Centers in the NBA have become an anomaly since the infusion of “small ball” basketball. Teams are ditching big guys for small guys to follow the trend of the Golden State Warriors. Despite the Warriors style of play, size will always be “sexy” in the NBA. Seven-footers have dominated the NBA for decades, and with players such as Andre Drummond, Boogie Cousins, Marc Gasol, and Hassan Whiteside it’s safe to say that big men are trending upward.
Speaking of centers, have you been paying attention to the play of Hassan Whiteside?
Whiteside is holding the paint down this season. Currently the Miami Heat starting center is averaging 12 points 11 rebounds and 4 blocks per game. His block average per game is the highest since Dikembe Mutombo in the 95-96 season. If he’s blocking that many shots per outing think of how many he’s actually altering. At the beginning of the season he was upset with head coach Erik Spoelstra because he didn’t play crunch time minutes in the fourth quarter. Throughout the season Spoelstra has trusted Whiteside with more meaningful minutes and if they want to make any noise in the eastern conference playoffs, allot of the teams success will hinge on the 26 year olds play.
The eastern conference is top heavy with favored Cleveland, but after that pretty much every team is on the same level in the middle of the row. Miami is currently fifth in the standings but 2 games back from being second in the conference. There aren’t currently many NBA bigs who dominate defensively and I would say other than Whiteside only Andre Drummond in the eastern conference. Hassan had a triple double the hard way 1/15 Friday night logging 19 points 17 rebounds and 11 blocks.
If he can continue to put up these sorts of efforts Miami will be a force to reckon with out east with vets Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh looking to prove they exist outside of the King James shadow. It’s a block party, Hassan is your emcee and everybody is invited.
