Miami Heat head coach says Hassan Whiteside is playing the best basketball of his career, but do the stats back him up?

After Hassan Whiteside’s game-winning tip-in against the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat players and coaches took the opportunity to praise the star center for his recent play.

Per the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson:

“Hassan, he is, maybe for the first time, playing more for the guys next to him than he is for himself,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said, adding that “he really cares about the guys in the locker room, and that’s one of the most powerful things I’ve seen as a coach.” “His overall basketball knowledge is so much better,” guard Goran Dragic said. “His play is so much better. People only look at the stats. He’s doing those small things that are making the team much, much better. In the future, he’s going to be an All-Star. He is the kind of player who makes a difference in every game. He makes my job so easier if he’s setting good screens and most of the time when you miss the shot, he can get the second chance points or get the rebound.”

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment, but has Whiteside actually turned a corner for the Heat? The stats show he has, that he’s doing more of the little things that help impact Miami’s winning.

Whiteside’s offense

Before the All-Star break, Whiteside was shooting 56.1 percent on 12.7 shot attempts per game. Since the All-Star break, he’s shooting 55.8 percent of 12.2 attempts per game. Virtually the same.

It’s the type of shots he’s taking that has improved. Before the break, Whiteside was taking 3.4 hook shots per game — which often went against the flow of the offense — converting on 49 percent. Since the break, he’s taking just 1.9 hook shots per game, and his efficiency has improved to 54.5 percent.

They come in the flow of the game much more now. Whiteside holds the ball much less now, with 69.1 percent of his shots coming within two seconds of touching the ball, compared to 64.6 percent before the All-Star break. You can see the difference as Whiteside spends less time on herky-jerky post moves and more time finishing at the basket.

Rebounding

Whiteside has a good chance at finishing the season as the league’s leading rebounder and a big reason for that is his dominance on the offensive boards. As the Heat’s offense has moved away from posting Whiteside up and more toward shooting three-pointers, Whiteside is averaging 4.6 offensive rebounds per game since the All-Star break compared to 3.6 per game prior.

He’s also cleaning up his teammates misses more. Whiteside is averaging a league-leading 3.8 putbacks per game, according to NBA.com.

Defense

Whiteside’s also put more effort into guarding players away from the rim, particularly on pick-and-rolls. This is a more recent trend that started after Damian Lillard went off for 49 points in Portland’s March 19 win over the Heat.

Since then, Whiteside’s put more emphasis on challenging ball handlers near the perimeter. His main duties are still to protect the paint, but even hedging a little bit on high screens makes a world of a difference.

As Spoelstra said, Whiteside is playing more unselfish than ever, and the stats back it up. This new mindset will be key in Whiteside taking yet another step in his development.