Top Performance Series: Dariq Whitehead
The idea behind the top performance series is to go back and watch the best, or one of the best, box score games of each prospect's season to see how they looked when they were performing at their highest individual level and what that might show us about their ceiling as a prospect.
While this was one of Dariq Whitehead’s best box score games it was also the game where he simply played the most minutes and was played before he suffered his second injury of the season - the first being a preseason foot fracture causing a two week delay to his collegiate career - in a late January game vs Virginia Tech.
Offense
Whitehead came out on absolute fire in the first half of this game from behind the 3-point line. The shooting form is truly beautiful to watch and is one of those shots in which every time he lets one go you expect it to go in. You can tell the defense has the same idea about the 42% 3-point shooter as just the threat of him on the floor provides plenty of spacing for his teammates.
The Duke freshman was also able to utilize his shooting ability to leverage a couple off the ball opportunities at the rim. One of those being a pretty backdoor play to open the game and another where he made the perfect read of his lock-and-trail defender to curl the screen to the rim.
One area the jump shot could improve is with his off the ball relocation. As good as Whitehead is, you want him getting as many open looks as possible and he did not do himself any favors with movement to open areas along the 3-point arc.
Unfortunately, the 18-year-old left a lot of projection beyond his 3-point shooting. He did get a handful of ball screen handler possessions but nothing came from those that are extremely noteworthy. It was mostly your basic reads and passes without any manipulation of the defense or high level reads.
Whitehead is extremely unselfish and kept the ball moving but this came off a little bit passive and timid to really put the ball on the deck and attack the defense. Combining what we saw from him in high school with questions about the preseason injury lingering into the season it is hard not to give him a pass in this area.
The foundation is there to at least be able to attack closeouts with his shooting gravity but that aggressive mentality must return along with some increased explosion off the floor.
Defense
While it would be premature and unfair to push any sort of panic button on Whitehead’s defensive impact, there is plenty of room for growth. This showed up immediately as the game started, as the 6-foot-7 wing was late recognizing a couple off the ball screens coming his way and therefore ran right into those screens. There were a couple further examples of his lack of awareness that were highlighted with him being late on rotations.
The Newark, NJ native also tended to leak towards half court when a shot went up as opposed to involving himself on the defensive boards and making an impact for his team in that way. In general, more energy and activity off the ball would have been nice to see.
The on-ball defense was better and is something to have more confidence in even going back to his high school film at Montverde Academy. While it was not consistent, there were some really intriguing on the ball defense when Whitehead was engaged.
As mentioned, Whitehead is still 18 and had an injury riddled freshman season that easily could have impacted not only his offensive growth but also his defensive development. Even so, these are aspects that will be interesting to keep an eye on early in Whitehead's NBA career.
Ceiling
Elite floor spacer with self creation upside and overall neutral defender with positive on ball possessions.
Want to join the discussion? Like Draft Digest on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest NBA Draft news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.