Hassan Whiteside

[...] Whiteside in particular is a good point of comparison here for Capela. The two are reasonably similar players; long, wiry-strong five men with good rebounding rates, some natural shot blocking ability, no shooting range and limited offensive skill. Capela is considerably more efficient than Whiteside overall; offensively, he does not insist on getting half-court paint touches (and has both Chris Paul and James Harden to set him up), while defensively, he is more positionally aware, does not overly chase blocks, and steps up to the perimeter more effectively. He is the better player of the two. And yet despite that, he is now on the lesser deal, earning $17.5 million a year versus $24.7 million a year. You could get a whole Dewayne Dedmon in that gap. [...]

Hassan Whiteside
C, 7’0, 265lbs, 28 years old, 5 years of experience

While his per-game numbers were mostly up, Whiteside’s scoring efficiency was down, his free throw rate down, and his blocks quite a long way down on years before. This in part due to an ever-increasing amount of mid-range jump shots, at which he is quite good, and in part due to the attempts to establish him as a post offence threat, at which he just isn’t. When picking and rolling, getting open through ball movement and cutting, Whiteside is a good finisher, and he should just stick with that. Defensively, the blocks are down partly due to opponents not taking him on as much – certainly to his credit – but also due to more judicious decisions as to when to go for the block, leading to increased interior defensive metrics. And when asked to do the rebounding work of two positions, as he so often was, Whiteside normally came through.

Player Plan: Three years and circa. $76.3 million remaining, with the last year as an option. Has become quite the two-way player and young enough still to count as a building block.

Pick 33: Sacramento drafts Hassan Whiteside from Marshall, a man who would have been a surefire first rounder had he not loafed through workouts and done nothing to dissuage the aura of his supposed immaturity. Question marks aside, it's a decent pick for the Kings, potentially getting them the next Keon Clark.

Whiteside's draft caption is a swift kick in the scrote to any onlooker; "Must improve: Maturity." Ouch. Marshall doesn't help himself by loafing up to the podium like a petulant schoolboy and then trying to greet Adam Silver with a homie shake. But Silver takes it well, turns it into the business shake, and acts as if all is well. If Hassan can find that much guidance and patience throughout his career, he might be just fine.

The quote about Marshall's maturity also overlooks the holes in his skill set, particularly his offensive game. How often does an extremely athletic big man with no offensive game ever develop the kind of offensive game teams envision when they draft them? Not often. Stromile Swift didn't. Jamal Sampson didn't. Cheikh Samb didn't. Pape Sow didn't. Et cetera. It works out sometimes - Andray Blatche is one such example - but the miss rate is far greater than the hit rate. And having owned both Clark and Justin Williams in recent years, Sacramento know what it's like.

Between Whiteside and DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento's big man coach will get no days holiday over the next two years.

Still, at 33, the risk is justified. Even if he needs to develop any kind of consistent offense and touch around the basket, while putting on 40lbs of muscle, learning how to keep possession when blocking a shot and growing up, it's a pick worth making. But just so that we don't forget it, Jay Bilas cements our awareness of his bust potential with the timeless quote, "He could be Patrick O'Bryant." Scrote punch of the year right there.