Nets select Noah Clowney 21st, Dariq Whitehead 22nd – The Denver Post

They kept their picks after all. Which means a subsequent deal could be imminent.

The Nets held consecutive late first-round picks in Thursday’s NBA Draft and were expected to package picks Nos. 21 and 22 in an attempt to either move up in the draft or put together a trade package for an impact player or another star.

They did neither.

Instead, the Nets selected Alabama’s freshman stretch four Noah Clowney 21st overall, then took Duke’s 3-and-D forward Dariq Whitehead with the ensuing pick.

Brooklyn’s front office clearly put an emphasis on floor spacing. The Nets also prioritized size, and they got both in their back-to-back first-round picks on Thursday night.

Clowney has stretch-four potential at the NBA level. He led Alabama in rebounding 14 times last season and made the 2022-23 SEC All-Freshman Team while converting at a 28.3% clip from downtown. The volume was more noteworthy than the percentage: Clowney attempted an average of more than three threes per game and profiles as a solid fit alongside starting center Nic Claxton, comparable to Kristaps Porzingis’ projection as a strong fit alongside the rim-protecting Robert Williams in Boston.

Whitehead was named the 2022 Naismith High School Basketball Player of the Year. He shot 43% from three-point range as a freshman with the Blue Devils last season and has legitimate potential at the NBA level as a three-and-D wing given his size at 6-7, 220 pounds.

Whitehead, however, also comes with his fair share of injury history, having undergone not one but two procedures on his right foot in the past year, the most recent coming in the first week of June. He is expected to be a full go for the beginning of training camp in September.

Whitehead is also the second-youngest Nets draft pick ever. At 18 years old — with a 19th birthday looming on Aug. 1 — the only younger draft pick in franchise history was Derrick Favors.

Both new draftees, however, are just one year removed from playing high school basketball with a steep learning curve ahead, faced with getting up to speed as new members of a Nets team with playoff aspirations.

With a roster stacked with veterans at each position, drafting two rookies likely means one or more of those vets are on the way out.

The Nets selected a three-and-D wing with a logjam at the position. They also selected Clowney despite Dorian Finney-Smith’s current status as a starter at the four.

For now.

Whitehead has a deeper offensive bag than Finney-Smith, a spot-up shooter and dribble-driver, and possesses the ability to create his own shot off the dribble. Most notably, he has a reliable step back jumper that converted from three-point range regularly: Whitehead shot 42.9% from downtown last season, though he only appeared in 28 games for Duke last season.

Regardless, the Nets now find themselves with multiple reserve wings: Royce O’Neale and Joe Harris were rotation mainstays last season. Not to mention Mikal Bridges and restricted free agent Cam Johnson project to see a significant amount of minutes on the wings next season.

It’s difficult to envision the Nets selecting these two prospects while simultaneously retaining their veteran depth and playing each Bridges, Johnson and Finney-Smith 30-plus minutes a night.

This, of course, is only the beginning.

NBA free agency begins at the top of July, and the Nets are expected to be among the teams active both in trade talks and in attempts to persuade free agents to come to Brooklyn.

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