NBA Rumors: It’s not crazy to think that the Miami Heat could be shopping Hassan Whiteside
The 2017-18 NBA season officially opens for the majority of the teams Wednesday night, but the rumor mill doesn’t wait for any of it.
In The Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN writer Jackie MacMullan notes that “the Heat have tried to trade Hassan Whiteside everywhere.”
If interested, here is the audio (H/T: Twitter).
On the surface, there are many ways to ingest this material. First of all, there isn’t much context added. I’m not sure if MacMullan is talking about the past past? Or is she talking about the recent past?
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Did the Heat try trading him before he hit free agency?
Or, did they try trading him last season or even as recently as this past summer?
Those are important details that could change the way this comment is viewed. She also notes in the podcast that Whiteside has some attitude issues and doesn’t show up every night. For the most part, that’s probably more true than false.
Although, as of late, Whiteside has been much more good than bad for the Heat since signing that big contract two summers ago.
On the other hand, this report does actually make some sense. The NBA is quickly moving away from the traditional big man game. And while Whiteside isn’t necessarily a traditional big, he does carry some of those characteristics – and I’m not sure he’d be able to stay on the floor long in a hypothetical NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
For a team president like Pat Riley, that matters. Riley has proven many times that he doesn’t settle for good. Riley aspires to be great. That’s why it isn’t outrageous of a statement.
Miami should be looking to get better at every turn, and that means via trade. So it’s not really out of the ordinary to hear that the Heat have been looking to trade arguably their best asset.
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Again, this might be an outdated fact – and we may never know – but keep an eye on this possibility. The Miami Heat could very well trade Hassan Whiteside at some point in the near future.