This is a lot of the reason why stats can be misleading. There are a lot of players that put up great stats but when you watch them, you’re like “this guys is ass cheeks!” Okay, maybe not ass cheeks, but you realize he’s not as good as his stats. That is how I feel about Hassan Whiteside. If you only look at his stats, you’d be under the assumption he’s one of the best centers in the NBA. If you actually watch him though, he’s far worse than you think. That’s why I can’t stand when people only use stats to argue basketball. There’s so much more to the game of basketball than what shows up to on the stat sheet. Those reasons alone are why I hate James Harden and his fans. They’ll argue his stats all day long but he doesn’t contribute as much to win the game. When Whiteside plays to win the game, I can finally appreciate him and his stats.
Hassan Whiteside Stats
Hassan Whiteside averages 16.3 PPG on 61.8% shooting, 14.2 RPG, and a staggering 3.1 BPG. Great stats right? That’s 3rd on his team for scoring, and first for rebounds and blocks on his team. As far as the NBA goes, he’s 1st in blocks by a great margin of .7 BPG and only trails Andre Drummond in RPG. If you actually watched Blazers game, would you say he is one of the best centers in the NBA? Absolutely not, or else you shouldn’t be saying that. I’m not the only one who notices it too. Shaq and Charles Barkley called him out on it too. So, how can he have such great stats for a center but not be that good?
There’s two types of players in the NBA: Ones that make a difference, and those that play the game. Hassan Whiteside just plays the game. He gets fed the ball on the inside, will grab rebounds, maybe get some help defense blocks. He’s not a difference maker though. Teams aren’t going to scout against him because they know what he will do and he won’t do much else.
Hassan Whiteside has more rebounds and blocks that Nikola Jokic, and only 4 fewer points, but everyone knows he’s worse than Jokic. Whiteside has more blocks and rebounds than Joel Embiid, but Embiid is better in both of those aspects. There’s a difference in playing the game and being the game. So yes, stats are a great guideline about a player, but it will never ever tell the full story. The eye test will always be better than some stats. However, you must use both to get a great analysis of a player. Whiteside will get you great stats, he’s not going to win you ball games though.
