Hassan Whiteside has played some decent basketball throughout December, but his performance at the free throw line might earn him an unfavorable record.
After losing to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night, the Miami Heat are 8-4 in December. Hassan Whiteside has been terrific in his eight appearances. He’s averaging 13.5 points, 12.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks, marks that are third, first and first on the team, respectively. He’s also shooting 55.3 percent from the floor. The one short-coming, however, is his foul line accuracy.
Whiteside has gone to the charity stripe 24 times in those eight games. He’s made four, leaving him with a clip of 16.7 percent. If the month were to end today, he’d have the lowest free throw percentage for December in NBA history, replacing the lowly 23.8 percent marks of Adonal Foyle and Ronny Turiaf. The stat is somewhat meaningless but also interesting. Awful struggles from the free throw line have plagued Whiteside’s season as he sits at just 43.4 percent. This month is his most futile showing yet.
Heading into this campaign, Hassan Whiteside was a reliable free throw shooter, as far as centers go. He boasted a career conversion rate of 62.7 percent. Last season, he finished at 70.3 percent, a career-best. Watching him tank this dramatically is bizarre.
The good news, if you want to call it that, is that Whiteside doesn’t need to do much to enter the new year without this record. The requirement to climb out of this hole is to make his next three attempts. Going 7-for-27 will raise his clip to 25.9 percent, tying him with Jerome Lane for fifth on the list. That, however, could be a tall order for someone who’s clanked 20 free throws this month.
Hassan Whiteside has been an atrocious foul shooter for the entire year. Fortunately, it can’t get much worse. Perhaps he regains the accuracy from previous seasons. Maybe he doesn’t and continues to stumble, which ultimately causes him to call someone seeking advice. Stephen Curry wouldn’t be of any help, neither would Malcolm Brogdon. But you know who would be? DeAndre Jordan. And it’d probably be the first time an NBA player reached out to him in regards to free throw shooting.
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