Nets Have No Need To Rush Whitehead

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Oh, the irony of the certain segment of Nets fans who are willing to wait years for the team’s tanking process to bear fruit yet are getting a tad impatient with Brooklyn’s sheltering of 2023 first-round Draft pick Dariq Whitehead.

I get it since I too have seen enough of the likes of Keon Johnson and Tyrese Martin bumbling around the court. Why not see what the kid has in his bag when the results of the games do not matter? What could go wrong? Just give me something different to staunch the bleeding of the eyes.

I’ll also admit, it was a little strange that Nets Head Coach Jordi Fernandez pulled Whitehead after he dropped 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting, including knocking down all three of his three-point attempts, in just 7:26 of first half action during Wednesday night’s 108-84 blowout loss to visiting Phoenix. Whithead played the last two minutes of the first quarter, draining a three-pointer on Brooklyn’s final possession, and then sat for 4.5 minutes before he subbed in and went loose for another pair of 3s and an and-1 driving layup (he missed the free throw) that cut the Suns lead to three points.

When Whitehead’s second quarter run hit the five-minute mark, however, Fernandez took him out. The second half presented a similar program, only by the time Whitehead got his turn late in the fourth quarter, the game had already been decided. He misfired on all three of his garbage time field goal attempts.

The conspiracy theorists ran amok, suggesting that Fernandez saw Whitehead threatening a tanked game and pulled (or was ordered to pull by those in the Executive Suite) the plug. Right, because a Nets squad that suited up just six of their 15 players on standard NBA contracts had even a remote chance against the Kevin Durant/Devin Booker led Suns with the 20-year old Whitehead leading the charge.

While Fernandez didn’t supply a reason for the Whitehead limits, a more logical explanation would have been some combination of not wanting to overextend Whitehead when he already has had multiple lower body injuries in his short career and also trying to build confidence in a player who had been struggling to regain his old form. Like when the George Costanza character in “Seinfeld” schemed to leave the office conference room on a high note, only in this case it was the boss (Fernandez) who engineered the timing of the exit.

Unlike Brooklyn’s three two-way players, the Nets have a more long-term investment in Whitehead, picking up his 2025-26 team option for $3,262,560 with another year of team control thereafter. Though he was selected No. 22 overall, it was known then to be a high-risk, high-reward shot. Whitehead was once one of the top high school players in the country but needed two foot surgeries and then a shin splint procedure in about a two-year period. Load management this season was always going to be a given.

Whithead once told the Nets beat writers that he wouldn’t cop to being all the way back physically until he dunked on someone, which he did in a G League contest last week. Still, his movements don’t look all that fluid and his first step doesn’t create the advantages it used to.

It’s hard to judge Whitehead’s defense considering he’s almost always involved when the game is out of hand and the opposing team’s starters are on the bench. The Suns game was just the third this season where Whitehead played more than three minutes—he scored 18 points during a December 3 thrashing in Chicago and then played the final 9:28 of the January 15 debacle in Los Angeles. By the way, it was more appropriate to wonder why Whitehead didn’t get an opportunity sooner in a game where the Nets lost by a franchise record 59 points. I mean, if the intent was not to play him at all, then why did they fly him all the way out there when he could have gotten reps at a Long Island G League game the previous day?

The sheltered playing time the Nets have given him, though, has helped Whitehead see some success. He’s shooting 48% from the floor, including 52.4% of this three-pointers. If you recall, he was a bricklayer at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas and he wasn’t exactly lighting it up during his appearances this season for Long Island either, shooting around 30% from deep.

He just might not be ready to be thrown into the deep end and told to sink or swim, and that’s ok. The same thing happened with Noah Clowney last season, including the Summer League difficulties. Clowney needed G League seasoning, eventually growing comfortable with his perimeter shooting stroke. Folks forget that the Nets didn’t entrust him with regular rotation minutes until the last 11 games of the season.

The bottom line is that development can’t be rushed and progress isn’t always linear. There’s still 37 games remaining in this miserable Nets season, which is plenty of time for Whitehead to work his way into a more significant role. Have some patience, please.