He Will Put Up More Three’s Than Ever
Hassan Whiteside will double his career three-point attempts this season. It’s not outlandish to suggest that as the center has only taken 2 of them in his 271 game career (for the record he made both of them).
Hassan Whiteside is 100% from 3 this season. pic.twitter.com/bKj70wfsIp
— NBA (@NBA) October 19, 2017
His stroke from the perimeter looks quite solid too. It’s reminiscent of another big man who changed the trajectory of his career by starting to shoot the long ball, Brook Lopez. Before the 2016-17 season, Lopez had only taken 31 shots from the perimeter over an 8-year span. Since then, over two seasons he’s shot 712 of them at a decent enough rate (34.6%).
No one’s asking for him to become the perimeter threat that Lopez has become. Rather start reading the water from the perimeter, as was iterated by the Locked On Heat hosts. Whiteside took 58 shots between 15 and 24 feet at a 37.9% clip. You convert even half of those shots to perimeter ones, and even that makes him more of a perceived threat from the area.
Whiteside has the mechanics and form to jack more shots from the perimeter; it’s whether he’s given the confidence and license to do so by the coaching staff. Who knows, maybe it was one of the many talking points in the four-hour meeting between him, Riley and Spoelstra. Just a few months ago he was filming himself saying that he “wasn’t allowed” to shoot perimeter jumpers.
https://youtu.be/zDajrEH66wg?t=37
Nearly two months later, maybe he’s finally earned the trust of his head coach to do so.
Next Up: Bold Prediction 2
