Hassan Whiteside

Mista 808

Mista 808

G-League
I haven't been following the forums hardly at all this year so far. Just wondering howcome Whiteside doesn't actually play any minutes ever? Is he hurt? I hear it's because we're developing him etc. and there's no pressure for him to play. But if Cousins is out there getting excessive minutes, why can't Whiteside atleast get SOME gametime minutes every now and then? I was excited to see the big guy play this year and especially excited to see what him and Cousins could do on the floor together!

A little insight please...


EDIT - Especially since we're considering Dalembert and Landry not being here next season.
 
The bottom line is that he's raw and not ready to play. From the little I saw of him in college he looked completely lost offensively. Which makes it a tough balancing act. You can't have a rookie out there hurting the team, but a young, athletic big also can't develop without meaningful minutes. The Kings also haven't had a lot of garbage minutes (they don't blow anybody out and despite the poor record they are competitive in the vast majority of games) so it's hard to see when Whiteside could or should be put in.

As a side note, I think Landry is definitely gone after this season. But I could very much see Dalembert being resigned.
 
funkykingston said:
The bottom line is that he's raw and not ready to play. From the little I saw of him in college he looked completely lost offensively. Which makes it a tough balancing act. You can't have a rookie out there hurting the team, but a young, athletic big also can't develop without meaningful minutes. The Kings also haven't had a lot of garbage minutes (they don't blow anybody out and despite the poor record they are competitive in the vast majority of games) so it's hard to see when Whiteside could or should be put in.

As a side note, I think Landry is definitely gone after this season. But I could very much see Dalembert being resigned.
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Umm... Have you seen our record? I don't know if he could exactly "hurt" our team anymore then our starters have already hurt themselves, their record, and any chances of making the playoffs by the time December started we already knew that. So that doesn't make much sense to me?
 
What didn't particularly make sense to me was the fact that although JT and Garcia were both medically not cleared to play last night, JT was on the "active" roster and Whiteside was inactive. Without JT, when Jackson went down we were reduced to Dally, Cousins, and Landry in the frontcourt, with a healthy Whiteside sitting behind the bench in a suit.

Sure, we still probably wouldn't have played him, but wouldn't it have made sense to activate Whiteside for the game, just in case?
 
Capt. Factorial said:
What didn't particularly make sense to me was the fact that although JT and Garcia were both medically not cleared to play last night, JT was on the "active" roster and Whiteside was inactive. Without JT, when Jackson went down we were reduced to Dally, Cousins, and Landry in the frontcourt, with a healthy Whiteside sitting behind the bench in a suit.

Sure, we still probably wouldn't have played him, but wouldn't it have made sense to activate Whiteside for the game, just in case?
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I read somewhere.... I think it was a tweet from Jason Jones that Whiteside has a minor calf injury. I think it was a calf strain, but Im not positive.. I know thats what Garcia is dealing with, but I know there is something minor wrong with Whiteside.
 
Capt. Factorial said:
What didn't particularly make sense to me was the fact that although JT and Garcia were both medically not cleared to play last night, JT was on the "active" roster and Whiteside was inactive. Without JT, when Jackson went down we were reduced to Dally, Cousins, and Landry in the frontcourt, with a healthy Whiteside sitting behind the bench in a suit.

Sure, we still probably wouldn't have played him, but wouldn't it have made sense to activate Whiteside for the game, just in case?
Click to expand...

I wondered the same thing. My co worker said he has knee tendonitis that was in a bee article today.
 
Mista 808 said:
Umm... Have you seen our record? I don't know if he could exactly "hurt" our team anymore then our starters have already hurt themselves, their record, and any chances of making the playoffs by the time December started we already knew that. So that doesn't make much sense to me?
Click to expand...

From a fan's perspective it doesn't make much sense. The team is terrible and here's this athletic kid that is seemingly oozing potential. Play him big minutes and let's see what we have.

But it makes no sense from the perspective of a coach or the other players. Westphal already knows he's on thin ice. Why would he risk any potential wins to help groom a kid for the next coach of the Kings when it would hurt his win/loss record?

