Peace, Love and Thunderstanding: He’s the D.J…
Who is D.J. White?
The easy answer is: Dewayne White, Jr. who was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama twenty-three years ago. He attended Indiana University where he was a Freshman All-American and was the de facto star of a disappointing Hoosier era that ran out head coach Mike Davis and ushered in Kelvin Sampson. After his eligibility expired in 2008, White was selected by the Detroit Pistons with the 29th pick of the first round and promptly traded him to the Seattle SuperSonics.
By the time he signed his first professional contract the team was headed to Oklahoma City, and since then, pinning down what or who D.J. White is or will become is harder than figuring out who is Kaiser Soze.
Is he another example of Sam Presti mining gold at the end of the first round? Is he a guy who will cash three million dollars worth of salary without ever contributing anything of significance? Is he a budding offensive star or a garbage time hero? Is he injury prone? Does he have bad luck? Can he break into the rotation?
So many questions and so few answers. What we do know is that he missed nearly his entire rookie season when a benign growth was found in his jaw during the preseason. Two surgeries that left him looking like, for a time, the elephant man with his humongous jawline, kept him from being allowed to participate in contact. When he was cleared to play, he spent some time dominating the D-League and then got a chance with the big team when the season had been written off and Sam Presti wanted to see what the young bench guys could do with extended minutes.
Obviously, with a limited sample size, White looked like an offensive juggernaut. Behind 52% field goal shooting (including 7 for 8 in his career debut), White scored 8.9 points an outing. Projected out to starters minutes (36 per game), it would equate to 17.2 points per game. The 6’9″ 250 pounder looked like the type of scoring big man who could come off the bench to give the Thunder a great boost when the first team caught their breath.
In his sophomore season, that has not been the case. Caught in a logjam at power forward, White has spent far more games in suits than out of his warmup. Through 49 games, White has checked into the game a grand total of eight times. There are some theories about why he has lacked playing time, but none have to do with lack of effectiveness. In those eight games, White has scored a point in every two minutes he plays and has done so on a whopping 68% from the floor.
One of those theories is that White needs to work on his rebounding. Except the numbers suggest that isn’t the case. Project his rebounds to starter minutes and he’d be pulling in 7.5 per game–which is actually slightly better than the 7.4 Durant grabs per game to lead the team.
Another theory is that he isn’t athletic enough to play defense. That has some more credibility. Serge Ibaka, while statistically inferior, has rocketed past D.J. in the depth chart. On the other hand, White’s Defensive Rating of 108 is not significantly worse than Serge’s 100, at least not enough that White’s offensive prowess shouldn’t earn him some spot minutes when the team is struggling to get on the scoreboard.
Some may think his injuries, if you can classify cancer as an injury, have set him back. Again, he still had a head start on Ibaka, and prior to an ordinary thumb set back recently, he was perfectly healthy in his competition with the uber-athletic Congolese rookie.
So why can’t he crack the rotation? Truthfully, I’m at a loss.
BTW, some food for thought. Thunder are at 28-21 right now with 33 games left to play. If they go 17-16 the rest of the way, OKC’s at 45 wins. At this point, I’d be pretty shocked if they don’t get there.
If the comparison is Green vs Ibaka vs Collison vs White at PF,
Scoring ability from high to low would probably go White, Green (or some would go Green then White) then Ibaka, Collison
Rebounding Ibaka, Collison, White, Green
Passing White, Green, Collison, Ibaka
Defense at PF hard to say but it might be
Collison, Ibaka, then Green / White or White / Green. Can’t really say yet and it depends on opponent mobility vs playing inside.
They don’t weight the same but that’s
Green a first or second, a second, a third and a third or fourth.
Ibabka so far is a first, second, third and fourth.
Collison is a first, second, third and fourth.
White a first or second, a second, a third and a third or fourth.
That is an unclear situation.
If you add Krstic, Mullens and even Durant to the PF equation and whoever they draft this season or next or trade for it seems up for grabs or perhaps at least should be.
