Kings Rumors: Hassan Whiteside Drawing Interest from Sacramento in Free Agency

Hassan Whiteside may be going back to his first NBA team.

On Friday, ESPN's Brian Windhorst said on The Jump that the Sacramento Kings may be interested in the big man (h/t Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee). Sacramento drafted Whiteside in the second round in 2010.

His time with the Kings was not exactly memorable, and he averaged just 1.5 points and 2.1 rebounds per game over two seasons before playing in Lebanon and China.

However, there were plenty of memorable moments when he played for the Miami Heat from 2014-15 through 2018-19. He led the league in blocks in 2015-16 as an All-Defensive selection and led the league in rebounding in 2016-17.

Whiteside developed into a double-double threat every time he took the floor and spent the 2019-20 campaign with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Still, he is 31 years old with some overarching question marks.

"Counting stats have never been a problem for Whiteside—it's his overall impact that's been called into question time and time again, and there's no real reason to believe he'll be more focused than he's been in the past next season," Christian Rivas of SB Nation wrote. "What you see is what you get with Whiteside, and what you see isn't always great."

The Kings also have Marvin Bagley III and Richaun Holmes in the frontcourt and may not have as much space in the rotation as another team would in 2020-21.

Despite these potential issues, Whiteside impressed for stretches last season with the Trail Blazers. That was particularly important since Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins dealt with injuries, and he ended up averaging 15.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and a league-best 2.9 blocks per game.

Whiteside could also clean up around the rim with De'Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield drawing so much defensive attention for the Kings.