And the team may have a terrible record but the other players don't want to lose and they certainly don't want to lose because Whiteside is being given minutes to grow.

I'm with you. I'd like to see where Whiteside is in his development and get a good gauge on how good he could be. But I don't see it happening any time soon.
 
funkykingston said:
From a fan's perspective it doesn't make much sense. The team is terrible and here's this athletic kid that is seemingly oozing potential. Play him big minutes and let's see what we have.

But it makes no sense from the perspective of a coach or the other players. Westphal already knows he's on thin ice. Why would he risk any potential wins to help groom a kid for the next coach of the Kings when it would hurt his win/loss record?

And the team may have a terrible record but the other players don't want to lose and they certainly don't want to lose because Whiteside is being given minutes to grow.

I'm with you. I'd like to see where Whiteside is in his development and get a good gauge on how good he could be. But I don't see it happening any time soon.
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thats where the previous kings coaches theuss, muss ****ed up. they wanted to play for their record and got axed anyway. westphal should have been doing this from the get go and i think the fans would understand. however, he did some of the most retarded line up changes game to game and frustrated not only his team but the fans. we ended up w/ a losing record w/ him tinkering anyway.
 
Mista 808 said:
Umm... Have you seen our record? I don't know if he could exactly "hurt" our team anymore then our starters have already hurt themselves, their record, and any chances of making the playoffs by the time December started we already knew that. So that doesn't make much sense to me?
Click to expand...

Anytime you insert a player woefully incapable of playing as good as the guy he is replacing, you hurt the team. It kills moral. The record is meaningless to the conversation; what's much more important is the improvement of the team's performance over the past few weeks. Playing the less qualified isn't going to improve the team.
 
pshn80 said:
Sure, since the coaches knew that Jackson would go down at halftime.
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I think the simple point was why have Jason active and Whiteside inactive, when the former was certainly out. Jackson's status has nothing to do with it.

As some people pointed out, Whiteside might be suffering from a minor injury himself, and that might be the reason.
 
Kingster said:
Anytime you insert a player woefully incapable of playing as good as the guy he is replacing, you hurt the team. It kills moral. The record is meaningless to the conversation; what's much more important is the improvement of the team's performance over the past few weeks. Playing the less qualified isn't going to improve the team.
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I think so too. Particularly, as in our case, when we have often had a chance at the end. If we lose some of these, and the rookie makes some rookie mistakes, he might unfarily get the blame.

I also don't think that throwing a player not yet ready in the action is always good for him. Sure, you want them to get minutes. But, if they aren't ready, they should get them in D league. If their confidence gets shattered, it might do more harm than good.
 
Just saw something on Facebook that said he had a partial patellar tendon tear and would be re-evaluated in 2 weeks.
 
kingsfan101 said:
I think so too. Particularly, as in our case, when we have often had a chance at the end. If we lose some of these, and the rookie makes some rookie mistakes, he might unfarily get the blame.
Click to expand...

And Westphal certainly would get the blame. Imagine if Whiteside played in the Laker game and performed poorly which led to the Kings not winning that game. Would people really be okay with that because the rookie was getting minutes?

Obviously that's a bit extreme. I mean, had Whiteside been healthy and played in that game he might have blocked a couple shots and grabbed a couple rebounds the team wouldn't have gotten otherwise leading to the Kings winning by a bigger margin. But odds are greater than a very raw rookie big man will hurt more than help.
 
According to the NBA,
HASSAN WHITESIDE (center) – Underwent an MRI yesterday in Sacramento which revealed a partial patellar tendon tear in his left knee. He will miss the next two weeks before being re-evaluated.
Click to expand...
 
kingsfan101 said:
I think the simple point was why have Jason active and Whiteside inactive, when the former was certainly out. Jackson's status has nothing to do with it.

As some people pointed out, Whiteside might be suffering from a minor injury himself, and that might be the reason.
Click to expand...

