The advantages of the Los Angeles Lakers signing Hassan Whiteside:
Traditional rim protection
DeMarcus Cousins might be the more versatile defender, hence why his numbers are better, but Hassan Whiteside is better at protecting the rim. Whitside is a traditional rim protector by every sense of the phrase and off the bench would be good enough as a rim protector to overcome any defensive deficiencies.
Sure, he could get exposed a bit if the defense can draw him outside, but the Lakers would not be asking him to start nor finish games in crunch time. They would simply call on him to be a bench rim protector, which is what he is good at.
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Rebounding
Whiteside is also a better traditional rebounder than DeMarcus Cousins. While Cousins is no slouch at rebounding the basketball, Whiteside is a more prolific rebounder.
Whiteside’s career rebounding percentage is over 5% higher than Cousins and he averages 15.8 rebounds per 36 minutes across his career. Cousins averages 12.2 rebounds per 36 minutes across his career.
More efficient scoring
This comes with Boogie Cousins stretching the floor. Cousins can score from more areas on the court but Whiteside is more efficient scoring the basketball, mostly because he knows what he is good at and sticks to it.
Whiteside has an effective field goal percentage of 58% this season compared to Cousins’ effective field goal percentage of 46.9%. That efficiency might be important as they are just looking to get complementary pieces.