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Fantasy hoops: Is Whiteside finished as an elite shot-blocker?

Hassan Whiteside led the NBA with 3.7 blocks per game last season but is averaging just 2.0 BPG this season. Photo by David Santiago/Zuma Press/Icon Sportswire

Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we pose a question to a rotating panel of ESPN fantasy basketball experts to gauge their thoughts on a hot topic. Today's contributors are ESPN Fantasy's Joe Kaiser, Kyle Soppe and ESPN NBA Insider Bradford Doolittle.


Although no one is complaining about the monster double-doubles we routinely see from Hassan Whiteside, who is averaging 17.1 points and 14.2 rebounds per game, his shot-blocking has been a big disappointment. After averaging 2.6 blocks in 2014-15 and 3.7 BPG in 2015-16, he currently is averaging 2.0 BPG this season and just 1.1 BPG in January. Should we expect a turnaround in his blocks production the rest of this season?

Kyle Soppe: Nope. Statistically speaking, Whiteside right now is about what you can expect moving forward, and it's really not a problem with him as much as it is simply a product of circumstance.

During the previous two seasons, Whiteside was playing along a stretch big in Chris Bosh, who was not only more comfortable on the perimeter but relied on heavily for his scoring, a role that kept him away from defending the rim. With Bosh no longer in the mix, Whiteside's importance on the offensive end has spiked and James Johnson has been roaming the paint for 26 minutes a night.

As a team, the Heat are blocking essentially the same number of shots as they have averaged over the past two seasons, they are just a bit more spread out. There are six healthy Heat players averaging at least nine shots per game, and Whiteside is the only member of the frontcourt to make the list ... so yeah, his offense is heavily relied on.

Whiteside is a very viable option (and my DFS building block for Wednesday), but expecting him to combine his spike in offensive usage with the defensive numbers from the past is unwise.

Joe Kaiser: This is something I've been noticing as well in regard to Whiteside and, quite honestly, it's shocking to me. Whiteside broke records as a shot-blocker in college at Marshall and took the NBA by storm just a few years ago with his ability to reject shots. It's possible that one of his previous leg injuries is playing a factor, hampering his ability to react as quickly to shot attempts, but it's also possible that the 7-foot, 27-year-old is just a different player than many of us expected him to be when he really broke in with Miami in 2014-15.

Initially, Whiteside was considered to be pretty raw on the offensive end of the court. Yet fast-forward to today -- only his second full season in the league -- and he's averaging 17.1 points a game. I think there's a decent chance that Whiteside is just more focused on the offensive end at this point, which is leading to fewer blocks, and that we should probably lower our expectations for him as a shot-blocker going forward; somewhere between 1.5-2 BPG is probably the range he'll be at for the rest of this season.

Bradford Doolittle: The January dip is a mere blip, but his season average is simply where he is as a defender.

In real life, that's a good thing for his team. Whiteside is much more disciplined as a team defender, more apt to carry out his primary assignment than simply drifting toward the paint on a shot-blocking safari. Alas, this is the way of the world for a full-service starting center. He's gotten smarter with experience.

Per NBA.com tracking data, he's allowing 46.2 percent in rim-protection situations. Last season, he was at 46.9 percent. The problem with blocks and steals is they don't always correlate with actual solid defense. Whiteside has figured that out. He's doing his job; it just hasn't translated to his former extreme rates of blocks.