It’s that time of the year. From DraftExpress:
D.J. White may [have] a promise from the Detroit Pistons at the end of the first round, according to sources with ties to the player. The Pistons have the 29th overall pick and may like the way White’s length and toughness fit into their team’s overall culture. They have not been shy in the past about identifying players they like early on and being aggressive pursuing them—having made a promise to draft Rodney Stuckey with the 15th overall pick right around this time last year, and reportedly also giving DeVon Hardin assurances they would select him in the late first round before he decided to return to school. They did the same exact thing with Jason Maxiell a few years back, which caused him to pull out of the NBA pre-draft camp after just one day, despite then being projected as a 2nd round pick.
White has scheduled many workouts with NBA teams for the weeks leading up to draft, which is not unusual even for players like Stuckey or Maxiell if year’s past is any indication. He will not be playing in the NBA pre-draft camp, which is a pretty good sign that he feels comfortable with where he is projected to be drafted.
(Thanks to DBB reader John for the tip!) To be completely honest, I only pay attention to college hoops during March Madness and the weeks preceding the NBA’s draft, but the name DJ White did ring a bell. After hitting up Google, I realized why: our own LawyerBoy was talking up White in the comments just a couple of weeks ago:
I’d like to take a long look at D.J. White who I’ve followed religious as an IU alum since he first set foot in Assembly Hall for Indiana University. As a five-star prospect (#15 overall in 2004 for Rivals.com) I was disappointed a lot in D.J. and thought he was inconsistent for the first three years of his career. This year however, the guy absolutely blew me away. I had no faith in him for this year and he wasn’t just good this year, he was DOMINANT during a tumultuous season where he got his 3rd head coach of his IU career mid-season! He has a weird game at about 6′8 245, but he’s like Maxiell minus the freakish athleticism (read: leaping ability & explosiveness) and plus a little more offensive savvy with his back to the basket. White plays his behind off on every single play on both sides. D.J. is incredibly strong and he has a nice midrange jumper with a full compliment of post moves. He could be a useful guy in the league, he may not be.
I also pinged former FanHouse colleague PostmanR (who’s not only an Indiana alum but also one of the co-founders of Hoosier hoops blog Inside the Hall) for his take:
He finally reached his potential this year — he was a bear and real consistent. Former McDonalds All-American, averaged a double-double, was Big Ten player of the year. Skill-wise, he’s a good rebounder, he’s got kind of a turn around hook that he can work well but I wouldn’t go so far as to call him “athletic” — he was a bit of klutz at times. He’s a high character guy, had to wade through all the bullshit with the coaching changes and whatnot. I mean, in the late first round, it’s not easy to get an impact guy but you’re getting a consistent hard-worker who can play in a system.
So there we go. I’m sure the Pistons will deny any talk about a promise … just like they did last year when the same type of rumor surfaced involving Rodney Stuckey. It’ll be interesting to see if this rumor gains legs.
For what it’s worth, Chad Ford’s latest mock draft has the Pistons taking Nathan Jawai out of Australia. If Ford eventually validates the White rumor, it’ll be hard to ignore given his cozy relationship with Joe Dumars (though it’d be equally understanding if Dumars played this close to the vest in fear of losing White).
Update: DBB reader Taco John has another glowing review in the comments. Without having seen a single minute of game tape on him, you guys have me sold.
Eeeeeeyyyyy mang, we’ve got 6 more wins before its that time of the year again.
I have seen some games of Jawai (on TV) and he could be a prospect. Needs to develop a bit though as his game can be best described as rough.
Laughton: I actually thought of you when I saw he was from Australia.
As a Hoosier alum who watched almost every game DJ played in college, let me add to the DJ White story:
DJ came in as the price recruit in Mike Davis’ (in)famous “Help is on the way” class in 2004 (at least after Josh Smith said “Thanks, but no thanks” to college). DJ posted decent numbers as a freshman, highlighted by a very good performance against Paul Davis in a critical home game against Michigan State.
