From what I have heard anyone could use Whitehead. Never seen him play but I do not think it is going out on a limb to say that he would be better than Greene, Hooper and Branch. I would accept we did not need the Morton headache, but not that we could not use the player. That is just sour grapes.
Of course, we could have used Whitehead. That's a no brainer. But I'm not convinced that just because he's this McDonald's kid that automatically means he'll be better than Branch. Branch has had a rough couple of years transferring, and then playing hurt last year, but he'll be a senior next year, and from what I can tell from Europe, he took this summer seriously, and apparently, he played like a veteran in Europe.
I'll give you a comparison that is certainly different situation, but it resonates for me. Remember when SU thought they had Steph in the bag, and then he popped for Georgia Tech? How did SU recover from having to go with their chubby, slow, poor shooting point guard in Lazerus Sims? The senior played like one.
I am counting on the same type of development from Branch. He has great point guard skills. Now, he needs to take control of the offense.
And as far Whitehead's success goes, I see a Felipe Lopez circus developing while the Hall falls flat on their faces this season. He arrives with serious media coverage and hype, and struggles because there is no one else on that team that needs to be guarded.