In the opening 7:16 of the Heat’s game in Dallas on Monday, we got the full Hassan Whiteside. Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, seeking to exploit the undersized Mavericks, hammered the ball to Whiteside in the middle repeatedly.

He did some good things, going toward the basket in the pick-and-roll, cleaning up offensive rebounds, using his hook shot. He did some bad things — failing to convert an easy look over 6-5 Wes Matthews in his first possession, then dribbling into a double-team from the left wing for a poor shot on his second — and by 4:42 of the first quarter, he was on the bench, with eight points on 4-for-9 shooting and six rebounds.

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Whiteside would make all six of the shots he took over the rest of the game, and add five free throws. He finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds, and the Heat won the game. But Whiteside was on the floor, in total, just 26 minutes.

That’s been the story of Whiteside’s season. And it’s the reason his name keeps coming up — too often, according to league sources — in trade rumors.

Spoelstra has liked the versatility and effort he has gotten out of backups Kelly Olynyk and rookie Bam Adebayo, which gives him a luxury he did not have last season, when Whiteside could be dazzling one night and frustratingly nonchalant the next. Spoelstra has the ability to push Whiteside by cutting back his minutes.

He has. Whiteside is playing 25.6 minutes per game, which is down from 32.6 last season. His production (14.1 points and 11.7 rebounds) has dropped, too, but on a per-minute basis, he is actually performing better this year.

The problem for Miami is that, with $25 million on the books for next year and a player option for $27 million in 2019-20, Whiteside is by far their highest-paid player. But he’s a part-timer.

At this time of year, that will automatically get a guy like Whiteside included in the daily trade rumor mill. But league sources tell Sporting News that a move involving Whiteside would be a long shot, because for all the frustration he gives to Spoelstra, the Heat know how valuable he has been to their rise as a defensive force in the East, which has moved them into contention for one of the top three seeds in the conference.

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With the Cavaliers struggling, Miami has been aggressive on the trade market, with team president Pat Riley sensing an opportunity to pull an upset in an increasingly open Eastern Conference. Keeping Whiteside could be a key to that — if Miami has hope against teams like Cleveland, Toronto and Boston, it is in its ability to slow the game down and use a weapon like Whiteside in the middle.

"My sense is, the only way they would move him is if they could get an upgrade at the same position," one league executive said. "They’re trying to get better in the short term, but they’re not out there trying to give Hassan away."

The most plausible way the Heat deal Whiteside, then, would be for another dominant defensive big man, and the most prominent on the market is Clippers center DeAndre Jordan. But Jordan can be a free agent this summer, and with the Clippers looking to keep cap space clear, they’d likely only want to be included in a Whiteside deal if there was a third team to take Whiteside’s contract.

The real goal for Riley and the Heat in the coming week is to find a way to close the gap between themselves and the other top teams in the East. Big raises are due for Tyler Johnson and Josh Richardson, so the Heat are careening toward a major luxury tax situation. That will severely limit their flexibility next year. Now is the time to make a run.

With Dion Waiters out for the rest of the season after ankle surgery, the focus has been on acquiring some punch on the bench, and Miami has been chasing Memphis guard Tyreke Evans earnestly — it would have the double benefit of keeping Evans from the Celtics, who most around the league consider the frontrunners to land Evans.

But the Heat owe their first-round pick this year to Phoenix, and the Grizzlies want a first-rounder for Evans. The Heat have been willing to trade third-year man Justise Winslow, but a straight deal of a 21-year-old like Winslow for a few months of Evans doesn’t make much sense for Miami.

Rumors will float around the Heat in the coming days, and some will involve Whiteside. But expect him to stay put, even as the Heat are aggressive in seeking an upgrade.