Shams: Whitmore to Wizards for 2 SRP

[dobrojim]

What Consig quoted sounds kinda like Ace Bailey in
some ways although not exactly the same toolbox but
the upside potential to be outstanding. And we didn't
have to forego taking Tre in order to take a flier on him.

That's the kind of asset management GMEG had no
potential to pull off says Capt Obvious.

[DCZards]

Gotta give it to Dawkins & Co., they are all about talent and asset accumulation. Turning two SRPs into a 21 yr old who is one of the most explosive athletes in the NBA—and arguably a 2023 lottery pick—is quite an achievement. As others have said, it’s a great low-cost, low-risk move. Exactly the kind of risk that a rebuilding team should be taking.

The knocks on Cam are concerning—a ball-stopper, selfish, lacking in court awareness, unwilling to play team ball, lacking intensity on defense. Hopefully, Cam sees this as a real opportunity—apparently he wanted to be traded to DC—and there are coaches, teammates, and others who are capable of convincing him that playing the right way is the best—and only—way to take advantage of that opportunity.

Edit to add: Cam's 3pt stroke and 3pt % look very promising.

[gambitx777]

I thought he.fell cuz of medical and his knees


Sent from my SM-S926U1 using RealGM mobile app

[trast66]

Gotta give it to Dawkins & Co., they are all about talent and asset accumulation. Turning two SRPs into a 21 yr old who is one of the most explosive athletes in the NBA—and arguably a 2023 lottery pick—is quite an achievement. As others have said, it’s a great low-cost, low-risk move. Exactly the kind of risk that a rebuilding team should be taking.

The knocks on Cam are concerning—a ball-stopper, selfish, lacking in court awareness, unwilling to play team ball, lacking intensity on defense. Hopefully, Cam sees this as a real opportunity—apparently he wanted to be traded to DC—and there are coaches, teammates, and others who are capable of convincing him that playing the right way is the best—and only—way to take advantage of that opportunity.

Edit to add: Cam's 3pt stroke and 3pt % look very promising.

Well said. He played 5 total minutes in the GS 7 game series, so obvious coach did not like him at all by that point in season. Boom or bust scenario at a low cost.

[PaulinVA]

The 2023 draft was the same draft in which Washington traded up one spot to select Coulibaly seventh. A team source said that Winger, Dawkins and Wizards senior vice president for player personnel Travis Schlenk thought highly enough of Whitmore that they attempted to make a draft-night trade to acquire another first-round pick that they would have used to select Whitmore before Houston snapped him up at No. 20...

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6475516/2025/07/05/cam-whitmore-trade-wizards-rockets/

[PaulinVA]

One of the comments posted under the article I linked above (apparently a Houston fan):

From watching the Rockets, it was clear that Cam was not happy with his spot in the rotation, and that has only been made worse with our recent trades.

Under Udoka, young guys have earned playing time through their defense (Eason/Jabari/Holiday) - I've seen improvements from Cam this year from the year prior, but defense has not been his calling card. He's a walking bucket when he's on his offensive game and his dunk highlights are insane - but he'll drive you nuts when he takes a play off to complain to a ref, loses his guy off a simple rotation, or sulks when he's pulled out of a game/gets put in for garbage minutes.

If he gets his reps in, improves his passing, and becomes just average on defense, he'll be a force. I really do wish him the best.

[doclinkin]

Cam and our other wings will have to compete aggressively against one another. We'll find out who prepares and wants it the most. This is the best possible environment to build a competitive, winning culture. Hats off to the front office.

I’ve been calling gladiator school, but what we really have been building here is the NBA equivalent of high-level European club teams. Squad of highly talented young players battling each other in practice on a daily basis, scrapping for playtime and notice by the coaches.

I’m not terribly worried about anyone being starved for minutes. I expect that given the close connection between the wizards and the gogo, we will see players cycle back-and-forth between both teams. And also see players go 13 deep on the bench trying out new configurations, and experimenting with lineups.

Coaches will have both carrot and stick to
motivate guys, considering they won’t have to lean on a veteran if the rookie is under performing, they will have the example of another young player who happens to be working harder or playing better defense.

But how much fun must this be for this crew? Most times an NBA team will have one or two rookies. Just a few young kids surrounded by grizzled professionals who really don’t have time to answer questions of the kid who’s probably trying to take their job.

Instead, we have almost an entire team of players on rookie contracts. Able to grow up together, as if they were highly paid interns while earning their undergraduate degree in the best pro sports league in the world. Must be pretty cool.

[Kanyewest]

I'm trying to remember something about him.
I see he's young (about to turn 21). Was he the
guy who dropped surprisingly in the draft that year?
He looks like a reasonable gamble for the price.
He's had some promising moments.

As far as 2RPs, CHI's could be relatively high.

Yup, went to Villanova- I watched a lot of him that season. He dropped significantly in the draft due to a combination of different factors. Poor medicals. Bad interviews and questions about attitude. The other important factor was that he was the youngest player in the draft and may not have been ready to contribute right away- and teams like the Warriors, Lakers, and Heat were looking for players to help them contribute right away. At the time, the Rockets were a rebuilding team and willing to take him for the value.

In some ways he's outperformed expectations. He has put together good scoring stretches of games at times- he is shooting 36% from 3 with a 55-56 TS%. But there have been questions about not only his defense at times but his ability to move the ball. In his rookie season he had more turnover assists and barely had more assists than turnovers in his sophomore season. He fell out of the rotation for the Rockets for guys like Jabari Smith and Tari Eason. And now the Rockets have trade for Durant. And signed DFS.

