He’s still struggling to get past injuries and establish himself as an NBA player
Things have not gone well for Dariq Whitehead since graduating from high school.
Well to be clear, we’re only talking about basketball The rest of his life may be going great. Basketball has been tough though.
He suffered a Jones fracture in August of his freshman year that required surgery. Then he had what initially looked like an Achilles injury (fortunately it was not).
After getting drafted by the New Jersey Nets, Whitehead another surgery on his foot to help it heal correctly. And in his rookie season, he had surgery for a stress reaction on his left shin and only played in six games - four in the G-League and just two with the Nets.
So it’s no surprise that he struggled somewhat in summer league play.
In particular, Whitehead did not shoot well. He hit just 6-41 overall, 2-24 from deep. He managed just 22.5 percent true shooting and a PER that actually went negative at -0.93. He did some thing well - shot blocking, rebounding, steals - but shooting is a problem.
The good news is that it’s just reps and he just needs to get healthy and stay healthy. Anyone who has seen him play understands he has elite talent but the bottom line is that you have to get on the court.
Thanks to Barry Jacobs for the heads-up on this.
