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Hassan Whiteside on Friday's opponent, Clipper DeAndre Jordan: 'He just catches lobs'

DeAndre Jordan and Hassan Whiteside do their respective things. (Getty Images)
DeAndre Jordan and Hassan Whiteside do their respective things. (Getty Images)

Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside, clearly, doesn’t have a whole heck of a lot of time to sit around and watch NBA League Pass. Throw in the time difference between Miami and Los Angeles and the sometimes dreary and contentious nature of many Clippers contests, and you can possibly understand why he’s less than a little informed about the Clips, and their center DeAndre Jordan.

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Whiteside cashed in over the 2016 offseason as a free agent to the tune of four years and $98 million, while Jordan set the standard in a way for offensively-limited pivotmen in 2011 and 2015 in signing a four-year, $42 million deal and a four-year, $88 million deal respectively. Due to their athletic gifts, stat-happy box scores and mercurial ways, both are often compared with one another; and it seemed only fitting that the juxtaposition would be referenced once again with the pair set to meet on Friday night in Miami.

Hassan, however, wanted little part in discussing any relations between the two centers; especially when future Hall of Famer Chris Paul is lining things up for the Clips. From Tom D’Angelo at the Palm Beach Post:

The 7-foot Whiteside was asked today if he thought he shared any similarities with the 6-11 Jordan, also a shot-blocking, defensive-minded center but lacking Whiteside’s offensive skills.

“No,” Whiteside said. “He catches lobs. I shoot jumpers, catch lobs, block shots. I do a lot. He just catches lobs.”

[…]

“It don’t really matter to me who I’m guarding,” Whiteside said. “I just come out here and just play. He catches lobs. He has CP3 as a point guard.”

Cool thing to wake up to on a Friday, Miami Heat point guard Goran Dragic.

Dragic is currently ranked in the low 30s, amongst point guards, in assist rate. Paul, coming off of a 20-assist night against the Trail Blazers on Monday (followed by a relatively serene 10-assist outing against Orlando on Wednesday), is in the top-five in the same category. CP3 is third in the NBA in assists, at 9.6 a game, while Dragic is working with 6.5 dimes a contest.

Still, this is clearly more of a dig at DeAndre Jordan.

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The Clippers center averages 11.7 points, 12.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in only 31 minutes a contest, while Whiteside contributes a resounding 17.6 points, 14.6 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks in 33 minutes a night. The Clippers are 17-9 while the Heat line up on Friday at 9-17, but as Whiteside will remind you, the Clippers have “CP3 as a point guard.”

The idea that a “DeAndre Jordan-type game” could be possibly be used as an insult, but this is how it often goes for centers. They want to be so much more than the guy that sets screens, plays defense, crashes the glass, and sometimes throws in lobs.

Which is part of the reason why Hassan Whiteside takes twice as many shots as Jordan, and three times as many attempts as DeAndre does from the painted area – as opposed to just outside the rim. Whiteside does post up quite a bit more, but as 2016 worms its way into 2017 there is considerable question as to whether or not this is a good thing for the Miami Heat.

The problem is that Hassan Whiteside isn’t exactly Jack Sikma from the perimeter. He’s closer to one of the Davis brothers – Dale or Antonio – if that at all. Which is fine, it’s early for Whiteside (who has just started his second full year as a relied-upon starter, and his first year spent not making the NBA’s minimum salary), but the immediacy hits a little stronger when Hassan Whiteside attempts to distance himself from DeAndre Jordan’s game.

A game that, despite Whiteside’s move to create a class system, resembles Whiteside’s more than it does, say, a member of the newer crop of centers that Hassan (even at age 27) would like to closely align himself with: Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns.

Not that Whiteside, on Thursday at least, is worried about anyone else:

“I kind of just compete against myself. I don’t really pay attention to any other centers. I’m still trying to beat 12 blocks (Whiteside’s career high). I don’t see any other centers. I just complete against Whiteside every day. I’m going to try to outdo myself last game.”

Did you know Hassan Whiteside’s career-high in blocks?

It’s one thing to assume that Hassan Whiteside has hit double-figures in blocks before – he’s that good, and he led the NBA in blocks per game and block percentage last season. It’s another thing to remember when he did it – against Chicago, in January 2015.

It’s quite another to have that anecdote on the ready in an instant when someone asks you about DeAndre Jordan. Every player needs a different set of motivations to guide them through a career, but maybe Hassan Whiteside would be best served to gain his grit from a mouthful of that morning’s box scores, as opposed to one’s own Wikipedia page.

Mindful of the headlines that started sprouting up on Friday, Whiteside went into damage control mode of sorts:

… but “he just catches lobs.”

Hassan Whiteside, like DeAndre Jordan, does his best work in crashing the offensive glass, or in creating havoc following a pick and roll. Unlike Jordan, who has reined in some of his more showy defensive instincts (though, to be fair to DeAndre, quite a bit of his overwrought defensive play was a product of instruction from more than one of his Clipper coaches) to become the sort of slayer whose top-notch statistical contributions also match what he does to opponents as whole.

The same can’t be said for Hassan Whiteside, in ways that go well beyond adding in the CP3 (or Blake Griffin, or J.J. Redick … ) caveat.

The NBA has rightfully given him a long leash in order to allow Whiteside the room to grow from a fringe players busting tail in order to secure a big contract to well-heeled star. The biggest part of grabbing that contract, for any minimum-salaried player, involves contributing box score stats: Whiteside, as a big man, cashed in on all those blocks, rebounds, and points however they came.

His contract status, however, was assured a full year before Hassan signed his maximum deal (around the time DeAndre was dorking around with his new contract). At some point, Whiteside is going to have to grow into something bigger than the output we see in the newspaper each morning.

And he’s going to have to do better in his scouting work. At least in committing to a scouting report on an opponent, one that isn’t waylaid by excuses and half-apologies via Twitter less than a day later.

Keep up the beef, Hassan. We need something to entertain us in mid-December.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!