If you trust Adjusted +/-, Statistical +/- or your own eyes in addition to these numbers you might tip one way or another.
Crow: Thanks for the comparison charts.
I’m not a big proponent of +/- over such small sample sizes. You could cherry pick 200 minutes from any player to support any argument, it’s not enough time to make any kind of determination..
White’s per minute production is nice when he’s on the court. I’m not sure I put much value in 200 minutes of +/-.
How you weight the importance of Scoring, Rebounding and Defense from the PF spot with the starters would seem to be the right way to select the guy for that job. By having Green there are they saying the PF job with the current starters is mainly about scoring? Maybe it is. But it is more likely they just flat assumed him there rather than apply any comparison. If scoring is the most important job then White seems like he could do that too. If job #1 and maybe #2 is rebounding and defense then others would look like better choices.
Is the way Ibaka gets the job by focusing on rebounding and defense or raising his scoring? Ideally he’ll do both and it will probably take being good at both to get the job.
You are welcome Rhett.
I really think we need to take White’s stats so far with a grain of salt. Do we really think DJ White could average 18 a game playing starter minutes? How about once defenses adjust? How much would his efficiency drop? Does he understand how to play team defense? Is he a fouling machine? I can only make educated guesses at the answers to these questions, but I’m guessing the coaching staff – who watch DJ in practice every day – have a much more accurate guess than I do. Like I said, DJ will get his minutes eventually, but I’m not holding my breath for him to solve our front court problems.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4887916
KD article
I’m not talking about trading White. My point is that if you want DJ White to get 10 minutes a game in 2010-11, those minutes have to come from somewhere. And, with 5 draft picks and cap space, it seems highly unlikely that we’re going to start 2010-11 with the same frontcourt rotation. We almost definitely — whether in the draft or by trading one/both of the first-rounders — are going to have at least one more big man to go with Green, Collison, Krstic, Ibaka, and Mullens. (Perhaps Collison and/or Krstic will go, but the point still stands.)
So for White to get 10 minutes a game next season, who are you taking them from? Your new first-round pick? Your fancy trade pickup/FA signing? Ibaka, who’s showing tons of promise? Collison, who has done his job well for 6 years now? Those are the options, and not a one makes any sense based on 200 minutes of nice stats in unimportant situations.
guess we’re in agreement, didn’t mean to argue with you, just clarifying a bit. I like those long posts.
http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nba_tv/2010/02/03/20100203_sounds_ofthe_game.nba/?ls=iref:nbahpt1
Sounds of the Game. KD makes a sweet drive about 1:10 into the clip.
One of Krstic or Collison could be traded and that would free some minutes next season and / or just cut Green back to 30-32 total minutes and make 8-12 of them at SF.
Next season between PF and C you got 96 minutes
you could go
Green 20-24 (at PF), Ibaka 14-24, White 10
Collison or Krstic 20, Mullens 10, a new big or bigs 8-24. Keep both Collison and Krstic you just don’t pick up a new guy or don’t play your rook.
They probably wouldn’t even consider Krstic at PF so I’ll let that one go.
Mullens at PF might be more interesting but will they even try it? You’d want to try it in practice first before making a leap but I say try it for real sometime.
Of course you got to fill the center spot with somebody.
Somebody good or at least ok on team defense first (to me) and at least one of rebounding or scoring, probably rebounding. How good and how quick will Mullens or Ibaka become good at help defense reads? Unless and until either one becomes at least a “solid ok” on that they’ll probably keep Collison and Krstic.
I hope that the Amar’e for Iggy and Sammy D deal happens. If Phoenix gets Sammy D, Robin Lopez becomes unnecessary. Then, they could trade Lopez to us for their first-round pick back. They have to. I’ve guaranteed that they will. Don’t let me down, Steve Kerr!
Uhm…doesn’t White have an injured hand? Couldn’t that explain why he hasn’t played recently?
white needs to play more next year, at the very least to build trade value
@Vega
I would be (pleasantly) surprised if we can get Robin Lopez for a first round pick and some change.
