Hassan Whiteside played his first preseason game of the year Tuesday night, and if the results are any indication of what to expect from the big man this season, the Miami Heat have found their next superstar. The best shot-blocker in the NBA finished last night's exhibition game versus the Washington Wizards with 20 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks in only 23 minutes of action. The Heat went on to win the matchup in dominating fashion to notch their first official "W" since the departure of Dwyane Wade. Though the Heat certainly have a lot to look forward to in coming seasons, all eyes are on Whiteside for the time being as he takes the reigns of this storied franchise. Fresh off signing a four year, $98 million contract in the offseason, Whiteside enters this season as a primary option on offense, while maintaining his position as the clear-cut leader on defense. Naturally, expectations are sky-high for the seven-foot, shot-blocking menace now that the last remnant of the "Big Three" is gone and the spotlight has shifted directly onto him and guys like Goran Dragic and Justise Winslow. While many believe Whiteside will meet those lofty expectations in 2016-17, here at Heat Nation, we're confident he will exceed expectations and emerge as one of the best centers in the league. Here are five reasons Whiteside will become an All-Star center in the NBA this season: 1. He's Entering His Prime At 27-years-old, Whiteside will essentially be entering his prime in the 2016-17 season. Studies show that top NBA players tend to play their most productive season(s) around the age of 27. Whiteside is a "young" 27, too, considering he's hardly accumulated any mileage throughout his short NBA career. Whiteside should enter this season as fresh and confident as we've seen him. [xyz-ihs snippet="in-article-fb"] The seven-footer is not only entering his physical prime, but perhaps his mental prime too. In his 2014-15 season with the Heat, Whiteside struggled to control his on-court emotions and often displayed poor body language. Since then, guys like Wade, head coach Erik Spoelstra and Heat Lifer Udonis Haslem have helped him control his emotions and harness his intensity into success on the court. As a result, throughout the latter half of the 2015-16 season, we've witnessed the big man grow into a more mature, even-keeled professional on and off the court. Expect Whiteside to continue "growing up" this season while producing some of the best performances of his career under the continued tutelage of coach Spoelstra. Next: Improved Offense [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Ad"] [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Image-Only"] 2. Improved Offense Whiteside averaged 14.2 points per game last season as the third (and sometimes) fourth option on offense. In the first half of the season, Bosh was the primary offensive option, then guys like Wade and Dragic took on the bulk of the scoring duties. This season Whiteside is expected to play a much larger role on offense and he's working tirelessly on his low-post and mid-range game to prepare for his expanded role: [xyz-ihs snippet="in-article-fb"] “Low-post scoring, that’s the number one thing he wants to work on, and I’m all for it,” coach Spoelstra said in a team-released video. “He will also work on his skill level at the top of the floor, handling the ball, getting us into second situations as a playmaker.” Whiteside's offensive numbers have gone up each of the last two seasons and now he's looking at an increased role with his ever-improving offensive game. Don't be surprised if he puts up more than 20 points per game this season. Even though he's been taking more and more shots, Whiteside's offensive efficiency has been on a steady incline over the course of these past two seasons with Miami. That trend should continue moving forward. Next: More Minutes [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Ad"] 3. More Minutes With great power comes great responsibility and a significant increase in minutes. In his first two seasons with the Sacramento Kings, Whiteside hardly played at all. In his season and a half with the Heat, he only only averaged a combined 26.5 minutes per game. This season, he will be expected to play more than 30 minutes per game as the team's starting center and highest-paid player (aside from Chris Bosh). Naturally, more minutes means more opportunities. It means more time to block shots, pull down rebounds and put up points. It will also provide him with more experience and more time to improve his overall game. DeMarcus Cousins, who is largely considered to be the best big man in the league, averaged 34.6 minutes per game last season. Imagine what Whiteside could do with all that extra time on the court. Coach Spoelstra has already laid out his expectations for the seven-footer this season: [xyz-ihs snippet="in-article-fb"] "He will have to be able to absorb more minutes, more responsibility, more games," said Spoelstra to the media. He then added: "I'm not going to stand in his way and put a ceiling on where he can go and who he can become as a basketball player, I want him to embrace all the challenges. I want him to be one of the best players in this league. He has that type of potential." Next: A Better System [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Ad"] 4. A Better System This season, we will witness a new-look Heat team that plans to push the tempo and increase the pace of play. The team will focus on a style of play more suited to point guard Dragic's game. “I’m sure it’s going to be uptempo, maybe even more uptempo [than last season],” team captain Haslem said over the summer of the new-look Heat. “With Dwyane (Wade) being out, we’re going to have to get Goran (Dragic) more and more involved. Everybody knows Goran is at his best when he’s in the open floor.” It's true, in his years running the point with the Phoenix Suns, the Slovenian guard excelled when everyone was running. For the first half of the 2015-16 season, Miami ran a slow, plodding offense led by Wade. After the All-Star break, Spoelstra began to quicken the pace with Dragic at the helm of the offense and the team's offensive efficiency increased immensely. [xyz-ihs snippet="in-article-fb"] Because the team is now committed to a quicker pace, it will benefit Whiteside in a number of ways. First, we can expect a lot more fast-break dunks and alley-oops this season from the big fella. Also, this young team anchored by Whiteside, who is actually quite mobile for a seven-foot, 265-pound center, will tire out the older, slower teams out by running circles around them on a nightly basis. In addition, Whiteside will benefit from being more of an option in clutch situations. Wade took 130 shots in "clutch situations" last season (including playoffs). This season, we will likely see a more "team-oriented" system in late-game scenarios with Whiteside being considered as a pick-and-roll option and even a short-to-mid-range shooter. Next: He'll Have Help [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Ad"] 5. He'll Have Help Recent reports suggest that this new Heat team may attempt to surround Whiteside with shooters in case he gets double-teamed or is struggling down low. When we look at some of the guys the team has signed this offseason, it certainly looks like that may indeed be the game plan. The newly acquired Wayne Elllington is a guard/forward combo with a career three-point average of 37.6 percent. Meanwhile, guys like Luke Babbitt and Josh Richardson sport career averages of over 40 percent from beyond the arc. Even Dragic and James Johnson have been known to knock down threes when needed. This means Whiteside will have plenty of options to pass to when teams focus on preventing him from doing his thing at the rim. Think Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic circa 2009. That was a team comprised of almost nothing but three-point specialists with Howard doing the dirty work down low. They made it to the NBA Finals with that strategy. Also, according to Whiteside, he should have no problem getting the ball to his open shooters this year: [xyz-ihs snippet="in-article-fb"] “I’m a great passer. I just have to show you all. Most of the time (last season), I was just the guy dunking the ball. I was giving people assists instead of giving out assists,” Whiteside recently told the media. While Whiteside knows he still has to prove his passing ability can be an asset, he understands that the ball will be in his hands a lot more this season and, at times, the best choice will be to get rid of it: “If guys are open I’m going to give it to them,” Whiteside said. “I think it’s really more so playmaking and about my usage rate, how many times I touch the ball in that situation. So, I should have a lot more assists.” All these factors mentioned above should combine to really catapult Whiteside's game to the next level in 2016-17. Given these new opportunities to shine and excel, the Heat's prized big man could very likely average 20+ points 12+ rebounds and 3+ blocks per game, which would make him a bonafide All-Star center in the NBA. [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-ImagenText"]