DJ’s sophomore year was supposed to be a great coming out party. Teamed with transfer Marco Killingsworth, they were supposedly one of the best frontcourt duos in the country. Instead, DJ breaks his left foot not once, but twice, and plays in something like five games.
His junior year was a combination of learning how to play for Kelvin Sampson and gaining confidence that his foot was not going to explode. His offense was pretty limited to passing out of double teams (he struggled with this) and hitting his trademark turnaround baseline jumper.
His senior year was once again supposed to be the road to greatness, paired with Eric Gordon. However, Sampson’s inability to put down the phone derailed the season. DJ however stood out. Having gone through one coaching change already, he wasn’t really fazed with Sampson was pushed out the door. During the season, two things stood out. First, he had added countless new dimensions to his offensive game now that he felt comfortable that his foot was totally healed. Secondly, his passion and leadership stood in stark contrast to Gordon’s more stoic “silent assassin” persona.
I agree with much of LawyerBoy and PostmanR said about DJ. He won’t blow you away with athleticism. “Graceful” will never be used to describe him. In a lot of ways, he’s the yang to Amir’s yin. If I was to protect his career, best case scenario is Ben Wallace with offense. The sort of reasonable guess would be something like Corliss Williamson with a little bit more size.
Although admittedly a big DJ fan, I think he fits the Pistons’ mold. Physically, he fulfills the Pistons’ desire for length at every position. Skillwise, he has a varied game whether he backs someone down, or faces up. Defensively, he has a passion for that end of the floor, and can be a very intimidating help-side defender. And as a character guy, he never once complained about being injured, having two coaches fired, or being asked to defer to a freshman. Not to mention that he was, by far, the most consistent performer on the Pan Am Games team last summer.
If fans get a vote for who the Pistons draft, count me in Dewayne White Jr.’s corner.
Can he back up Tayshaun or is he more of an undersized 4? Is he too slow to play the 3?
Bit more info.
24 points 12 rebounds (9 OR) in 29:43 - NBL All Star Game MVP
NBL Rookie of the Year
Jawai that is.
@Quick Darshan:
No way. He’s too slow to back up Tay. The best I can say for DJ in perimeter defense is that IU the last two years, much like the Pistons, likes to hedge on all screens, which means DJ regularly was out trapping a perimeter player, getting switched onto little guys, bothering a guard who was looking to penetrate, etc. Against college guys, he more than held his own. He was able to get out there, bother the guard, not pick up cheap fouls, and rotate back to his man. I’m somewhat concerned about his ability to do this against NBA guards and forwards.
As for game film, there’s an IU fan who puts together highlight films, so you can get a little look at DJ here.
My favorite might be this game against Michigan were he went for 21 points and 22 boards.
Nice to see all these fellow IU alumns on here. Makes me feel a little less out of place wearing a Pistons shirt to work today in Indianapolis.
I also endorse him - LB, TJ, and PR all hit the nail on the head with him. The only extra thing I can add is his leadership. He’s a guy who gets excited out there and really, really wants to win. Even when he was hurt, he was always into the games, fired up, and excited.
As someone that blogs about Michigan basketball and the Big Ten I would definetely be happy with a DJ White selection. DJ is very long, has a very high release on his shot and was a consistent producer over his career at IU. He is not a super freak athlete but can step out and hit a jumper and from what I have seen seemed like a very solid rebounder as well.
One of the reasons I think so highly of DJ might be because I watch the games when he destroys Michigan (Taco John mentions 22 and 21…yea..) so easily. Although I will say his shot is very hard to block and one of the few people I have seen do it is Ekpe Udoh.
So, he’s an undersized 4? I’m a little skeptical. Undersized players that lack elite athleticism (is that a word?) have a very difficult time in the NBA. The Pistons need help at SF or C, and it seems that White is neither.
