Hassan Whiteside isn’t a three-point shooter…in actual games.
Pretty much all of his shot attempts come from inside 10 feet of the basket, according to Basketball-Reference, and he has never launched a triple during regulation in an NBA game.
But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t chuck treys in practice. He does. He just doesn’t have any plans to start jacking them in games that matter.
From Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley:
One might assume, then, the 27-year-old could use that intel to expand his own offensive range and pull opposing shot-blockers away from the basket. To a small extent, he has, though his long-range forays have occurred away from the public eye.
“He shoots them in practice,” swingman Josh Richardson said. “He hits them in practice sometimes. He doesn’t shoot them when we’re scrimmaging, but he’ll mess around and shoot them.”
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He knows his bread is buttered underneath, as he’s hit at least 72 percent within three feet each season since landing in Miami. And he’d prefer to keep it that way.
“I like to get down and dirty in the paint,” Whiteside said. “I like to be close to the rim.”
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As Whiteside sees it, he plays the way centers were meant to.
“As a center, I think you should always shoot over 50 percent,” he said. “That’s standard as a center. If you’re shooting in the 40s, that’s not productive to me.”
Richardson, per Buckley, actually believes that Whiteside can incorporate the three-pointer into his real-game arsenal if he works on it for a summer. But, as you can clearly tell, Whiteside has no desire to mess with that, which is hardly surprising.
Establishing himself as a deadly pick-and-roll finisher and rim protector is what saved Whiteside’s career. It’s fitting that he doesn’t want to tinker with that formula—the one that got him here.
Besides, before he starts firing away three-pointers, you should expect to see him dabble in mid-range jumpers and long twos. He has shot some this season, as well as in the past, but it’s not a shot he looks to attempt. Defenses pack the paint against him and would be perfectly fine if he started launching more jumpers.
Still, so long as the center position is trending in the direction of Kristaps Porzingis, Karl-Anthony Towns, Joel Embiid, Myles Turner et al., the idea that Whiteside might one day try joining the stretch-center ranks isn’t that farfetched.
