Lakers Rumors: Hassan Whiteside desperately wanted by LA

Hassan Whiteside will be heavily pursued by the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency.

The big man in Miami, Florida Hassan Whiteside earlier in the year said he would prefer to stay in Miami.

Now after the season, rumors have spread that the Lakers will aggressively pursue him in free agency.

The organization pursuing him won’t necessarily make him change his mind of where he wants to play next season.

He wants to play where he can win a Championship and Miami is a great place for that, however the moves the Lakers made in the draft could be enticing.

This is basketball and a business; plans and peoples decisions change.

Hassan Whiteside will make a basketball decision, whatever he does and he could change his mind as this is a business as well.

The Lakers have the money and cap space to sign Hassan Whiteside and would also give him the starting role over drafted rookie center Ivica Zubac.

He ended up missing the rest of the playoff games his team was in due to a knee injury according to espn.com.

Another thing working in the Lakers favor according reports from Lakers Nation is that the Miami Heat do not own the “bird rights” to Whitside; which means they cannot go over the salary cap to re-sign him.

Hassan Whiteside would be an excellent fit for the Lakers because his game and style of play matches theirs and he is young as well.

Being young means he has not yet reached his full potential also known as his prime in his career.

He is an excellent rim protector and defensive minded player first, which the Los Angeles Lakers need.

Free throws for him are good, he crashes the boards, knows how to pass, but an area of concern would be to work on his jump shots in the paint and mid-range shots to improve his game.

The center position is of many concerns for the Lakers and why they drafted Zubac because they are looking to start fresh after the Hibbert downfall.

Whiteside would help keep the pace of the game the Lakers want to play and increase productivity in and for the whole team by being a team player.

He can slow it down or speed it up and he averages a double-double for the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Hassan Whiteside is really talented and has great capability of having multiple triple-double games like Westbrook and Green.

There are multiple power forward/center free agents and undrafted rookies the Lakers are looking at and recruiting.

It is just a matter of time before they either do or don’t land a player.

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Should they not go after Hassan Whiteside now that Zach Auguste of Notre Dame is on the summer league, or should they pursue him heavily as they are because nothing is guaranteed in the NBA yet alone life?