Yes, with Whiteside now also reported to be injured it makes much more sense. Too bad for Hassan - two weeks before evaluation, combined with the playing time he's been getting lately (i.e., none), and it's starting to look more like he may have stalled out at 2 minutes on the season.
 
cuad said:
Big man with knee problems. :(
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That particular injury isn't usually that serious. Especially if its just a partial tear. There was a time when if you tore your ACL or ICL, your career might be finished. Today its almost a minor injury by comparison to 20 years ago. If you need microfracture surgery however, you need to worry.
 
cuad said:
Big man with knee problems. :(
Click to expand...

Whiteside really hasn't had any injuries before this so there is little, if nothing, to warrant thinking that he has knee problems. If he was Spencer Hawes (who has been relatively healthy for the past two years come to think of it) or Greg Oden with a significant history of knee injuries and microfracture surgery, then you could worry.

Hell, Blake Griffin blew out his knee last year and you don't see anybody concerned with his knees (whether or not they should be is another question)
 
I think that it is entirely possible that Hassan doesn't have a clue how to play basketball nor does he have the intelligence to learn. He looks like he should be a great player but perhaps looks are deceiving in this case. The writing is not only on the wall but may replace one of those huge signs the Maloofs used to promote Rek and Cuz. He drops like a stone inthe draft. He was sent to Reno because even in PW's "let's use the guy who hasn't played in a few weeks" rotation, there was no room for Hassan. He didn't get minutes at Reno which most were inclined to blame on the coach, came back here, and hasn't even suited up. I doubt if the problem is that they can't find a uniform to fit.

What does that tell ya? It was a wild pick to get a guy to play the Dalembert role and it failed badly. Let's move on. Meanwhile, maybe we can find a league somewhre in the world where he can get minutes and in a few years he'll develop into something but I see no reason to use valuable minutes on him in the Kings' lineup. Some of our better athletes still need time on the court to get a grasp of the NBA game and to mature into great veterans.

I think his primary problem is about 5 feet above his knees.
 
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Glenn said:
I think that it is entirely possible that Hassan doesn't have a clue how to play basketball nor does he have the intelligence to learn. He looks like he should be a great player but perhaps looks are deceiving in this case. The writing is not only on the wall but may replace one of those huge signs the Maloofs used to promote Rek and Cuz. He drops like a stone inthe draft. He was sent to Reno because even in PW's "let's use the guy who hasn't played in a few weeks" rotation, there was no room for Hassan. He didn't get minutes at Reno which most were inclined to blame on the coach, came back here, and hasn't even suited up. I doubt if the problem is that they can't find a uniform to fit.

What does that tell ya? It was a wild pick to get a guy to play the Dalembert role and it failed badly. Let's move on. Meanwhile, maybe we can find a league somewhre in the world where he can get minutes and in a few years he'll develop into something but I see no reason to use valuable minutes on him in the Kings' lineup. Some of our better athletes still need time on the court to get a grasp of the NBA game and to mature into great veterans.

I think his primary problem is about 5 feet above his knees.
Click to expand...

I think it's too early to call a known project drafted in the second round a failure. Yes, we've read articles about some of the issues he may have, but considering the Kings have the time to invest in his potential growth, it's not that big of a deal this year.

I do have to argue against just "throwing him in there". When I have players that aren't ready for a certain team or speed of the game, there's no way I'll put them in. It's damaging to their self-esteem and demoralizing to the team when your 3rd string post gives up 5 points and 2 fouls in 30 seconds in a close game just for some PT. If they're not ready, they're not ready. Some players are ready to learn by being thrown into the game. It takes a lot of emotional maturity to deal with failure, which is what someone who is not ready will repeatedly deal with. Whiteside doesn't seem like one who is ready.

If he were ready, I'd assume we'd have heard something about him lighting it up in practice, or "getting ready to be a contributor soon," but we haven't. Of course, I'm guessing that the injury is the reason he hasn't had any opportunity, so I'll go with that for now. Hopefully it's not a serious thing, but if it is, he's on a long term contract and we have the time to invest in his growth.

