My view:
We have learned a few things about Lavin's recruiting style. Number one, he will pursue anyone he thinks will help our team, regardless of ranking or geographic location. Second, once interest from a prospective recruit is not reciprocal (regardless of when in the process this occurs), or gets to a point where the staff views its time is being wasted for whatever reason, we bail. Reading the tea leaves, if Lavin and Co. is not pursuing Whitehead, it is because they have developed the understanding that continuing to do so would be a waste of our resources. No other explanation makes sense.