but you must admit there is a giant gulf between being very promising and a healthy Dwight Howard lol.
Talking about his future with "extremely promising". Performance-wise he's better than a healthy Dwight right now, especially with his skills on offense and the ridiculous blocks and rebounding.
It's funny how we have let players go in positions of most need right now. Imagine Dragic Harden Ariza DMO Whiteside And then add Bev, Jet, Brewer, TJ, Dwight We stacked.
So how come he sucked until now? Maturity, working ethic...? Not sure if he's gonna get paid that much...everyone remembers Larry Sanders and few others.
From what I can gather, maturity had a lot to do with it, apparently he was not working hard, and was a bit of a malcontent, seems the light bulb finally went off for him. DD
Probably work ethic and lack of commitment, that's what you hear from all former teammates and coaches. Think this time he realized that the Heat gig would be his last chance at playing in the NBA and getting paid. Agree that his next contract won't fully reflect his performance as he has too many red lights surrounding him.
Yes he will be an unrestricted free agent. What he's doing for Miami on the court is probably more impactful than Lin with the Knicks even though its nothing off the court in comparison. Definitely the Linsanity surprise of the year. I'd say someone will overpay for him this Summer, but not sure the team that really is going to buck up and make him their starting 5, and pay him accordingly. I'm not a big Riley/Heat fan, but I do respect their ability to create stable locker room situations. I think the best thing that can happen to him is having the Heat retain him this Summer. Worst thing that can happen is him getting overpaid to be a star player somewhere like New York or Sacramento with a dysfunctional locker room. I hope the Rockets don't get the post-Linsanity itch 2.0 (even though I guarantee you 90% of the GARM will want him). The Rockets need to just focus on getting Capela up to snuff first and foremost. Whiteside will want to be a star if he goes elsewhere. Given his history with maturity I'm not sure how comfortable I am tinkering with the chemistry yet again with adding a player that needs to be catered to.
You know about basketball reference right? http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/whiteha01.html
Nice to know that Dwight is just an add-in bench player now. LOL. Look, I'm a fan of the improvement Hassan has made this year, but let's not get carried away here.
He was always highly touted, physically and was expected to take awhile to come into his own. Not much different than DeAndre Jordan's path. Jeremy Tyler seems to be on that path as well.
Jeremy Tyler seems to be on a similar path to China. He was cut by 3 teams this year, and just signed over there. He's on a similar path out of the league that Whiteside was on 2 years ago. Not sure that bodes well for a comeback. Whiteside is probably more of an exception to the rule. No sure its fair to put DeAndre in this category. Even in his first 4 years for the Clippers, he was at least an effective rim protector for 15 to 25 minutes a night. He was horribly inefficient offensively until BG showed up, and then all he had to do was dunk on offense & he became a much more effective big. Whiteside wasn't really highly touted as a player. Just as a specimen. The worst decision he made was turning down an offer to go to Kentucky and instead went to Marshall so he can put up more stats against easier competition, come out early, & not having to battle A Davis for minutes. He never got the college development he needed. Kentucky for two years rather than one at Marshall would have done wonders for his career in the NBA.
That's not what I meant. I put him there because he is currently injured. In this hypothetical situation, we would have had Whiteside starting now and still had Dwight part of the roster for when he returns. Anyway, it's all ifs and buts now. Have to look forward.
I was wondering if Whiteside is a contract player, if he gets a new good paying contract if he will revert back to his old self not caring?
You're right. Path was the wrong word. I meant physically, those 3, their physical frame and athletic ability were always touted, not as players. Although, if I remember correctly, DeAndre was up as high as #2 on the draft boards for a short stint.