Mock drafts had him in the top 7. Sam Veccine had Whitmore rated as his 3rd rated prospect. Someone who guested on Bleav in Wizards thought that the 76ers should trade Maxey for him. NBA GMs have thought differently though. He may compliment someone like Bilal well since he's more aggressive while Bilal is a superior defender. Also does well in some metrics like wins shares per 48 although I do believe most GMs would take Coulibaly ahead of Whitmore.

I still like the move since there's a chance he could figure out how to move the ball better (he had a couple 4 to 5 assists game)- just needs to do that more consistently and maybe Keefe and the Wizards developmental staff can do better than the Rockets who have had some difficulty developing young players reach their potential recently like Jalen Green and Jabari Smith.

[doclinkin]

Age 19. Tre. Riley.
Age 20. Bub. Sarr.
Age 21. Bilal. AJJ. Whitmore.
Age 22. Key. (Vuk 2-way?).
(Johnathan Pierre exhibit 10)
Age 23 Jamir Watkins (JT Thor 2-way?)
Age 24. Champagnie. Dillon Jones.

That’s a college team.

Plus the 30+ yo vets.
CJ
Smart
Khris
Olynyk
Richaun

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Put Whitmore on the SL squad and let’s win it.

Bub/Aj
Tre/Riley
Whit/Watkins/Jones
Bilal/Key
Sarr/Vuc

[PaulinVA]

Read on Twitter

[Kanyewest]

Read on Twitter

[Dat2U]

The 2023 draft was the same draft in which Washington traded up one spot to select Coulibaly seventh. A team source said that Winger, Dawkins and Wizards senior vice president for player personnel Travis Schlenk thought highly enough of Whitmore that they attempted to make a draft-night trade to acquire another first-round pick that they would have used to select Whitmore before Houston snapped him up at No. 20...

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6475516/2025/07/05/cam-whitmore-trade-wizards-rockets/

Whitmore, Vukcevic, Sarr, T. Johnson, Riley ... Wizards are mirroring my draft strategy

[doclinkin]

Read on Twitter

Love that league execs also respect what the wiz are doing.

[verbal8]

It’s only a good move if they trade him for a first somehow because I don’t see anything more than a budding Nick Young.

I can see there are concerns in similar areas like motivation and areas of the game outside of scoring. However Whitmore as a young player on a rookie deal is comparable to Nick Young at his peak.

https://stathead.com/basketball/versus-finder.cgi?request=1&seasons_type=perchoice&player_id1=whitmca01&p1yrfrom=2024&p1yrto=2025&player_id2=youngni01&p2yrfrom=2013&p2yrto=2013

If you describe him as Nick Young with some shot selection, rebounding and upside that could be a pretty exciting player. Whitmore now actually younger than Nick Young was when he entered the league.

Caron Butler might be an overly optimistic comp, but Cam looks pretty good in a first 2 years comparison:
https://stathead.com/basketball/versus-finder.cgi?request=1&seasons_type=perchoice&player_id1=whitmca01&p1yrfrom=2024&p1yrto=2025&player_id3=butleca01&p3yrfrom=2003&p3yrto=2004

[9 and 20]

Really looking forward to this dude and Bilal trying to dunk everything. I like the aggressiveness he shows on the court, even if it ends up looking like tunnel vision sometimes. Hopefully he finds a nice balance.

At 6-7, 235 lbs, Whitmore might not be a 'power forward' but he might be a 'power wing' who can hold his own against most PFs. Hopefully he can Bilal can hold down the two starting forward spots. Would be fun to watch I think.

[9 and 20]

Good video on Whitmore's potential and shortcomings. Hopefully Dawkins does the same like he did with Tre and points this stuff out to motivate him to do better. Holes in Whitmore's game kind of remind me of Rui Hachimura, just a more athletic version.

Watch on YouTube

[closg00]

The 2023 draft was the same draft in which Washington traded up one spot to select Coulibaly seventh. A team source said that Winger, Dawkins and Wizards senior vice president for player personnel Travis Schlenk thought highly enough of Whitmore that they attempted to make a draft-night trade to acquire another first-round pick that they would have used to select Whitmore before Houston snapped him up at No. 20...

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6475516/2025/07/05/cam-whitmore-trade-wizards-rockets/

Whitmore, Vukcevic, Sarr, T. Johnson, Riley ... Wizards are mirroring my draft strategy

Remind us about your strategy

[doclinkin]

Really looking forward to this dude and Bilal trying to dunk everything. I like the aggressiveness he shows on the court, even if it ends up looking like tunnel vision sometimes. Hopefully he finds a nice balance.

Right. Same way I was saying about Ace, it’s fine if we add a ‘me-first’ scorer who is reliably willing to attack on a team that has multiple ball-moving connector types. Who else says ‘I got this’ and drives at the defense? BK is going to encourage that level of aggression. So long as the kid picks up some slack on defense he will earn minutes.

I’m especially eager to see if Smart can work with him. Both are thick sturdy types with a solid base. Smart can teach him how to use leverage and athleticism to put pressure on taller forwards on defense. And bully smaller guards. Likewise low post tricks at the other end. Same way I want Smart tutoring Dillon Jones. If Sarr plays outside in, there’s room underneath for bully ball forwards to beat up on guys and snatch boards.

The hope is that the chemistry and culture that we are building in the rest of the team influences Whit to buy in. That was the knock on him in the draft, that ‘character issues’ dropped him low based on his aptitude for team ball, coachability, etc. Hopefully the positivity of hometown BMore kid Bub is contagious to Cam more than Cams affect causing friction on the squad.

Interesting mix developing here. I wonder about leadership going forward.

[payitforward]

Where there's risk, there's reason to worry. Gotta wonder whether and to what degree this kid is prepared to change -- to be molded -- and able to change.

If so, however, there's a lot to work with!