National Basketball Association

Brooklyn Nets: Evaluating Isaiah Whitehead's First NBA Start

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Brooklyn Nets’ own Isaiah Whitehead made his first start as a rookie. Whitehead had huge shoes to fill as Jeremy Lin was out with a hamstring injury. We now evaluate his performance against the Charlotte Hornets.

Isaiah Whitehead finally accomplished what every young player wanted to do, start for an NBA team. While Whitehead may have started prematurely as Jeremy Lin was down, he was the next in line to start. From here on out, all eyes will be on Whitehead as he looks to carry on Lin’s role as a playmaker.

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Here is what Whitehead had to say about his start:

“It was a good experience but at the end of the day we lost,” Whitehead said. “That’s never good.”

Whitehead’s first start didn’t go smoothly. He had a rough start in his first game as a starter, committing five fouls. Most of the fouls he committed during the game were unnecessary and he could’ve been more careful or smarter.

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Whitehead did show signs of aggressiveness though, attacking the basket as much as he could. He scored eight points while shooting 4-of-9 from the field (44.4 percent), had three assists, and committed two turnovers. While it was nice to see him get the start he deserved, there were moments in the game where Whitehead could’ve had better shot selection or better passing.

At times throughout the game, Whitehead was erratic with his ball-handling. He also threw some dangerous passes. It’s as if he and his teammates were not in sync. When a Nets fan is watching the game, the mood is like “come on Isaiah” every time he makes an unwise decision with the ball. His minutes speak for itself, as reserve Sean Kilpatrick played for 32 minutes, primarily as a point guard, while Whitehead played only 23 minutes.

Overall, Whitehead has a lot to improve on in his game. He needs to work on his basketball IQ and decision making. He does have aggressiveness when he attacks the basket, but he needs to be smarter on how he goes about his shot selection. Nets fans can only hope for him to improve more in place of Lin for the coming two weeks.

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