Potential can be a player's greatest ally and worst enemy. It can play the same role for the team that owns his rights. Such was the case for Royce White and the Houston Rockets, which took White with the 16th pick in the 2012 draft. Talent-wise, he was worthy of the top ten (according to all reports), but league wide knowledge of his mental health issues displaced him outside the lottery.
Thus, White was labeled a steal by pundits, a 6-foot-8 forward who could rebound, dribble-drive, pass, and defend -- and one who had played just a single season of college basketball. That potential handcuffed the Rockets for all of 2012-13 before they traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers this summer. He didn't make the team, and isn't currently on an NBA roster. In a recent interview on the Rockets blog, ClutchFans.net, general manager Daryl Morey humbly (or not so humbly) admitted, "I take some sort of pride in that you could argue that Royce White is the worst first-round pick ever."
Based on this piece by Chuck Klosterman on Grantland, for now it seems White's mental illness has prevented him from becoming the player many expected, or, for that matter, a player at all: he's never appeared in an NBA game. Along the way, he's been critical of Rockets management and their treatment of a disorder he believes should be handled in the same manner as a physical injury.
At the same time, no doubt the Rockets and their fans are feeling mental angst at what could have been. If only he didn't have such a perfect streak of knowns and unknowns, the unknowns being the one year he played college hoops and the less than prominent school for which he played, the knowns being his unusually stuffed stat line (13.4 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 5.0 apg, 53 percent fg) and the obvious physical gifts evident simply by watching him shoot around, perhaps we wouldn't be so frustrated by his lack of playing career up to this point. We don't really know the man or his skill set; we are obsessed nonetheless.
Given their relationship, cutting ties with White was probably the right move for the Rockets. If he one day emerges into the player they once believed he could, or somewhere close, they should feel vindicated, for knowing is almost always better than not knowing in the world of sports. Plus, that would show they made the right selection, just at the wrong time. Obviousy, Morey's comments were a dramatization, for bigger busts have come from much earlier draft slights. It just shows the extent to which White's potential seduced the young GM, a highly respected evaluator of basketball talent.
Maybe he'll become the next Josh Hamilton, the former #1 draft pick by the Devil Rays (now just the Rays) who suffered years of drug addiction before realizing his potential. Think the Rays are kicking themselves for releasing him? No way. Rather, whomever made that pick probably now sleeps better at night knowing what he saw in a young Josh Hamilton wasn't just potential; it was real.
