Brooklyn Nets guard Isaiah Whitehead underwent successful wrist surgery and will be sidelined for the remainder of the season.
The Brooklyn Nets will be without Isaiah Whitehead due to surgery performed on his wrist as stated by the team on NBA.com. According to the team:
Brooklyn Nets guard Isaiah Whitehead underwent successful surgery today to repair the scapholunate ligament in his right wrist. The procedure was performed by Dr. Michelle Carlson at the Hospital for Special Surgery. A timetable for his return to basketball activity will be determined at a later date.
Hopefully, Whitehead can make a full recovery this offseason. He’s struggled to crack the rotation in Brooklyn, only appearing in 16 games this season. Whitehead has spent a majority of his time this season with the franchise’s G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets. He played in 30 games for Long Island and averaged 22.3 points per game.
Although Whitehead hasn’t been a featured option for Brooklyn this season, there is still serious potential for him to become a rotational piece in the future. Whitehead is under contract through the 2019-2020 season.
The Seton Hall product was behind multiple guys like Spencer Dinwiddie, D’Angelo Russell, Joe Harris and Caris LeVert on the depth chart. But the good news for Whitehead is that on a young team like the Nets, there should be another opportunity coming his way soon. He used his time with Long Island to develop his off-ball game and add an element of versatility to his game.
Kenny Atkinson spoke to Laura Albanese of Newsday about Whitehead’s increased versatility:
“I do like that we saw him much more off the ball,” Atkinson said. “We’re thinking that’s probably going to translate better. He can still have the ball in his hands and we’re multi-positional and all that, but he’s definitely really good about being off the ball, scoring the ball off the ball and defending off the ball.”
Whitehead’s future role with the Nets isn’t certain and this injury is certainly a setback, but the 23-year-old could still have a very bright future in Brooklyn.
