Dariq Whitehead was sitting courtside in street clothes the other night in Las Vegas, not on the court…
Dariq Whitehead and Noah Clowney were the second and fourth youngest players drafted in 2023, taken at No. 21 and 22. Now, they’re in their third season and won’t turn 21 till later this summer. In fact, Clowney’s 21st birthday is Monday.
How young are they? Of the 59 players taken in the Draft on June 26 and 27 this year, the Brooklyn Nets duo is still younger than 29 of those selected. Among those selected who are older: Walter Clayton Jr. taken by the Utah Jazz who’s 22.3 years old; Nique Clifford of the Sacramento Kings at 23.4; Yanic Konan Niederhauser of the Los Angeles Clippers at 22.3 and their new teammate, Danny Wolf. Second rounder Rasheer Fleming just turned 21 Thursday.
So why isn’t Whitehead in particular not on the court in Las Vegas with the rest of the Nets Summer League team. He has been on the sidelines with other Nets players cheering on Brooklyn’s entry in the Vegas tourney. Not to belabor the point but of the 16 players he watched, only four are younger than him. He didn’t play his rookie year and although he played last year, his numbers were dreadful was coming off surgery. And third year players don’t generally play in the Summer.
All that said, Whitehead told Brian Lewis that the decision was made for him after his agents at Excel Sports and Sean Marks spoke. In an effort to get him back to 100% and ready to go in October, the Nets decided to hold him out or more specifically keep him back in Brooklyn where the performance team continues to work with him.
The 6’6” wing split time last season between the Brooklyn and Long Island Nets, averaging 5.7 points on 41/45/60 shooting splits in 20 games with the big club. He said he was planning on playing but the Nets wanted to act cautiously.
“Absolutely, me coming to play, obviously at the end of last season I was getting ready to prepare for summer league,” Whitehead said. “And then with the way I finished last season, it was just something that I guess my agent talked to Sean about and they were [thinking] more so get my body ready and prepare for training camp and next season.”
Indeed at the end of last season, the Newark native noted that this will be the first summer since he left Montverde Academy for Duke that he won’t be recovering or rehabbing,
“I haven’t had a summer yet since high school where I can be able to work on my body, work on my game, and get stronger,” he told our Scott Mitchell at the end of the Long Island Nets season. So far, Whitehead’s explosiveness is not what it had been at Montverde when he was national player of the year in 2022 but he’s developed a strong 3-point game. It was the Nets’ belief that he could return to form that persuaded them to take him at No. 22. The consensus was that if he had not been injured, he would have been a top five selection.
For the record, Whitehead had two surgeries on his right foot in August 2022 just before he entered Duke and in June of 2023 just before the Draft. In January 2024, he had a third surgery again, this time on his left shin.