Shams: Whitmore to Wizards for 2 SRP

[DCZards]

Funny thing is…I’m thinking Cam may be the player we’ll WANT to have the ball in his hands attacking the basket, especially given that our two top young guards, Bub and Tre, aren’t especially known for their ability to get to the rim.

We’ll probably be shouting…”Don’t pass the ball Cam, get to the freaking basket!”

[tontoz]

Funny thing is…I’m thinking Cam may be the player we’ll WANT to have the ball in his hands attacking the basket, especially given that are two of our top young guards, Bub and Tre, aren’t especially known for their ability to get to the rim.

We’ll probably be shouting…”Don’t pass the ball Cam, get to the basket!”

Now that you mention it, the spacing wasn't great in Houston. We have Bub, Tre and Sarr shooting 3s. That might make it easier for him to get to the rim.

[popper]

I coached a player like Cam many years ago. Once it became apparent that he was a selfish gunner I laid out a plan for him to constrain the number of shots he could take per game. If he took one more than that he'd be pulled). Obviously I told him to concentrate on assists, rebounding, etc.

The first game we implemented the constraint I could hear his dad screaming "shoot" every time he touched the ball. The kid just looked up in the stands and glared at his father. After the game the father rushed me red faced and spitting venom. The kid tried to calm him down and told the father he lead the team in assists that game. Each game he improved I increased his shot quota.

I have a ton of faith in our coaches and front office. I will be surprised if they can't figure out a way to make Cam a more complete player.

[payitforward]

in short, a risk but not a big one. Might make us better long term. Hard to see how it hurt us long term.

[Northwest Roddy]

Dawkins got a fever, and the only prescription is more wings!!!

[FarBeyondDriven]

fraudulent Ime Udoka is the worst coach a young player could hope to play for. It's not an indictment on Whitmore that he didn't get playing time there. I'm a little surprised he chose to go to the Wizards given the lack of minutes but he probably figured it couldn't be worse than what he had in Houston. If there's no moves made before the season it could get ugly though with so many mouths to feed. He's talented but no more than any of the current young guys so it'll be interesting to see who plays and who doesn't.

[payitforward]

fraudulent Ime Udoka is the worst coach a young player could hope to play for. It's not an indictment on Whitmore that he didn't get playing time there. I'm a little surprised he chose to go to the Wizards given the lack of minutes but he probably figured it couldn't be worse than what he had in Houston. If there's no moves made before the season it could get ugly though with so many mouths to feed. He's talented but no more than any of the current young guys so it'll be interesting to see who plays and who doesn't.

Here's the thing: Cam: Cam has gotten playing time. In 2 years, he's played just over 1700 minutea.

The problem is that he hasn't played well.

Don't get me wrong -- he hasn't been horrible. There's hope for him. But he certainly hasn't performed well so far.

[nate33]

fraudulent Ime Udoka is the worst coach a young player could hope to play for. It's not an indictment on Whitmore that he didn't get playing time there. I'm a little surprised he chose to go to the Wizards given the lack of minutes but he probably figured it couldn't be worse than what he had in Houston. If there's no moves made before the season it could get ugly though with so many mouths to feed. He's talented but no more than any of the current young guys so it'll be interesting to see who plays and who doesn't.

Fradulent Ime Udoka?

In his first season coaching, the Celtics improved from 36-36 the previous season to 51-31 and went to the Finals. And that's with two 23-year-olds (Tatum and Grant Williams) and two 24-year-olds (Pritchard, Robert Williams) in the rotation.

In his second season coaching, the formerly 22-60 Houston Rockets improved to 41-41 with a lineup that featured five guys 21 or under in the top 8 rotation (Sengun, Thompson, Smith, Green, Whitmore) plus one more who was 22 (Eason). The next year, they went 52-30.

I'd say Udoka has a very good record of getting youngsters to play well. It's actually my biggest reservation about the Whitmore trade. If Udoka couldn't get through to him, I'm not all that optimistic that Keefe will.

[PaulinVA]

Read on Twitter

[keynote]

The league can be inhospitable to iso gunners who aren't good enough at scoring to justify their one-dimensional game and/or lack of positional size.

Glen Rice Jr looked great in summer league and garbage minutes, but he wasn't good enough to be an automatic bucket against rotation players, and the rest of his game didn't pick up the slack.

It's interesting that one-dimensional 6th man microwave scorers tend to be combo guards with just enough PG skills to initiate offense for a few minutes off the bench. Do microwave, high-usage bench wings / forwards last? The Q Rich / Bonzi Wells archetype might be obsolete. Michael Beasley couldn't make it work, for example.

If that's true, then Cam either needs to elite enough at scoring to justify being a black hole starter, or he needs to round out his game to be a third option starter / solid bench contributor.

[DCZards]

I’m not finding much negativity about Cam coming out of reports from Houston. Just a young player frustrated with his lack of playing time.

Here is Udoka’s response to that video interview with Cam on the previous page.

