Dariq Whitehead’s development is one of the big priorities for the Nets this season. It’s not just about a lottery pick. Erik Slater provides a progress report.
Back on December 2, it looked like Dariq Whitehead was finally, after three surgeries in 28 months, on track to prove that the Brooklyn Nets hadn’t made a mistake drafting him at No. 22 in the 2024 NBA Draft.
After scoring 26 points for the Long Island Nets eight days earlier, his best scoring game since his junior year in high school, he scored 18 points knocking down 6-of-10 3-point attempts off the bench for Brooklyn in an otherwise forgettable game vs. Chicago. In his four previous NBA games, he has registered only two points in an NBA game prior to that. His Summer League campaign in Las Vegas had been difficult to watch as he shot 15.1% overall and 8.3% from deep.
It looked like he’d be on the Brooklyn Nets bench for the foreseeable future, but within days he was back on Long Island. What was that about?
In an exclusive interview with Erik Slater of Clutch Points, Whitehead said he wanted the minutes, the reps he would get on Long Island, believing that his long rehab would be accelerated by getting G League time.
“I was very clear with my agent that I needed to continue to play,” he told Slater. “I knew we had some guys that were injured, some older guys, and I knew they were gonna come back and get back in the rotation.
“So I was very adamant with my agent that I needed to go back down to the G League and play. That was a big boost for me. Even after that Chicago game, I came back down to the G League and had like a 21-point game. So it’s just big for me to continue to play. I feel like it’s good for me.
“And we were on the same page with Sean Marks and those guys, knowing that I needed to continue to get reps in these games.”
And indeed, it was good for him. Over a four-game stretch around his big NBA game, Whitehead averaged 21.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists on shooting splits of 41/32/67. Even with rough 3-point number, it was his best stretch since being drafted. In the two games since his hasn’t matched those numbers, but that’s how development often works, two steps forward, one back, repeat. And never underestimate the value of confidence, as Whitehead admitted.
“[I]t was confidence,” he said when Slater asked him what’s been the biggest challenge in his return. “When you’re regarded as a top guy coming out, supposed to be a top-five pick in the draft, and then you get hurt and have all these surgeries, you start to forget who you are. When I came back from that first injury and played in that summer league, my confidence was very low. I didn’t look to take a lot of shots, and if I did, they weren’t the best shots, I felt. So it’s just getting in the rhythm. I feel like I’m starting to find that rhythm out here.”
He said that the 18-point outing vs. Chicago coming after a 26-point game for Long Island, was a “huge moment.” And it came after another confidence touchpoint for Whitehead, the Nets decision in October to extend him through the 2025-26 season, guaranteeing him $3.3 million in a season when the Nets are husbanding cap space. Indeed, Whitehead praised both Sean Marks and Jordi Fernandez in the Slater interview for having confidence in him.
“They’re constantly reassuring me that this is for me to get reps, for me to come down here and get better, get a feel,” he told Slater. “When you hear your coach and GM saying stuff like that, it gives you confidence. I just come down here and attack it with the same mindset I would if I was in Brooklyn.”
The Newark native also had kind words for the now departed Dennis Schroder for helping his confidence flourish, noting how he encouraged him when he got his number called in the Chicago game.
“He was really excited about the way I was playing in training camp. When I came up and had my number called, he was one of the guys who told me, ‘Hey, if you get it, shoot it. Let it go.’” Whitehead said. “And when you hear probably our best on-ball playmaker saying shoot it when you get it, you’re gonna have a lot of confidence. So I was just going in there with a lot of confidence and shots were going in that day. It was a good game.”
Whitehead also addressed both his health and concerns about his athleticism.
“I feel like I’m pretty much all the way back,” he told Slater. “The last hurdle I gotta get over is me going to dunk on somebody. That’ll be when I know for sure I’m back. There’s a lot of things that changed in my day-to-day routine with me not having to cater to my body as much. Just going out there and getting better with time. I finally where I need to be. The last step is just going out there and dunking on somebody, then I’ll be back.”
Other than dunking on somebody, Whitehead also laid out what his goals are for the rest of the season out on the Island.
“For me, it’s more so playing the right way. Jordi emphasized taking the shots that I’ll take up there in Brooklyn,” he said. “Obviously everyone knows I’m a talented scorer, can score in a lot of ways, but it’s more so for me just keeping it simple. Not trying to get to stepback threes and stuff up here and knowing when I get with Brooklyn I might not have the opportunity to get those stepback threes. It might be a lot more catch-and-shoot. So just playing the right way, the way the coaches are emphasizing, and just creating the right habits.”
Times are tough now in Long Island. The Nets are the worst team in the G League, losers of 10 straight and that streak was topped by a 48-point loss in the league’s Winter Showcase Friday. In that game, the 20-year-old, still one of the NBA’s 25 youngest players, had six points shooting 2-of-8 overall, 2-of-5 from deep, but he did add two steals.
Whitehead’s development remains a work-in-progress but he’s got all this year in Long Island to refine things and is guaranteed next season as well. He doesn’t turn 21 until August 1 of next year. It’s an advantage of a rebuild. The Nets can be patient and finally it seems that patience is beginning to pay off for them and Whitehead.
- EXCLUSIVE: Nets’ Dariq Whitehead opens up on G League journey as former five-star recruit – Erik Slater – Clutch Points