Wow -- I don't think anyone expected the Pistons to have this many options. With Mario Chalmers, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Bill Walker and DeAndre Jordan still on the board, the Pistons selected DJ White out of Indiana with the 29th overall pick. I guess we should have figured -- it was a month ago that word of a promise first leaked.
If you remember, we got a couple of interesting scouting reports on White last month when word of the promise first broke. Here's Indiana alum PostmanR's take from Inside the Hall:
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.
Our own LawyerBoy, another Indiana alum, had this to say:
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.
Update: ummm ... nevermind. DJ White just got traded to the Sonics.