Whitmore is looking lean and mean. His passing and court awareness seems to have improved as well. He's definitely putting in work.
I still have doubts about Cam's upside. IMO, these two SL games aren't much more than when he blew up G-League last year. I must admit he did demonstrate a bit more court awareness. For NBA games, he really needs that 3-point jumper to fall.
His 3-pt % dropped off late in the season. That is what I'm referring to. If he can keep it above 40% like in his first 15-20 games, watch out.
Cam should continue to play in SL. He and Reed need to continue to develop their chemistry plus he is on track to win that SL MVP again.
Nah. Shut 'em both down. We've seen enough and we don't want any injuries before training camp. Besides, we need to feature Jeenathan from here on out.
Honestly haven't loved what I've seen from Cam offensively. We already knew he was explosive, although his cutting has looked a little improved. It still feels like he makes up his mind that he's shooting on some possessions, and nothing will change it save for maybe an emergency late pass. There were a couple of possessions where he drew the attention and had an easy pass out to a shooter and didn't make it, he just charged into traffic. He does occasionally flash good passing skills, but even those feel pre determined. It's like he has an on/off switch for scoring/passing and can't/won't adjust to what the defense actually does. He can still be a good player in the league playing that way, but he won't be close to a star.
What I am liking the most is that his attitude and demeanor seems much improved. he's helping players off the ground, he's getting hype for his rando teammates. Something you didn't see a lot last year.
Cam started slowly in both these games, but his overall awareness has been a lot better this year than in last year's SL campaign. We all remember that Whitmore was a bit of a wildcard last summer. He had been working on his jumper throughout the draft practice process and was eager to prove people wrong and show his range. This summer, his jumper hasn't been there because he's been putting in the work in other areas. I'm sure the coaches preach to Cam, "Take what the D gives you." The problem is that a big part of his game is scoring through contact. There's a fine there and he still has to figure out when to make the simple pass rather than just drawing contact. He's 20 years old and quicker than most guys on the court. That's going to take some time. RS is always looking out for Cam, which is why we're noticing all this chemistry. Once Cam starts looking for Reed, the league better watch out. Obviously, Cam and RS are our "bench brigade" for next year, but they could easily be our backcourt of the future.
Yeah the awareness is the biggest thing for him and he seems to have made a conscious effort to improve. I mean he still gets tunnel vision but it's a work in progress. Certainly hasn't gone the 2nd year Jaygup route
Even coming into the league I feel Jaylen Brown is his highest upside outcome. I personally think that's a star, although based on last year's trade threads I don't think most people here think of him as one. But that's still a really good player and a top-3 guy on a championship team. I think his offensive game is more or less set and only gonna be marginal improvements from here. So the defense will have to be what really gets him to that max extension in a few years.
I’ve been on the Cam Whitmore train since before the draft and I remember creating a post drunkenly around pick 15 of the 2023 draft for us to move up and get him. I am super excited about him. He is young and the potential is insane. all of that being said, he really has to make the mental adjustment to playing basketball a different way. I get that he had a more urgent greenlight being the king of Summer league, but I am really hoping he embraces more of a role player mentality during his regular season rotation minutes. He has a lot of gravity, and there are often passes there to be made.
Maybe Cam just isn’t a good 3pt shooter that we think he is? His college average is 34.3%. Last year it was 35.4%, despite been hot for a while earlier in the year.
If Cam isn't a good 3-point shooter, his ceiling is not very high. Even with his 3-point shot falling, he's an off-the-bench, off-ball role player. Without it, he's a dime-a-dozen great athlete with very little offensive game.
Yeah if hes not very useful if he can't consistently be a good catch and shoot 3 point shooter. He did well last year precisely because he hit them at a good clip for a while. Can't really imagine him being the focal point of an offense. He's a scrappy spark off the bench
It's incredible how quickly DD being your biggest fan will take you from "Jalen's replacement" to "scrappy spark off the bench" in less than a week...
