Hassan Whiteside is certifying himself as the Beast of the East.
The neglected center is making up for lost time and opportunities while erasing all doubt that he's fluke. In his make or break year before free agency, he is putting up All-Star numbers.
CBS Sports noted that he had a triple double of 22 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocks. He rejected practically the entire Minnesota Timberwolves team including Andrew Wiggins, Ricky Rubio, Kevin Garnett and star rookie Karl-Anthony Towns.
With these impressive performances, teams all over the league will covet his services and with a record number of teams with cap space (thanks to the projected cap increase this year), Whiteside is assured of a getting paid big bucks, as much as $ 22.5 million or 25 percent of the projected cap according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.
Is there a chance that the Miami Heat can keep Whiteside? There are already numerous trade rumors predicated on the idea that Whiteside is sure to leave. Winderman himself already admitted that the situation is complex in a previous article.
Now, Winderman notes that the Heat can lock up Whiteside and the Heat may be more flexible than we think. This assumption was based on the revelation that Pat Riley made a play for LaMarcus Aldridge last summer when everyone thought that the Heat did not have the cap space to become players in the market. It seems like Pat Riley can pursue whoever he wants, whatever the cap situation, and he has history to support that claim.
Illustrating the cap situation for next year, the Heat have contract obligations to Chris Bosh at $23.7 million, Goran Dragic at $15.9 and Josh McRoberts at $5.8 million. That's $45.4 million out of what a possible $90 million salary cap.
There's 2.6 million for Justise Winslow and roughly $1 million for Josh Richardson and Tyler Johnson who will only count to about $1 million on the Heat payroll. That's a total of $ 50 million.
While that would be enough to cover the possible 22.5 million max for Whiteside, that would take them at $ 72.5 million and they cannot use the Bird Rights on Dwyane Wade, so they need to take it out of the cap.
The Heat, in theory, can keep Whiteside but in doing so, they would no longer be able to pursue free agents. Would Pat Riley's core of Wade, Bosh, Dragic, Winslow and Whiteside be enough?