The conversation was about 3-pointers - the shots the Miami Heat lacked last season - but it was as much about the ability to create as convert.
Because as the Heat know firsthand, Wayne Ellington can do the latter.
Actually, the conversation was about the potential for the Heat to successfully play inside-out, an approach that could maximize Ellington’s ability to contribute.
And that made the conversation about Hassan Whiteside, which it has to be, as much for what Whiteside realised in the offseason (a four-year, $98mn contract) as what he hasn’t often otherwise realized (35 total assists over the past two seasons).To put Whiteside’s lack of a passing into perspective, consider that based on the NBA’s player-tracking statistics, Whiteside ranked 80th among centers last season in points created off assists, at 0.9 per game (as compared to Pau Gasol’s league-leading 9.6).That’s 80th among centers in a league with only 30 teams.
The ball simply didn’t come out of those hands that often, with Whiteside 40th among centers last season in passes per game and 40th in secondary assists created (the pass that leads to the pass for an assist).
“It’s no question.
That’s something big for us,” Ellington said of getting Whiteside and the Heat’s outside threats on the same page.”And being able to get on the same page with Hassan and the other big guys is crucial.
Gaining that attention and defenses being so focused on him, being able to go out and find the open guys is going to be huge for us.”
For the Heat to maximize their possibilities, especially in the playmaking absence of Dwyane Wade, ball movement could prove essential.
Ellington had benefited playing with arguably the best ball-moving center in the NBA in Marc Gasol, but also worked with some others without the inclination or ability.
“A lot of times,” Ellington said, “it’s not even that one pass that the big man is going to make directly to the shooter.
A lot of times it’s the next pass to the shooter.
Just being able to read the defense, I know that’s something that he’s definitely working on this summer.”
And if not this summer, then definitely in camp, which is just over three weeks away.
Even if coach Erik Spoelstra has to coax that element with the carrot of more post touches.
“Low-post scoring, that’s the number-one thing he wants to work on, and I’m all for it,” Spoelstra said on one of the team’s promotional videos that Whiteside re-tweeted on Friday.”
He will also work on his skill level at the top of the floor, handling the ball, getting us into second situations as a playmaker, rebounding off the glass.”
At times last season, the frustration of teammates with Whiteside’s lack of ball movement was tangible.
But it’s not as if the Heat necessarily had definitive 3-point threats to pass out to.
Eventually, Tyler Johnson, Luol Deng and Josh Richardson emerged as threats, but none with the type of career consistency that Ellington potentially can offer.
Entering his eighth season, Ellington said he is willing to go to work with Whiteside both on and off the court.
“I’m going to come in and be a positive in the locker room, be a guy that plays the right way,” he said, having joined the Heat in July on a two-year contract that includes a team option on the second year. “I’m unselfish.
I’m going to be all about winning.”
This, of course, is far more about Whiteside than Ellington.
But Ellington knows the way the game is going, that among the most relevant paths to success is surrounding a big man with shooters, scorers, which yet could justify the additions of both Ellington and Dion Waiters.
“We bring different things to the game, no question,” Ellington said. “
He’s going to be doing what he does and I’m going to be doing what I do. And a lot of times now, teams are going smaller.
So you could find us on the court the same time sometimes, maybe.”
And then it will be up to
Whiteside to find them.