Duke Basketball Product Plans to 'Come Back Better Than Ever'
Dariq Whitehead could be a late lottery pick at the NBA Draft on June 22. On Tuesday, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski suggested as much, reporting that the Duke basketball product has met with teams holding a pick in the first half of the first round.
On the other hand, ESPN's latest mock draft has Whitehead going No. 26 overall to the Indiana Pacers (from the Cleveland Cavaliers). So there's a chance the injury concerns — he did not participate in NBA Draft Combine workouts — will drop him dangerously close to the second round, where contracts are not guaranteed.
According to Wojnarowski, the 6-foot-6 small forward "underwent a right foot procedure" this week "but is expected to be fully recovered for the start of NBA training camp" in September:
"Whitehead, who had an initial procedure on his right foot in August, underwent a second surgery at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York this week that Dr. Martin O'Malley called a 'revision operation with bone grafting for a fifth metatarsal Jones fracture.'"
His rehab from surgery begins in two weeks. And within a half hour of Wojnarowski's report, the 18-year-old New Jersey native out of Montverde Academy (Fla.) took to Twitter to reassure folks that his fully healed version will be "better than ever":
Last August, Whitehead sustained the fracture during a Duke basketball team workout in Durham. He had surgery then but still had to sit out all preseason practices and the first three games of the Blue Devils' regular season.
In January, just as the former McDonald's All-American and top-three 2022 prep had drawn five straight starts and become a more confident contributor, he suffered a left lower leg injury in a loss at Virginia Tech. That cost him four more games.
RELATED: List of Duke's All-Time McDonald's All-Americans
Although he emerged again as a consistent weapon in March, bumping his season averages to 8.3 points and 2.4 rebounds in 20.6 minutes per game, he never fully showed off his turbo boosters and complete repertoire as a Blue Devil.
However, Dariq Whitehead ended his freshman campaign with a team-leading 42.9 shooting percentage from three on 1.5 makes per outing.
Coupling that impressive stat with the immense potential he displayed in high school, not to mention his notable positivity as an injury-riddled Duke basketball player, his worst-case should be a late first-rounder.
Duke's other projected first-rounder is fellow one-and-done Dereck Lively II. ESPN sees the 7-foot-1 big man coming off the board at No. 14 (the last lottery pick) to the New Orleans Pelicans.
Stay tuned to Blue Devil Country for more Duke basketball news.
