Hassan Whiteside
FREE AGENT

Player Facts

Height: 7'0"
Weight: 265lbs.

Wingspan: 7'7"

Date of Birth: June 13, 1989
College Experience: Marshall (1 year)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 1

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 5
Physical Strength: 10
Positional Size: 10
Positional Wingspan: 10
Paint Scoring: 8
Midrange Scoring: 3
Three-Point Scoring: 1
Dribbling: 3
Passing: 2
Perimeter Defense: 4
Interior Defense: 8
Rebounding: 10

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Rim Rumbles

> Liberating Ball-Handlers

> Paint Points

> Posting + Garbage Buckets

> Block Accumulation

> Being the Helper + Post Defense

> Snaring Defensive Boards

> Underdeveloped Offense

> Bad Habits

> Defensive Miscues

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of NF & Smart Highlights (YouTube)

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Hassan Whiteside is a seven-foot mammoth in the paint. He resides here on both ends of the court, finishing frequently inside on one end and tallying swats at the other. His measurables are impressive to say the least, at a strong 265 lbs. with a huge 7'7" wingspan.

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Rim Rumbles

Hassan is a screen-and-dive type as a center. He's got the length, size, and big hands to catch in traffic and just be a premium target for the ball-handler overall. Equipped with his long wingspan and good athleticism, Whiteside is a sparkling option as a lob threat.

2019-2020 saw Hassan finish with the fourth-most roll man points at 287, shooting 60.3% on his dives. That point totaled trailed only Domantas Sabonis, Nikola Vucevic, and Rudy Gobert. More recently, he was in the 89th percentile scoring as the roller in 2021-2022.

Liberating Ball-Handlers

The big frame of Whiteside helps clear space for his guards and wings to operate with the ball. His physical tools afford him the luxury of setting effective screens in spite of the footwork, screening angles, and overall commitment to the physical pick being subpar at times.

Screening for guys like Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum in 2019-2020, he was eighth in leaguewide total screen assists. He was just barely beat out by Steven Adams and Nikola Jokic. In Utah, he can now clear some paths for the likes of Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley.

Paint Points

He's a very strong interior finisher. Whiteside's big body lets him take hits as he jumps skyward for a flush. Hassan finishes through or over contact with his ridiculous length and solid bounce.

From 2017-2018 to 2020-2021, Whiteside shot 69.4%, 68.6%, 72.1%, and 66.3% in the restricted area. Aside from simply examining his accuracy numbers, it must also be noted how swiftly and effectively he finishes plays.

8.1 of his 10.3 (78%) 2019-2020 shots per game were taken with a sub-two second touch time. He nailed 66.2% of these.

Hassan gets a few bunnies each game around the heart of the paint. These are born from offensive rebounds, interior shovels from his teammates and even stopping short of the rim on his rolls. The seven-footer knocked down 48.4% of these paint shots beyond the charge circle in 2019-2020.

Posting + Garbage Buckets

Whiteside doesn't have the most elaborate set of post moves but can use his size well in spots. With a mismatch at hand, he uses his body to create space and tends to finish with the baby hook. The Marshall product chipped in with 1.4 post points per game in 2020-2021, outpacing both Jaren Jackson Jr. and Khris Middleton.

He's an absolute terror on the offensive glass. What he lacks in body positioning fundamentals he more than makes up for with timing and his physical attributes.

Whiteside reads the ball well off the rim, blessed with that 7'7" wingspan to boot. Hassan has a propensity to tip the ball away from his opponent in mid-air and towards his other hand to corral it.

He led the NBA in 2019-2020 in both total offensive rebounds and total contested offensive rebounds. Hassan routinely made good on these second chance opportunities both in that season and across the bulk of his career.

He has been in the top ten for total putback points from 2015-2016 to 2019-2020. During that 2019-2020 campaign, he totaled the most putback points, well ahead of second-place Jonas Valanciunas.

Block Accumulation

Thanks to his incredible physical measurements and nice timing, Hassan resides among the league leaders in blocks most every year.

In 2019-2020 he led the NBA with 196 blocks compiled. From 2014-2015 to 2020-2021, Whiteside has been at or above 2.3 blocks per 36 minutes each season.

His arms are so long that he barely needs to leap to block many shots. When he does spring off the hardwood, he morphs into a gigantic block radius-having force. Additionally, Whiteside is skilled at pinning the ball against the glass from behind against unsuspecting drivers.

Hassan is one of the better on-ball shot-blocker in the Association. His sheer size is hard to shoot over or around, and he's bulky enough to hold his ground against body bumps.

Overall, opponents shot -8.9%, -13.2%, and -12.6% for 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020 from less than six feet of the tin with Whiteside defending.

Being the Helper + Post Defense

As the help man, Whiteside can swallow up perimeter players slashing to the hole. Just by going vertical, Hassan makes it almost impossible to get a layup off cleanly. As long as he rotates over in time, he erases or heavily alter shots with ease.

His impactful on-ball defense extends to his work in the post. Only a handful of brawny bigs can move Whiteside down low enough to foster a good look. From the 2017-2018 to 2019-2020 seasons, Hassan was in the 77th, 82nd, and 73rd percentiles for post defense respectively.

Snaring Defensive Boards

Whiteside vacuums in defensive boards at a prolific rate. 2019-2020 saw him pace the entire league with 230 contested defensive rebounds. In terms of traditional defensive boards, he edged out Andre Drummond to place third in the league. Lastly, Hassan recorded eight games of 20+ total rebounds across 2019-2020.

WEAKNESSES

Underdeveloped Offense

Whiteside's scoring value craters beyond the key. Even at the charity stripe, he's not a great shooter. Hassan only made 35 midrangers over all of 2019-2020. From deep, he's even less willing with just 34 total attempts in the three seasons from 2017-2018 to 2020-2021.

He's one of the game's least skilled passers. Hassan hasn't made the rudimentary playmaking strides that bigs typically make after a few years of development in the league.

The 7'0 center is not much of a short roll passer nor does he have passable court vision with his back to the basket. He offered only 0.8 assists per contest in 2018-2019, with a slight bump to 1.2 a night in 2019-2020 then another dip in 2020-2021.

Bad Habits

He has a penchant for setting some lazy picks and trying to cheat by sticking a hip out. Whiteside often fails to set his feet properly for a ball screen with sharp technique.

In continuing with this problem, he'll slip out of the pick instead of solidly setting it with good contact in situations where he's better served to opt for the latter. This bad habit manifests as multiple unforced errors in the form of illegal screen fouls.

While outfitted with all that length and size, Hassan is definitely lacking in the defensive IQ department. He can be late on rotations, commit inexcusable fouls and neglect his counterpart's tendencies. Sometimes, he doesn't fight hard enough to prevent opponents from getting deep post position on him.

Defensive Miscues

His ball screen defense is one glaring area of potential growth for Whiteside. He's liable to passively ball-watch rather than decisively impose his will defensively. A far too common low motor on the court plagues Hassan here as well.

He struggles to defend on the perimeter when switches take place. The naturally high center of gravity and unspectacular lateral quickness of Whiteside makes him a nice target for opposing perimeter players to attack. Even more mobile bigs can prove a large challenge for him to guard.

In closing, Hassan's low defensive mental processing speeds and lack of attention to detail worsen his perimeter and interior play on this end exponentially.

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Beacon Bacon

Hassan recorded a preposterous 9'5" standing reach at his 2010 NBA Draft Combine