Dariq Whitehead arrived in Brooklyn as one of the youngest players in Nets history, and a former local phenom expected to blossom into an NBA standout.
After a litany of injuries, Whitehead is going into his third season still looking for a foothold in the league, and facing not only a pivotal training camp but a numbers crunch at his position.
The Newark native is still just 21, but on a tanking team going through a youth movement with a record five first-round picks, Whitehead isn’t as young as he used to be. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, it’s getting late early here.
“For me, I feel like this was honestly my most important summer,” Whitehead said heading into training camp.
“Not being able to do what I had needed to do the past three summers, being able to work out, work on my body. Just the difference I felt from the last game of last season to now and just being able to trust my body — how comfortable I am with just handling things that I’d done before — is just night and day.”
Injuries have robbed much of Whitehead’s explosion and stunted his career.
A fractured foot led to surgery on Whitehead’s right fifth metatarsal at Duke, and after it didn’t heal properly he needed a second procedure with bone grafting. The Nets gambled on the local product at 22nd in the draft, but a stress reaction in his left shin forced surgery to end his rookie campaign.
Last season was marred by a knee injury and saw little of his old explosiveness. Whitehead skipped summer league to work on his body and has done so, but now that needs to translate on the court, because he’s facing a numbers crunch at his position.
“I can tell you he’s gotten better. You look at his body from the summer, how hard he’s worked, he’s already gotten better and keeps taking advantage of his opportunities. That’s a big part of it,” said Nets coach Jordi Fernández, who warned, “This training camp and preseason games are going to be important. And we want all of our players, not just Dariq, to try to take advantage of that.”
But just how many of those players are at Whitehead’s position is what puts him in a tough spot going forward. He spent most of his time at shooting guard, 52 percent according to Cleaning The Glass (30 percent at the point and just 15 at small forward).
The Nets have already invested in plenty of young off-guards.
Cam Thomas, 23, is their leading returning scorer and veteran Terance Mann just arrived in a salary dump with three years and $47 million on his deal. Kobe Bufkin, 22, seems sure to play some off-guard, as may first-round rookie pick Drake Powell.
And that doesn’t even take into account fellow first-rounders Egor Dëmin and Ben Saraf, lead guards with the size to move off the ball if needed. The glut of young (or locked-in) off-guards means Whitehead has to start producing.
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The Nets need to pare down four players on standard deals by the end of camp (one could end up in their open two-way spot).
“I’m excited to watch all these different guys compete,” Fernández said. “It makes my job hard, because that means I’ve done well and they’ve taken advantage of the opportunities. At the end of the day, we have 21. There’s going to be only 15 on the roster, plus three two-ways. And only 10 players will play in the rotation.
“I hope they stay with it and keep showing what they’re able to do. At the end of the day, even if I make a mistake, my assistants will tell me. And if he has an opportunity, he’ll take advantage.”
One wonders how many opportunities Whitehead will get. The Nets have until Oct. 31 to decide whether to pick up his $5,366,912 option for next season, a hefty $2 million raise for a player yet to prove himself.
That proof may need to start sooner rather than later.