Hassan Whiteside Providing Reason to Believe the Hype Is for Real

Fourteen points, 13 rebounds, a franchise-record 12 blocks and one nationally-televised win later, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside is basking in the NBA spotlight. 

Tallying one of the most creative triple-doubles the NBA has seen in years, Whiteside helped the Miami Heat capture a 96-84 win as they vanquished the Chicago Bulls Sunday afternoon in the Windy City. 

And all it took was 25 minutes. As NBA TV noted, Whiteside's triple-double was one of the most efficient in league history: 

According to Basketball-Reference.com, bench players have rarely stuffed stat sheets in such a significant way: 

As Whiteside's performance throughout the month of January prior to Sunday's outburst indicated, this wasn't an entirely unforeseen development. 

Not only did the 25-year-old ravage the Los Angeles Clippers to the tune of a career-high 23 points and 16 rebounds on Jan. 11, but he's scored in double figures in eight of his nine appearances this month. 

Since the start of the new year, Whiteside is averaging 12.3 points, 8.6 rebounds and four blocks—yes, four blocks—while shooting 70.4 percent from the field. 

Which means at long last, the Miami Heat appear to be on the precipice of solving a major problem.

Although the source of the solution has been anything but conventional, Miami finally possesses the intimidating shot-blocking presence it's desired dating back to LeBron James' days on South Beach.

"He's been a fit for this team since the beginning," Chris Bosh said following Sunday's win, according to the Sun Sentinel's Shandel Richardson. "That's exactly what we needed. He's not doing anything complicated. He's doing what he's good at."

And what the 2010 second-round pick is good at is terrorizing the rim. Inanimate objects may not express emotion, but if they did, the orange leather and iron would be consumed by fear every time Whiteside rises up to reject a shot or flush a lob pass home. 

With a 7'7'' pterodactyl-like wingspan (h/t DraftExpress.com) that allows him to lurk from any area adjacent to the paint, Whiteside has been hounding opponents with nice timing, a knack for meeting the ball at its highest point and a fierce mentality. 

According to SportVU player-tracking data, opponents are recording field-goal percentages 17.9 percent lower than the league average when Whiteside is contesting shots inside of six feet. 

Those numbers come with a small-sample-size disclaimer considering he's only been milling around the restricted area since December, but Whiteside is striving to make an impact that profound on a night-to-night basis, according to the Heat's official Twitter account: 

Since the Heat rank 25th in opponents' field-goal percentage at the rim a season removed from finishing 23rd in the same category, according to SportVU, Whiteside's emergence is coming at the perfect time. 

The hype is further substantiated by Whiteside's tidy proceedings on offense. 

Attempting more than 60 percent of his shots inside of three feet, Miami's burgeoning big man has used an uber-efficient approach to make some surprising noise. 

Again, small sample sizes apply, but Whiteside currently owns the highest player efficiency rating among Eastern Conference players and ranks No. 3 overall in the all-encompassing metric, according to ESPN.com: 

Rank	Player	PER	Total Minutes Played
1	Anthony Davis	31.34	1,447
2	Kevin Durant	28.70	696
3	Hassan Whiteside	28.10	287
4	James Harden	27.99	1,631
5	Russell Westbrook	27.95	964
6	Stephen Curry	27.43	1,380
7	LeBron James	26.14	1,343
8	DeMarcus Cousins	25.78	1,050
9	Chris Paul	24.97	1,514
10	Blake Griffin	23.03	1,558

Like resident PER wunderkind Brandan Wright, Whiteside isn't dependent upon high usage rates or ball dominance to get the job done. Operating off the bench, he keeps things simple.

While the occasional mid-range jump shot will creep into view, the former Marshall standout does the bulk of his work by finishing lobs in the pick-and-roll or sliding over on the weak side when he loses his man, allowing for easy conversions above the rim.

Take Sunday's outing, for example.

Whiteside did a really nice job creeping along the baseline and taking advantage of Pau Gasol's determination to cut off driving lanes at the rim, rising for easy flushes on the back side: 

One possession later, Gasol was burned by another poor decision to leave Whiteside and help out on Luol Deng in the post: 

Is that mode of operation complicated? No. But is it effective? You bet.

After all, the man of the hour proclaimed embarrassing defenders with emphatic slams represented the quickest pathway to success last August when his NBA future appeared to be in doubt: 

"Like I told my teammates, you won't believe how things work out in life," Whiteside said Sunday afternoon, according to ESPN.com's Michael Wallace. "Three months ago—ask anybody in Charlotte at the downtown Y—I was just there just chilling, working my game. I couldn't even get a team to pick up the phone." 

Now a rotational staple, Whiteside already resembles one of the league's biggest bargains, as ESPN's Marc Stein indicated following the seven-footer's breakout performance: 

It's about time the Heat caught a break, too. Between Bosh's strained calf, Josh McRoberts' season-ending knee surgery and Dwyane Wade's sporadic absences, Miami was overdue for a diamond-in-the-rough discovery.

Deng recently admitted as much, per Stein: 

With Whiteside recording per-36 minute averages of 17.4 points, 14 rebounds and 5.8 blocks, it's frightening to think about the force he could evolve into if a larger role is eventually bestowed upon him.

Fortunately for the blossoming behemoth, Miami's gradual development into a more consistent unit should only amplify the scope of his contributions as the playoff push gets underway in earnest.  

All statistics current as of Jan. 25 and courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless noted otherwise.