After what I saw tonight, I am saying "no". League seems to have made adjustments to him.
Really, because I'd rather have him or Isiah Thomas any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Sure, tonight wasn't a good one for him, and it was only last week that he had 24 and 25 rebound games. If the league has adjusted to him, he shouldn't be able to do that, imo. The bottom line here is that he's awesome, and we could have had him FOR FREE! Ugh.
You're assuming that the result would've been the same though. The Heat have respected veterans on the team (Wade, Bosh, Deng, Haslem, etc.), an assistant coach (Juwan Howard) who's sole job right now is mentoring Whiteside, and a team legend who also is tasked with a similar responsibility (Zo). Where would he have received that from us?
Isn't everyone on here always saying that Stevens seems to be able to get the most out of players who look like they could have been out of the league by now, like Evan Turner? I'm not a Stevens fan, but I'll give him credit for getting the most out of Turner by allowing him to play to his strengths, and he was also considered a nutcase, so why couldn't the same thing happen with Whiteside? Plus, I think we've got the Heat beaten when it comes to legends, lol. Tommy was very impressed by him when he saw Whiteside play in Boston. You're telling me that we couldn't pair him up with a great big man coach to develop his offense, because if that ever happens, watch out. He'll be even more of a monster.
On the other hand, Stevens would probably just have him shooting 3s all day, so, yeah...ugh, lol.
Seriously, I have no idea what you're talking about. Why exactly was Turner a knucklehead? So 80 year old Tommy is going to mentor him (obviously for home games only)? Who is the "great big man coach to develop his offense" you were referring to? Any names?
Things are as easy as you make them sound. He's literally on the perfect team to be babysat.
"You could fall back on some of the old, worn clichés that it takes three or four years for a young big man," said Geoff Petrie, the former Kings' general manager who took Whiteside out of Marshall in the second round in 2010.
"In Hassan's case, given where he started from, he might well be a six-, seven-, eight-year guy," Petrie said. "We'll see where it goes. It's not like before he came to Miami there weren't a lot of teams that tried, and invested a lot of effort, and tried to get him oriented. I'm happy for him, for him especially. Not unlike a lot of young players, it's his life."
Have you forgotten the whole bipolar issue (I don't have anything against people who struggle with such an illness - I'm just pointing out the conversation that was had at the time on here, iirc) with Turner that was reported on here before he signed with us, not to mention the fact that he was said to be a bad teammate, etc.? I'm not trying to be difficult, you know.
As far as coaching, he had these skills in the d-league, so it's not like his play has changed thanks to the teachings of Zo and Juwan Howard; and why not Tommy? He still consults with the young guys - KO, especially - and if you don't want to go that route, give Clifford Ray a call, or even Robert Parish. On second thought, the Chief might have made things worse, personality-wise, lol, so maybe not him, but Danny could have done for Whiteside what Bird did for Hibbert - he has Walton and McHale on speed-dial, lol, and Hibbert opted for Bill over the summer two years ago, I believe. Why couldn't Danny do the same? I really don't think that this needs to be so difficult, lol.