Chad Ford says that this rumor is not true;
“Another bad one floating around the Internet has the Pistons promising to take Indiana’s D.J. White with the 29th pick. Pistons president Joe Dumars isn’t in Orlando, but I contacted him via e-mail and he said the rumor is totally untrue. The Pistons are bringing in a number of players, haven’t committed to anyone and are even looking at possibly moving their first for a couple of second-round picks.”
I’m hoping we can pick up a back up swingman, but if the value isn’t there then lets just take the best player available. Either way I trust Joe D…he’s almost always done well with his late 1st round picks.
When did this need for a center (or better yet a “true center,” whatever that means) come up? There’s only one or two guys you would call a traditional center in the conference: Big Z and Dwight Howard. The Pistons handled Howard pretty well by throwing a variety of bodies at him. They won an NBA title with a 6′9″ center. You no longer need a 7-footer to compete for an NBA title.
Backup SFs aren’t exactly a rare commodity. We can pick one up in free agency. We could resign Hayes. We could roll the dice with Hermann. Now if you can get a Chris Douglas-Roberts or a Brandon Rush at 29, you do it.
Assuming this series plays out according to conventional wisdom, if we went into next season with a roster of:
Billups, Hamilton, Prince, Sheed, McDyess (starters)
Stuckey, Afflalo, Hermann, Maxiell, Johnson (main rotation)
Ratliff, random perimeter player (active reserves)
Samb, DJ White (inactive reserves)
I would be very happy
i remember seeing white a while ago and being impressed. i think it was when davis was still the coach. i didn’t really know what happened to him. sounds like iu f-ed him over. nice job, indiana alums.
i enjoy those conference players of the year that slip into the late 1st round.
Don’t let all this hoosier homerism cloud your vision. As a msu alum, i saw plenty of DJ throughout his whole career, and would be very disappointed if we drafted him in the 1st round. First, I’m not sure why we need a watered down Baby eater. Maybe we could snag glen davis too, and have a bunch of 6-8 power forwards on the bench? As a senior and leader on that team, he disappeared or deferred to Gordon way too often. 2nd round flyer, maybe. 1st round guaranteed contract? A little too much corn in your diet, hoosiers.
This draft has a lot of 4s and 5s. I don’t expect to see projected point guards. I guess they missed the part where we selected guys like Stuckey and Afflalo.
I personally think that DJ would fit in good with the Pistons. Keep in mind people he has played out of position his entire career at IU. There were several Big Men recruited to come in to play the 5 and allow DJ to move to the 4 but they never lived up to hype or transferred. Also as far as competitiveness he lead the US PanAmerican Team in scoring and rebounding last year and that team had several NBA Prospect and a couple of First Round Locks. If DJ does not get picked by the Pistons he will make some team a valuable addition as I see him getting better and better each year
No offense to a solid contributor on the blog, but Craig is so wrong about this. Just because he’s an MSU alum doesn’t mean he understands what’s going on at Indiana. I HATED White for about three years (especially since he was the Steve Fisher-lite, Mike Davis’s prized recruit). With one single year the guy has assured me that he could succeed under the right direction (ours) in the pros. He was always a nice, quiet unassuming guy on campus (reminds me of Tay’s demeanor) and it finally clicked for him on the court this season when Indiana needed his leadership the most. Claiming he was deferential in any way is plain wrong. He’s a warrior out there who absolutely does not shy away from the big game pressure or take ANY play off. He won Big Ten Player of the Year with numbers of: 17.4 and 10.3 on 60.5% shooting from the field. To put this into perspective, Pac-10 wunderkind Kevin Love had 17.5 and 10.6 on 55.9% shooting and he’s going to be a guaranteed Top 10 pick. I understand I’m comparing apples to oranges to an extent (freshman v. senior, Big Ten v. Pac-10) but we’re talking #29. Those of us who know the real D.J. White know he’s a phenomenal talent who has gone through hell and back and managed to overcome all sorts of adversity. I don’t care what position he plays, he’d be a great addition to the team. Period.