That is the thing with bigs. Even 28 year old relatively unknown commodities can blow up in an instant. That is why Morey is not as good with young bigs as with guards. His way of wheelin and dealing is not conducive to having patience. You need patience with big men.
If you listened to the interview LeBatard mentions that Whiteside has been humble and admitted that he made changes for the better. I think they were pressing him and he didnt want to be overly critical publicly but I have seen reports that he wasnt a hard worker and was a bit of a jerk. I have no idea really but seems crazy to be too critical of Morey for that. It's obviously a great "what if" but no GM bats a 1.000.
They wanted to hear him say "he was lazy, had no work ethic and immature". "Changed his approach to the game" is basically a diplomatic way of saying that.
Those guys are good-natured ribbers/trollers, whatever you want to call them. But Dan is a huge Heat fan. Don't you remember ESPN suspending him for trolling Lebron with the big billboard that said "You're welcome, Lebron" after Lebron decided to go back to CLE? If you watch that show he's just an in your face jokester/troller. Good guy. He remembers the Heat had Bev in their grasp, let him go back to Europe and we stepped in and grabbed Bev a year later. He's viewing Whiteside as payback. We had Whiteside at RGV, let him go, Miami picks him up later and he becomes something.
I think he did okay with Tjones, Dmo, Ppat, Landry, and Scola. Morey was being politically correct when he was talking about Whiteside on a Miami based show. He can't say Whiteside was lazy immature kid when he entered the league and needed to bounce around to freaking grow up. This wasn't Jermain Oneal who dominated everyone in practice and never got a shot until the Pacers.
Ok. Whiteside is probably the only one that was never an NBA player and then blew up. What I meant were "late bloomers" and exeggerated a tad Couple of examples: Marc Gasol joined the league very late. It took him him 1-2 years. He was already 26-27. Also Luis Scola. ZBo always had good stats but never really played winning basketball until he was in his late 20s. And so on.....
Marc was 23 when he joined the league, by the age of 27 he was an all star Sorry man, I don't get the argument that Morey (or other NBA GMs for that matter) doesn't do his due diligence when it comes to big men. They are one of the most valuable commodities on a team and even an incompetent GM would give a 7 footer a fair shake. Whiteside had his chance with NUMEROUS teams. Kudos to him for finally getting his head straight with Riley and co.
That's the best you've got. 2 Euros who came over later and a guy who averaged 20 and 10 at 22 years old.
Whiteside's transformation was not instant. It was a couple years in the making starting with him committing himself to the weight room and the right diet. He actually did that work over a 2-year period starting in Sacramento and put on 40 lbs of lean muscle mass. That culminated in 275 lbs worn comfortably on his 7 foot frame well over a year and a half ago and was on display every time he hit the court. Whiteside was written off and ignored by everyone because he came into the league young with a bad ADD issue. Whiteside was physically ready to play when he was at RGV. He only needed an opportunity. It took him over a year before only one team gave him his shot and now the rest is history. I think Morey missed on him because he didn't want to deal with another Royse White. Morey knew he was there. He knew the work Whiteside had put in. He knew his talent. They had him in RGV and they let him walk. He was already 275 at RGV, already rocked up and bigger and way more athletic and dominant on the court than anybody else we had down there including DMo, Jones, and White who were all down there at the same time. If a player with Whiteside's size, athleticism, and basketball skills PROVE they are willing to put in the work to get better by actually working then I believe you've got to take a flyer on them even with mental health issues. The difference between Hassan and guys like Royce and Javale is Hassan proved he would put in the work. Dude disciplined himself to put on 40 lbs of muscle mass and eat right. That says a ton about his inner drive. Gotta take a flyer on that. Where I am critical of Morey on Whiteside is Morey was willing to blow a draft pick on Royce the knucklehead because of his potential greatness but was unwilling to take a non-guaranteed flyer on Hassan. Hassan was RISKLESS! It would have cost Morey $1 million. Just 1 of the almost $4 million he handed to Dorsey and Ish and Adrien. Morey really got punked by Riley twice here. Riley stole Bosh back from under his nose and instead of Morey signing Whiteside he left Whiteside on the table for Riley to pick back up. Now in hindsight, can you imagine signing Bosh, re-signing Parsons, signing Whiteside. ......and still having all our picks? Do you think we could have scraped together enough salary for Goran and his brother and do you think Morey would have then gone all in on trading for Goran? Goran James Parsons Dwight Bosh With Hassan, Bev on the bench. Wouldacouldashouda EDIT: I still think Morey is the best GM in the business. Whiteside just shows that even the best miss on talent valuations. Whiteside does bother me a whole lot though because of the riskless aspect of the situation and Morey taking pride in"swinging for the fence". Whiteside was a simple case of Strike 1, you're out. While Morey took multiple swings with Royce, drafting him, and then trying to accommodate him for a whole year.
Ben Wallace. Went undrafted and his first three years in the league was uneventful. Then by his late 20s, he's a defensive All Star.
The only other examples I can think of even remotely comparable to Hassan Whiteside are Anthony Mason and Ben Wallace.
I think Zach Randolph counts. Everybody knew he had talent but had given up on him ever being mature, until he got to Memphis. Scola doesn't count because he had been a great player in Europe, just came over late. Marc Gasol is borderline. Nobody expected him to be this good when he began in the NBA even though he had played professional for a while in Europe.
I remember when Memphis drafted Thabeet and they had him, Gasol, and that Iranian big man all competing for minutes at the 5. I was so hoping that they would devalue Gasol and either let him walk in free agency or trade him away to us for a second rounder.
The reason why Hassan Whiteside got cut from so many situations is pretty simple: He wasn't playing all that well and didn't show the requisite focus and professionalism despite having a nice NBA body and athleticism. The vast majority of the players who fit this particular profile tend not to ever amount to anything substantial. For every Hassan Whiteside, there are plenty of Hasheem Thabeets (and I remember DD also lobbying for Thabeet to get minutes back in the days, too-- and it wasn't that crazy an idea), Terrence Williamses, Tyrus Thomases, Stromile Swifts, or (worse yet) Robert Swifts. Plenty of guys would have been very nice NBA players with a different brain installed in their bodies. Hassan Whiteside "slipped through the crack" because he didn't look all that different from those other guys.
Whiteside dominated the minutes he got at RGV. He dominated the minutes he got at the Dleague that traded him to us. He dominated in China and Lebanon and was basically wasting time over there playing against subpar competition. Didn't look well? He looked very well. Anybody that followed him could see his improved on the court. He should've been in the league last year and at least the last half of the season before that. Here's his stats from dleague. Look at 2012-13 and on. Totally dominant advanced numbers. http://www.basketball-reference.com/nbdl/players/w/whiteha01d.html
I don't think ZBo counts. Even with the Knicks, he knew how to play NBA basketball. His issue was more that he consciously chose NOT to play basketball during games.
