Barely ambulatory would be the best term to describe the way Amar‘e Stoudemire looked after his Miami Heat debut in game No. 2 of the 2015-16 season. Only appearing in five of the team’s next 29 games did not do anything to make his signing look particularly positive either. Especially not when an undersized Udonis Haslem was getting the call to start over him at center in any absence of Hassan Whiteside. That is until young Whiteside went out six games ago.
For all of the flack that Erik Spoelstra gets for being stubborn in his approach to coaching and inability to make the Heat starting lineup work with Whiteside and Goran Dragic included, the eight-year head coach has to get credit for having the wherewithal to inject Stoudemire’s five points and four rebounds per game into the starting lineup.
Yes, those stats sound like the start of a sarcastic remark, but while numbers may not lie, they can be a slightly misleading. So this is where the eye test comes in handy. When you see Stoudemire on the court, there are little things that he does that actually make a big difference during the game — things that are not necessarily part of Whiteside’s basketball IQ as of yet.
While the 7-footer sets screens with the sole purpose of getting to the rim, Stoudemire presents a dual threat. Rather than darting to the hoop eager to box out or score, he puts a body to his picks that open up space for the ball handler to attack, move the ball to him on the roll or pass it back out for his 15-foot jumper. This is likely the result of a career of practice with Steve Nash.
Whiteside has yet to develop that side of his repertoire, often clogging up the lane and only receiving highlight passes from Dwyane Wade. However, the dynamic of STAT and Chris Bosh spaces the floor for everyone to penetrate and operate despite not having any legit three-point threats on the roster.
And just for the stat buffs, the Heat are now 4-1 with Stoudemire starting and averaging nine points, eight rebounds, one block and one steal.
This is not to say that Whiteside should be moved at next month’s trade deadline, but it gives Pat Riley options if he thinks that Spoelstra cannot make things work or that the center’s summer price tag might be too high. But the best-case scenario is being able to ride this type of play out of Stoudemire in spurts and hope that they can last through the postseason.
