Syracuse Basketball: Andrew White III proved his worth in his NBA debut

In his NBA debut Wednesday night, Syracuse basketball alum Andrew White III displayed just how fearless and league ready he is. ITLH breaks it down.

This past Wednesday, on Valentines day, Atlanta Hawks fans fell in love with Andrew White III, and for good reason. The 24-year-old scored the most points in a Hawks debut since 1990.

After patiently waiting his turn on a young Hawks bench, game after game, Atlanta’s head coach Mike Budenholzer finally came to his senses this past Wednesday. In a tough road matchup with the Detroit Pistons, White played 17 minutes, hit three of his seven three-point attempts, and finished with a team-high 15 points on 55% shooting.

Going into this game, most were expecting White to simply be a spot-up three-point option because, with most wing players in this league, that’s what you get with someone his size.

However, on top of a strong shooting performance from three-point land, White made many smart decisions that were overlooked. Whether it was making a timely cut to the basket, or creating just enough room to connect on a contested three, the 6-foot-7 Syracuse product shined in his debut. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him continue to play regularly on a young and inexperienced Hawks team.

His first NBA basket did not come from downtown, rather under the basket. Fellow Hawks forward, DeAndre’ Bembry, was able to find a cutting White, who simply took advantage of two unaware Piston defenders near the basket. The score came at the 2:30 mark of the first quarter, and cut the Pistons lead to just 18-14.

With 11:02 remaining in the second quarter, White drove to the basket, and with three Pistons glued to him, was able to find a cutting John Collins for the lay-in. The two former ACC stars should mesh well together during Atlanta’s rebuild.

10 minutes later, White, without any doubt in his mind, banged home a contested three over Pistons sophomore Stanley Johnson. While the bucket was impressive, it was what he did with less than a minute remaining in the half that caught national attention.

With 45 seconds remaining in the half, White received the ball near the sideline, faked out Johnson, and proceeded to score a spectacular driving scoop layup over Andre Drummond.

After scoring seven first-half points, White continued to pour it on in the second half. With 3:10 remaining in the third quarter, Hawks guard Isaiah Taylor dished one out to White, who hit another contested three-pointer, this time over Pistons guard, Luke Kennard.

Less than a minute later, White faked out Ish Smith off the dribble, moved up, and hit a contested midrange jumper over Pistons forward James Ennis III.

It was the broadcaster himself who eluded to White’s strong debut and questioned his limited action when saying “feed White and vanish, he’s hot…Andrew, where’ve you been all year”.

His final three points came as time expired in the third quarter. Taylor dished the ball out to White, who proceeded to once again make a strong defensive effort from Kennard go for nothing.

White’s work ethic and ability to adapt to new situations were on full display on Wednesday night. In his postgame interview, he even said that that he had “just two shootarounds with this team” ahead of his debut.

Additionally, he said that he watches a 20-minute playbook video in his free time in order to get familiar with what is going on. He further said that he’s trying his best to memorize the plays and learn his team’s scheme.

Instead of talking about himself in the late stages of his interview, he eluded to how happy he was that Taylor, who he had been playing with in Erie, has also been given a chance to play at the NBA-level.

Less than 24 hours after his performance, ahead of the All-Star break, the Hawks decided to transfer White back to Atlanta’s G-League affiliate in Erie.

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Because of his two-way contract, moves like this are expected. However, after seeing him score the basketball the way he did on Wednesday night, it is safe to say that we will be seeing plenty more of AW3 in the NBA during the 2017-18 season.