Is Cam Whitmore the next Ant?

[Frankie]

I don't know what his AST stats are in the last couple of weeks where he's been a bigger part of the rotation, but the eye test says he passes the ball more.

Whitemore in January: 3.8% AST with 9/15 games having 0 assists.

His seasonal average is 4.1% AST.

EDIT: He did have his only 2-assist game so far this season in January, though.

Thanks. I don't think he's a lost cause when it comes to fixing his tunnel vision. It's an obvious flaw in his game but he's a teenager and it can be fixed to a reasonable level.

There was a play recently (I think vs the Hornets) where it was transition attack, he got the ball right underneath the basket but he passed it neatly to Jalen for the easy layup. Insignificant play in the bigger picture, it was a blowout and Green scored 36, but it stood out to me in that he's at least thinking about finding his man in a better position to score.

[tsherkin]

Thanks. I don't think he's a lost cause when it comes to fixing his tunnel vision. It's an obvious flaw in his game but he's a teenager and it can be fixed to a reasonable level.

I haven't watched enough Houston to have an opinion, I just popped in with the stats, for the record.

[Chuck Everett]

Stats or eyes, he needs to make passing the ball a part of his repertoire and not just hunt 10 shots in 12 minutes with zero assists. It will only help his scoring if he shares the rock too. The thing is both FVV and Sengun love dropping dimes and making the extra pass (as do Jabari and Eason), so it's not like he isn't going to get it back.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

there are multiple tiers between them as players. So, no

CAM's PER is higher than Ant's year two PER. More efficient as a scorer than young ANT, even year three ANT in terms of Bballref Orating. Though he's not getting many minutes, I'm not seeing this huge gap in terms of play/production.

I mean he refuses to pass the ball though I guerss, that sucks.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Next Jaylen Brown is probably more accurate yeah

This is a more apt comparison. Poor man's version of jaylen brown. Dude is talented but has an emotional maturity of a child. It's only a matter of time before the rockets moves on from this knucklehead.

How do you know about his emotional maturity? I don't know much about this guy. Anyways, there are guys who are elite in the league who arguably don't excel in terms of emotional maturity. Many have played for the Brooklyn Nets in recent history.

[7r5ur]

Next Jaylen Brown is probably more accurate yeah

This is a more apt comparison. Poor man's version of jaylen brown. Dude is talented but has an emotional maturity of a child. It's only a matter of time before the rockets moves on from this knucklehead.

How do you know about his emotional maturity? I don't know much about this guy. Anyways, there are guys who are elite in the league who arguably don't excel in terms of emotional maturity. Many have played for the Brooklyn Nets in recent history.

Pretty sure it was a big reason that he fell in the draft, along with the long-term health concerns. Don't think those are good enough excuses for all the teams late in the lottery that passed on him though. Obviously the talent is there, at least in terms of pure scoring.

[Liam_Gallagher]

He's good, I'm so pissed the Lakers picked Hood-Schifino over him, Jacquez, and that nice rookie on Golden State.

To be fair, a lot of his minutes earlier this season were just garbage time in a blowout where he's by a huge mile the best scorer on the floor, so he got the leeway to be more of a chucker, and in a chaotic state the games were in, he wasn't facing much of a defence, so he was typically wide open when gets the ball, so driving to the rim or shooting on sight wasn't really a problem.

I don't know what his AST stats are in the last couple of weeks where he's been a bigger part of the rotation, but the eye test says he passes the ball more.

That sounds like a lot of excuses for a guy who has the worst FG% in the league for anyone with 30 or more FGs.

[Frankie]

He's good, I'm so pissed the Lakers picked Hood-Schifino over him, Jacquez, and that nice rookie on Golden State.

To be fair, a lot of his minutes earlier this season were just garbage time in a blowout where he's by a huge mile the best scorer on the floor, so he got the leeway to be more of a chucker, and in a chaotic state the games were in, he wasn't facing much of a defence, so he was typically wide open when gets the ball, so driving to the rim or shooting on sight wasn't really a problem.

I don't know what his AST stats are in the last couple of weeks where he's been a bigger part of the rotation, but the eye test says he passes the ball more.

That sounds like a lot of excuses for a guy who has the worst FG% in the league for anyone with 30 or more FGs.