As long as we resign Dalembert.
 
nickmcclure said:
Yeah, but it's also entirely possible you made that up based on hearsay.
Click to expand...

I am giving an alternative analysis of a player's inability to play NBA or D league basketball. It's an opinion no less possible than anyone elses opinion based on what we have seen or haven't seen so far. He is the first D league player of the Kings to get almost no playing time in Reno and instead of blaming that on the coach who semingly has no need for a 7 foot shot blocker or a willingness to do what he is paid to do - develop players, I am putting the blame on the 7 footer.
 
Did any of you actually watch him in the summer and D league? Now I didn't catch every game but I caught a few and read some stat lines on others. If we aren't going to play him the rest of the year why did we even put him in for 2 min in one of the first few games of the season kinda stupid of us hopefully when we trade one of our bigs at the deadline we can find time for a project on a 12 win team.... He can rebound, block, put-back, and Foul.

Is he Raw umm yah he is a big man rookie what do we expect popular belief says that big men take longer to develop(contrary to Cousins and Griffin). I don't see why we don't start now giving all extra minutes and a couple fouls to a piece we are betting will be a longterm part and project but rather to a big man that was still not on a guaranteed contract a few weeks ago and is done after this season.

If he is a long term project no time like now to start project-ing right?

From what I saw he was already making progress on his foul problems in the D league even in just the limited minutes he was getting and he had very very good per minute stats it was not foul trouble that kept him from even seeing the floor it was a coaches decision.
 
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Sorry I should have emphasized the D-league over summer obviously cause thats where he was supposed to be making strides and getting time.
 
Tyndel said:
Did any of you actually watch him in the summer and D league? Now I didn't catch every game but I caught a few and read some stat lines on others. If we aren't going to play him the rest of the year why did we even put him in for 2 min in one of the first few games of the season kinda stupid of us hopefully when we trade one of our bigs at the deadline we can find time for a project on a 12 win team.... He can rebound, block, put-back, and Foul.

Is he Raw umm yah he is a big man rookie what do we expect popular belief says that big men take longer to develop(contrary to Cousins and Griffin). I don't see why we don't start now giving all extra minutes and a couple fouls to a piece we are betting will be a longterm part and project but rather to a big man that was still not on a guaranteed contract a few weeks ago and is done after this season.

If he is a long term project no time like now to start project-ing right?

From what I saw he was already making progress on his foul problems in the D league even in just the limited minutes he was getting and he had very very good per minute stats it was not foul trouble that kept him from even seeing the floor it was a coaches decision.
Click to expand...

He's injured.
 
Glenn said:
I think that it is entirely possible that Hassan doesn't have a clue how to play basketball nor does he have the intelligence to learn. He looks like he should be a great player but perhaps looks are deceiving in this case. The writing is not only on the wall but may replace one of those huge signs the Maloofs used to promote Rek and Cuz. He drops like a stone inthe draft. He was sent to Reno because even in PW's "let's use the guy who hasn't played in a few weeks" rotation, there was no room for Hassan. He didn't get minutes at Reno which most were inclined to blame on the coach, came back here, and hasn't even suited up. I doubt if the problem is that they can't find a uniform to fit.

What does that tell ya? It was a wild pick to get a guy to play the Dalembert role and it failed badly. Let's move on. Meanwhile, maybe we can find a league somewhre in the world where he can get minutes and in a few years he'll develop into something but I see no reason to use valuable minutes on him in the Kings' lineup. Some of our better athletes still need time on the court to get a grasp of the NBA game and to mature into great veterans.

I think his primary problem is about 5 feet above his knees.
Click to expand...

Geez!!!!

Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water! :eek:

He was ALWAYS going to be a long term project. He was never actually going to play much this year. Its a development year. Give the kid some time to develop his game. He has the potential to be good and its really rather drastic to give up on that talent half way through the season because he hasn't played yet.

By all means don't count on Whiteside to be that integral part of the team that plays next to Cousins and makes up for his deficiencies because he hasn't shown anything yet. But by the same token, don't wreite him off either.
 
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