Key word: surprised
BTW, only 14 days until the trade deadline. I’m so pumped
I thought of this before but try to stay away from trade speculation for the most part. They might be able to get Lopez for White and whatever balancing was needed if they couyld agree on the balancing. Especially if such a deal goes down. White’s game probably fits well enough into what Phoenix is trying to do.
I think White’s value, or lack thereof, comes from his defensive problems. As Brooks said in the beginning, this year was about defense. White doesn’t really play any. Ibaka gets time because he has the physical tools to defend the way Green and Krstic can’t. Remember that every shot coming from the backup PF position is a shot taken away from someone else. Scoring a point every two minutes means he’s taking a good number of scoring opportunities while he’s in. Perhaps the greatest problem is that he plays too much like a starter, and not enough like a role player.
As for trades, I can see Robin Lopez going anywhere. His contract is small, and his potential is high. They can afford him and simply move Frye to PF. There are only a few names that really make sense to our team: Lee, Bosh, Jefferson, and Boozer. The first three are young enough to keep for the future, and significantly bolster our scoring and rebounding from the PF spot. Boozer would significantly boost our frontcourt this year, but not likely stick around after. He would be a great pickup if we want to give the young’ns some real playoff experience while also preserving our cap space over the summer. Utah would have to agree to drop him just to cut salary and get a late first rounder though, as he’s not worth much as just an expiring contract to us.
Frye is even more imbalanced than Krstic regarding offense /defense but if you wanted more offense and weren’t willing to change anywhere but center you could think about Frye. I am not saying I’d target him highly but he will be out there and hard to say what else they can actually get. If they decide not to stand pat and I think they are more far likely to stand pat than do this. I assume Phoenix keeps him but sometimes in those situations deciding on the mutually agreeable price can encounter problems. What is Frye’s value? About where Krstic is on pay? Higher? Lower?
I don’t think the Suns give up Channing Frye. He lost his starting spot but he’s pretty valuable for them stil..
I think it’s key to have guys on your bench that could start on other teams because it keeps the practice level high. DJ will find his way on to court somehow. Championship teams usually have a 7-8 man rotation and thats it, 4th quarter playoff games it’s your best 5-7 guys thats it. Rest of the bench is cheerleaders.
I have passed on mentioning Frye several times before because it is unlikely he leaves and unlikely they pick him up. But you could apply the logic that puts Krstic in the starting lineup to Frye or White. I am interested in what Frye gets paid to see what that says about the value the team got in Krstic, what they may have to pay Green and what other teams might end up valuing White at, considering both his play and his current pay level.
Regardless of what they do with minutes among the bigs next season the minutes for 2011-12 has either “flex’ or “need”.
Unless you think it will be Green 36, White 10, Ibaka 30, Mullens 20 or something.
I can’t imagine a scenario where we don’t add a front court player via free agency or trade. Unless one of Ibaka or Mullens become legitimate starters at center within the next year, there will be too many good front court options available between now and next year’s deadline to pass up.
Maybe the best values will be after the lockout / next CBA signing.
If you find something you really like before then great.
From a money standpoint maybe you wait.
From a keep Durant happy, successful and there standpoint you can’t afford to be short.
@Crow
I’m also interested in Mullens at the 4.
White is the odd man out unless Green gets traded.
My depth chart would look something like this:
PF – Green/Mullens/Collison
C – Defensive Draft Pick or Trade/Ibaka/Krstic
Mullens & Ibaka COULD pair together nicely. Collison & Krstic could come off the bench.
@DizzyDai
I’m not sure there is even 1 coach in the NBA that puts Mullens in the rotation before Collison. Nick is the kind of guy every team needs. Does the dirty work, is rarely out of position, and can score occasionally.
@PNT
Not now. I know. I was being speculative about the future line up. Collison provides defense Krstic offense. Mullens offense, Ibaka defense.
It makes me sad that it took five hours for someone to pick up on the reference.
Yes, Patrick, that explains why he hasn’t played in the past week. He’s been healthy most of the season.