio together, but Bosch was never fully right. Whiteside didn’t become a full-time starter and fully blossom into that defensive player of the year type guy until the next season. So, uh, or until later that season, I should say, the the 2015 16 season. So, we never really saw Whiteside, Bosch, and Dragitch with all of them kind of firing at all cylinders, you know what I mean? We never saw like full-fledged Whiteside with a fully healthy Chris Bosch with a fully comfortable after the trade, Goran Dragitch. We never saw all of them. But that trio, that could have been something. I don’t know what it could have been. I don’t think it makes the the Eastern Conference Finals or the NBA, but it could have been something. It could have been really exciting. I think it could have been something. I mean, Dwayne Wade could have tossed lobs to him like uh you know, it could have been something. I I mean, Goron was at an all-star level and I don’t know. I think the the the offensive balance would have been different with a guy like Chris out there who could stretch the floor and be so versatile. So it just it would have just kind of fallen back into just a pure defensive role, right? Uh and and as such with with that kind of role, it would have allowed him to flourish and and I think he’d remember him more fondly and I think he just would think, you know what, this is a guy who excelled in doing what he did and it helped everybody else to find that kind of balance and and they would have achieved more team success for sure. I mean those teams were kind of jagged. I I think it would have absolutely changed the the trajectory and and the perception of Hassan Whiteside. I I just think he was asked to do too much and it was probably never a role that he was Yeah. expected to carry and that he ever wanted necessarily. I don’t think he ever saw himself as necessarily as a superstar. Oh, I think he did. I think he saw himself as wanting to be a superstar and being treated as such. And people forget like when Whiteside was first starting to I mean you mentioned how they had to trade Chris Anderson and all this stuff. It was Amari Starttomire who was starting over him for a while there. Yeah. Uh like like past his way past his prime Amari Starttomire who had some good good runs there, but he did um we never really saw it. And then Whitside becomes the full-time starter. Bosch gets sick. We don’t you know Bam is just recently drafted. He hasn’t really come into his own. And so we’re kind of just going through these Luke Babbitt, James Johnson, Derek Williams kind of uh carousels at that power forward spot. had that been Chris freaking Bosch stretching the floor. He’s talked about this how at that point he was already he was getting ready to be shooting six, seven, eight three-pointers per game. Like Bosch would have been even more ahead of his time than what he already was had he just stayed healthy and unstoppable. Unstoppable. Especially with Whiteside backing him up there. It just I think that team would have been really really interesting. Um final few categories here. Jersey worthy. Is this a cool jersey to own and wear to a Heat game? No, I can’t. I have to say no on that one. I just um I think there was enough of the Whiteside jersey sold at the time that you probably will see them on occasion, but almost What does that say? Yeah. What does that say about a person that wears? So, there’s there’s there’s certain jerseys where it’s like you know ball and there’s other jerseys where you’re like you like rebounding a lot and maybe you don’t know ball that much. It could. I hate to say it, but the whiteside jersey is a little bit like you were you’re still sort of hanging on the Alonzo Morning version of the Miami Heat and you kind of thought Whitide was the next version of that, but you weren’t really you weren’t really watching these games like because the other thing we didn’t talk about Whitide was that his his plus minus stats were bad. His on-off numbers were always bad. Miami’s defense was always better when he was off the court. And that was like a real thing that was that was kind of happening. And that was one of those first like analytics versus like you’re a dork kind of guys. Yeah. Yeah. So I think he even I don’t even know if he knew how to say the word analytics, but I think he did talk about analytics in a way that was kind of negative. And I think he was one of the first players to be like ah I don’t care. I don’t care what those numbers say. Uh it was just it’s not a bad question. Yeah. I if you’re like if you’re like 15 or 16 and you’re wearing a Hassan Whiteside jersey, then I can kind of accept it because you were probably just like seven or eight and you’re like watching this guy swat shots and get triple doubles with blocks and I could see why you’d be like, “Wow, he’s the best center of the league kind of guy.” If you’re 25 now and you were 15 when it was happening and you just still have that jersey, I could see it to your point, right? Because you’re 15. And it’s like what are you’re not watch you’re not looking up onoff stats like come on. So yeah don’t be like yeah. So um then I I would get it right and like you’re also playing NBA 2K and Whitide’s out here talking about NBA 2K. Uh and and so if you still have the jersey it’s okay. But if you’re like in your 30s or beyond Yeah. No. Get a new like go like get the Udonis Hlam jersey dude. like like be a real one. Um the Jones Badier test. If readded to the roster in his Heat prime, would this player make the current roster better? With everything we said, David, undoubtedly Hassan Whiteside would make this team better because he would be a backup center coming off the bench for Bam Adabio and Khal Wear. That’s a good question though. Would he start over Khar? No. No. Oh, and is he prime? Yes, he would. In his prime, yes, for sure he would. Yeah, for sure he would. You’re right. You’re right. Despite the lack of floor stretching ability and yeah, I mean, you love Wear’s potential because he’s so young, but I mean, this is like a maximized version at least of the shot blocking potential. If where could get even to close to what Whiteside was at his defensive best and just the rebounding, man. Yeah. Like that’s what that’s what the Heat want from where in terms of you never Whiteside just Whiteside just like just swallowed rebounds. He was one of those. It was I It’s Don’t say Dennis Rodman, Wes. Don’t say Dennis Rodman. Don’t say Dennis Rodman. But it was just sort of like always right place, right time. It was It was Dwight Howardesque really. And just like this guy’s just so much bigger and stronger than everybody else that other players just bounce off of him and he just ends up with the ball. Yeah. I mean, he he would be he would be starting. That would be tough as far as floor stretching ability there, but Bam would be Bam would be forced into his Bosch evolution and we’ve we’ve talked about that for a long time and that that would be a great spot for him and as good a defender as Chris was, if not perhaps better. Um I don’t know that would be an interesting team. So yes, he absolutely passes the Jones Badier test versus pin this player against the player who came before him and ask did we get it right? Uh whiteside over Shane Shane Badier. You and I both had this ranked uh no no question he was Yeah. deserved to rank higher. Yeah. Yeah. All right, that’ll do it for us today. Thanks so much for making Locked on Heat your first listen today. Let us know in the YouTube comments what you think about Hassan Whitide. Was he ranked in the same in the right place? What do you remember about Whiteside’s career? Were we too hard on him despite the fact that we ranked him 12th over the last 25 years? Kind of a weird episode in that way because we’re kind of trash talking him, but also celebrating him at the same time. For your second listen, find the Locked on NBA podcast where there is no offseason. I’m hosting this week with Matt and Hayes to keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast here. So, go over there. I’m hosting it. Do us a favor. Go to Locked on NBA on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button. Watch the shows in the afternoons. It’s part of the Lock Lock on Podcast Network your team every day.
The Miami Heat are well-represented at EuroBasket, with Serbia’s Nikola Jovic, Sweden’s Pelle Larsson and Italy’s Simone Fontecchio all advancing past the group stage of the tournament. What are the chances a Heat player is on the winning team, and what does an extended EuroBasket run mean for Miami’s key depth pieces?
Wes Goldberg and David Ramil talk EuroBasket hoops before continuing their 25 Of 25 series looking back on the top 25 Heat players over the past 25 years with Hassan Whiteside.
0:00 Intro
1:30 Serbia vs Turkey
11:30 25 Of 25: Hassan Whiteside
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1 comment
With One look at the roster and I fall into a deep depression