“I’m totally fine with people expressing whatever they need to express,” the Rockets’ head coach said. “We’ve had a ton of meetings and one-on-ones, myself and him and other coaches, so, there’s an understanding of what’s expected and what’s going to help you get on the floor.”

Commentator at the link below says the Rockets really didn’t want to trade Cam but Cam and his camp forced their hand because of Cam’s frustration with playing time. He blames Udoka’s inflexibility for not letting Whitmore play through his mistakes and growing pains. That stuff starts at around the 6 minute mark.

https://www.google.com/gasearch?q=cam%20whitmore%20problems%20in%20houston&source=sh/x/gs/m2/5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ded46738,vid:mhkhmPZ5Ie8,st:0

[TGW]

A poster said this about Whitmore on the GB, and I wholeheartedly agreed with the post. This is what he is to a tee:

Whitmore is a complicated piece. I loved him in the draft and thought of him as the SG version of Amar'e Stoudemire: unstoppable athlete with nice jump shot counter.

However, the NBA is different now, and guys who can't pass or create are harder to fit into lineups. Whitemore can score, but he doesn't fit into the offense because when he touches the ball he only has the "drive" or "shoot" decision trees. He has to level up as a playmaker for his scoring to matter as part of a good offense. Drives have to have passing counters. The Rockets were happy to let him loose every now and then in the regular season, but he wasn't a serious enough player yet to be part of the playoff rotation.

[spaceman_E]

What about Dillon Jones, he’s beefy.

I'm not expecting much from Jones. He just doesn't really have a position in this league. He can't shoot.

The Dawkins belief is that you can teach a guy to shoot.

OKC just won a title, I'm curious who you think they taught to shoot?

[spaceman_E]

A poster said this about Whitmore on the GB, and I wholeheartedly agreed with the post. This is what he is to a tee:

Whitmore is a complicated piece. I loved him in the draft and thought of him as the SG version of Amar'e Stoudemire: unstoppable athlete with nice jump shot counter.

However, the NBA is different now, and guys who can't pass or create are harder to fit into lineups. Whitemore can score, but he doesn't fit into the offense because when he touches the ball he only has the "drive" or "shoot" decision trees. He has to level up as a playmaker for his scoring to matter as part of a good offense. Drives have to have passing counters. The Rockets were happy to let him loose every now and then in the regular season, but he wasn't a serious enough player yet to be part of the playoff rotation.

isn't that better to have from our SF than from our PG or #6 pick?

[PaulinVA]

Read on Twitter

[payitforward]

As I've written, Cam hasn't played well so far in just over 1700 total minutes. It's a fact.

But, he hasn't been awful either. & no one questions his talent or potential.

& he just turned 21 today!
An absolutely great trade!

[Kanyewest]

The league can be inhospitable to iso gunners who aren't good enough at scoring to justify their one-dimensional game and/or lack of positional size.

Glen Rice Jr looked great in summer league and garbage minutes, but he wasn't good enough to be an automatic bucket against rotation players, and the rest of his game didn't pick up the slack.

It's interesting that one-dimensional 6th man microwave scorers tend to be combo guards with just enough PG skills to initiate offense for a few minutes off the bench. Do microwave, high-usage bench wings / forwards last? The Q Rich / Bonzi Wells archetype might be obsolete. Michael Beasley couldn't make it work, for example.

If that's true, then Cam either needs to elite enough at scoring to justify being a black hole starter, or he needs to round out his game to be a third option starter / solid bench contributor.

Glen RIce Jr.'s numbers were much worse. Only a 37 TS% in a 16 game career along with having more turnover than assists in that span.

[closg00]

Funny thing is…I’m thinking Cam may be the player we’ll WANT to have the ball in his hands attacking the basket, especially given that are two of our top young guards, Bub and Tre, aren’t especially known for their ability to get to the rim.

We’ll probably be shouting…”Don’t pass the ball Cam, get to the basket!”

Now that you mention it, the spacing wasn't great in Houston. We have Bub, Tre and Sarr shooting 3s. That might make it easier for him to get to the rim.

We now have two legit crunch-time bucket getters in Cam and Tre, AJ attacks the rim as-well so there are some pretty intriguing lineup possibilities and offensive sets that can be run.

[Frichuela]

Funny thing is…I’m thinking Cam may be the player we’ll WANT to have the ball in his hands attacking the basket, especially given that are two of our top young guards, Bub and Tre, aren’t especially known for their ability to get to the rim.

We’ll probably be shouting…”Don’t pass the ball Cam, get to the basket!”

Now that you mention it, the spacing wasn't great in Houston. We have Bub, Tre and Sarr shooting 3s. That might make it easier for him to get to the rim.

We now have two legit crunch-time bucket getters in Cam and Tre, AJ attacks the rim as-well so there are some pretty intriguing lineup possibilities and offensive sets that can be run.

Hear hear! Keef has his worth cut out though, big glut at the wing position unless we trade Kispert plus potentially Middleton.

[Northwest Roddy]

In retrospect, trading Poole is looking better and better. Thank you Norleans