Could the Trail Blazers pry Hassan Whiteside from the Heat?
The Portland Trail Blazers could be in the market for rim protection, and the Miami Heat could undergo a hard reset.
At 5-10 the Miami Heat are well below .500 and by the end of the season probably won’t be making a playoff push. This team, as Pat Riley has put it, is rebuilding. A big part of that rebuild was supposed to be Hassan Whiteside, who is averaging career highs in minutes, points and rebounds, but has yet to prove he’s a player they can build around.
Meanwhile, the Portland Trail Blazers have been falling short of expectations that come with one of the highest payrolls in the league, and they’re problems may not be fixable with its current roster. Portland is very bad on defense, they have the worst defensive rating and are giving up the fourth most points in the paint in the league, per NBA.com.
So it makes sense that ESPN’s Zach Lowe suggests the Trail Blazers could be looking for a trade.
Portland looks ripe for a trade. Neil Olshey, the team’s one-step-ahead GM, chased Hassan Whiteside in free agency, and has a well-documented fondness for old-school low-post brutes like Brook Lopez, Greg Monroe, Nikola Vucevic and others. (It’s tempting to pitch a Crabbe/Lopez swap since the Nets lavished Crabbe with a massive offer sheet, but Brooklyn cannot acquire Crabbe until the offseason — at least under current league rules.)
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The Blazers are in win-now mode with Lillard and McCollum in their primes, but it’s unclear how much they really have to trade. They have an extra first-round pick from the Cavs, and some need to offload a big contract in the face of what could be hilariously huge tax payments starting next season. Harkless and Aminu are valuable trade chips, but they are more valuable to the Blazers as players. Crabbe and Turner look untradable.
Lowe mentions Whiteside as well as a handful of other centers, but Whiteside is the only one of those guys who could walk in today and dramatically improve Portland’s defense.
The Blazers play a conservative style of defense where the center hangs back on pick-and-rolls. Whiteside, who has struggled to defend along the perimeter in Miami, would be a perfect fit in that scheme and would be allowed to do what he does best–protect the rim.
As Lowe points out, the Blazers are in “win-now mode” and Whiteside, at 26, fits the window of Portland’s core. The Heat are not in win-now mode. By the time guys like Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson hit their primes, Whiteside could be 30 years old and no longer in his. If the Blazers come calling, the Heat would be wise to listen. The question is: can they offer Riley and the Heat enough to pry the center away?
To the trade machine!!!
It’s doubtful that Portland would offer C.J. McCollum, even though he would be an ideal floor-spacing scorer to build with, but Portland G.M. Neil Olshey seems wed to the idea of building his team around the scoring backcourt of McCollum and Damian Lillard.
Some quick trade machining yields an interesting deal, though. A package of Meyers Leonard, Moe Harkless, Mason Plumlee and a pair of first round picks (one this year, and another future pick) would provide a heck of a tool box for Miami to rebuild with.
Leonard is a three-point shooting big who could help space the floor and is locked into a long-term deal after signing a 4-year, $41 million contract this summer. Plumlee is a capable center who would be a major downgrade as a rim protector but a big upgrade as a passer from Whiteside. Harkless, who is averaging 12 points a game and shooting 37 percent from three-point range this season, is a 6-foot-9, 215 pound forward who can play the 3 and 4 and provide Miami some versatility at those positions.
And those players are 24, 26 and 23 respectively, fitting them nicely into the window of Miami’s existing core. The two first round picks would only add to that core or provide the Heat with the means to make a trade down the road.
Will it happen?
Riley is fond of low-post bigmen, but I wouldn’t take anything off the table. The Heat don’t seem like a quick fix, and the cabinet is bare of assets. Lowe off-handedly mentions Whiteside here but, as he reported, Olshey is fond of him and made a play for him this summer.
If the Heat make a trade this year, it’s more likely Goran Dragic on the way out, but Whiteside could fetch a lot more in return, and a team like the Trail Blazers could be desperate enough to make Riley an offer he can’t refuse.
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