Sorry dude, I meant to quote the post right above yours. I was talking about Cam Whitmore in my post. My bad man.

[louc1970]

Is he? He didn't measure but is speculated to have a 6'9 wingspan, Whitmore measured 5'5.75 barefoot (ant would probably be around 5'3-5'4 as he's speculated to be 6'5 in shoes) with a 6'8.5 inch wingspan.

Not saying he's the next ant or anything crazy but I do not that ant is much longer if longer at all.

Those are some high soled shoes.

And he said he doesn’t like drag shoes.

[shrink]

Read on Twitter

Cam better get moving.

[Shock Defeat]

Bump

[ocelot17]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

[Repeat 3-peat]

Does this guy hate passing to teammates?

[Chuck Everett]

Does this guy hate passing to teammates?

He mentioned in the postgame interview that "yes, he can pass," but the Rockets announcers both expressed shock at his pass to Jeff Green. The fact that Cam said that says to me that he is at least aware of his deficiencies.

However, the Rockets are still a work in progress on offense and play one of the slowest paces in the league due to having so many young players. This is where Cam's natural scoring ability is a weapon.

I do find it interesting though that Cam Thomas and Cam Whitmore have ball hog tendencies, even though they are playing with a lot of unselfish players who share the ball.

[MasterIchiro]

I don't know. What did Dean on Draft have to say about him (them)?

[GSWFan1994]

Stats or eyes, he needs to make passing the ball a part of his repertoire and not just hunt 10 shots in 12 minutes with zero assists. It will only help his scoring if he shares the rock too. The thing is both FVV and Sengun love dropping dimes and making the extra pass (as do Jabari and Eason), so it's not like he isn't going to get it back.

Yes, Chuck.

Cam reminds me of an extreme version of Kelly Oubre:

- Oubre has 576 assists in 562 games so far.
- Cam has 10 assists in 25 games (418 minutes) = roughly 1 assist every 42 minutes.

As great as he could potentially be in other areas of the game, he has to add some playmaking to his repertoire, because once he carves a bigger role, he will get really, really easy to figure out how to play against, as a player.

[Chuck Everett]

Stats or eyes, he needs to make passing the ball a part of his repertoire and not just hunt 10 shots in 12 minutes with zero assists. It will only help his scoring if he shares the rock too. The thing is both FVV and Sengun love dropping dimes and making the extra pass (as do Jabari and Eason), so it's not like he isn't going to get it back.

Yes, Chuck.

Cam reminds me of an extreme version of Kelly Oubre:

- Oubre has 576 assists in 562 games so far.
- Cam has 10 assists in 25 games (418 minutes) = roughly 1 assist every 42 minutes.

As great as he could potentially be in other areas of the game, he has to add some playmaking to his repertoire, because once he carves a bigger role, he will get really, really easy to figure out how to play against, as a player.

Those assist numbers are pathetic.

You hope someone on the Rockets coaching staff can get in his ear and he truly listens, because it is rare for a guy to have a grown man body at 19, shoot with range and finish with authority. But once those scouting reports come out, he's going to see hard doubles and then the turnovers are going to go way up.

I've never heard a home broadcasting team express shock that a player passed the ball. They're usually too homerific for that. So it's like the worst kept secret throughout the organization.

[yitur]

Cam's passing numbers scared me too when I considered him a top 5 prospect in the draft. But Rockets got him at 20 and he has Amen+Alperen next to him. Even if he just becomes a scorer and good defender, Rockets will have plenty playmaking around him to succeed. I don't think they can keep all of Alperen-Jabari-Tari-Whitmore-Green-Amen core. But next 2-3 years we will probably see them shine together.

[Harry Garris]

I still have zero idea why he dropped in the draft.

He was projected to go in the 4 to 7 range by literately everyone, but fell all the way to 20th. He wasn't even injured or had a massive injury history like someone like MPJ did. Ultra skilled scorer, efficient, crazy athletic. Again, no idea what teams were smoking. Rockets basically got two top 5 picks this summer.

Teams get way more intel on draft prospects than we do. There was definitely a reason why he dropped, we just don’t know what it is.

[stillgotgame]

He'll learn to pass the ball, who cares. Cam can elevate and shoot the three and is only 19. He's going to be a star.
How did he get missed in the draft is the bigger question? 20th is just ridiculous considering how much upside he has.