Despite being one of Miami Heat’s key players during the regular season, Hassan Whiteside saw his minutes going down in the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers. The 28-year-old center played 13.5 minutes on average in the first three games of the series. After the Heat suffered a 128-108 defeat at home in Game 3, Whiteside said he wants “to get more minutes” while underlining that he still believes the decision-making of coach Erik Spoelstra.
“I want to get more rebounds out there. I want to get more minutes out there. I’m just going to keep trusting coach’s decision-making,” – said Whiteside. “Even with the fouls, I still could have been out there. I wouldn’t have fouled out. I am going to keep trusting coach’s decision-making.“
Hassan Whiteside averaged 14 points and 11.4 rebounds during the regular season, but those numbers dropped to 3.7 points and four rebounds in the playoffs. The player thinks that the dip in the production is caused by Heat’s offensive approach.
“It’s just different, man. I feel like our offense is a lot different. I’m not as involved in as many dribble handoffs as I was and post-ups as I was in the regular season,” – he added. “That’s what coach [Spoelstra] wants. Coach wants me to just be in the corner and set picks. That’s what he wants. I’ve just got to trust it.“
One of the reasons for Whiteside’s diminished role in the first two games was 76ers decision to play a smaller lineup due to the absence of Joel Embiid. In the Game 3, however, Whiteside still didn’t get more playing time even with Embiid’s return, since he picked up two early fouls and continued to struggle with foul trouble throughout the game.
Erik Spoelstra took the part of the blame for Whiteside’s poor production while talking to reporters after Thursday’s loss.
“He might not necessarily put up the numbers, but it’s part of my job to figure it out and figure out how he can get to his strengths and be an impact player for us,” – said Spoelstra. “It starts with the defense, the rebounding. He has a lot of responsibilities for us offensively. I’ll spend some time working that out in the next day in a half.“
