Hassan Whiteside blocks a lot of shots for the Miami Heat.
In the eyes of opponents, he’s blocking too many shots. He’s sending back a league-leading 4.8 per game, with a block percentage (12.9, per Basketball-Reference) that’s through the roof.
While those numbers may be unsustainable over the life of an entire 82-game NBA schedule, Hassan Whiteside is nearing the quarter-mark of his season. So, you know, maybe he can keep this up. After all, blocking shots clearly comes easy to him.
Or maybe not.
As he said following the Heat’s 95-78 victory over the New York Knicks on Monday night, per the Miami Herald‘s Ethan J. Skolnick:
On whether the blocks are coming easily: “No, man, it’s not as easy as you might think. You know, it’s weird, because there’s two different teams. There’s teams that are out there, ‘Stay away from Hassan.’ And there’s teams out there, ‘We don’t care if Hassan is down there, attack Hassan.’ And I love them teams. God bless them coaches and bless them. I love them teams.”
Hassan Whiteside’s block totals lead some to conclude that they’re coming effortlessly. That’s a majority reaction to volume. Quantity implies feasibility, even though that’s not always the case (Stephen Curry’s three-point shooting anyone?).
Some of Whiteside’s blocks are most definitely gimmes. In Miami’s win over New York, Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis, a 7’3″ skyscraper, repeatedly tried attacking Whiteside, mostly to no avail. Not to downplay Whiteside’s ability to mirror the ball or anything, but Porzingis’ level of release, along with the amount of time it took for him to even reach the peak of his motion, was begging for his shot to stuffed.
Still, blocking shots, even in volume, ain’t easy. NBA players are NBA players for a reason. They’re evasive. They know how to score over bigs, even large-than-life behemoths. Hassan Whiteside may tower over most as a 7-footer, but he’s on pace to post/shatter the highest block rate in NBA history, according to Basketball-Reference.
And, regardless of the history being made, making history ain’t easy.
