The Miami Heat have been encouraged by the progress made recently by Hassan Whiteside.

Whiteside will be a free in the offseason and the Heat do not own his Bird rights.

Pat Riley approached him recently “and told me how proud he was of me and to keep building on that,” Whiteside said.

“They haven't talked about [free agency],” he said. “They want to see how far we get this season with this team. Playoffs will speak a lot.

“I hope [there’s interest]. I like the organization. Pat Riley is always going to do a great job of adding people that are going to help you win. It's not hard to sell to come to Miami. You can always recruit great talent.”

He said he wants to “win more than anything” and believes he can do that here. “I don’t know too much about free agency yet,” he said. “I’m going to learn, though.”