Will Hassan Whiteside be shooting threes for the Miami Heat next season?
If it’s up to him, yes—sometimes at least.
From the South Florida Sun Sentinel‘s Ira Winderman:
“I might shoot a three every once and while,” Whiteside said, speaking at Sunday’s Dew NBA 3X event at Bayfront Park. But I’m still more about getting in the paint. Just shooting jumpers, face up post game.”
The reason for the tweak is Whiteside wants opponents to at least respect his ability to score outside the paint. Still, he knows where he is most effective.
“I don’t really want to be like a big-time perimeter guy,” Whiteside said. “I just want to shoot enough to where you’ve actually got to guard it. Even threes, I can shoot threes. But I don’t want to be one of those centers that shoot five or six threes and then you’re not even dominating in the paint anymore.”
Okay, so it’s clear Whiteside isn’t hoping to join the ranks of Kristaps Porzingis, Karl-Anthony Towns, DeMarcus Cousins and the rest of the volume jump-shooting bigs. But he does want to expand his range to open up the Heat’s offense. There’s nothing wrong with that.
It’s not like he’s completely foreign to shooting jumpers either. Nearly 20 percent of his looks came outside 10 feet of the basket this past season, according to Basketball-Reference. He shot under 40 percent on those attempts, but still, the volume itself is progress.
If Whiteside can turn into someone like, say, Pau Gasol, who uses the long ball as a semi-frequent, but not dominant, weapon in his arsenal, the Heat will no doubt be better off. And Whiteside, for his part, says he’s ready.
We’ll just have to see if his preparation translates to a regular-season basketball setting.
