Good, see how he handles it. If he starts to pout, that’s all we need to know. If he takes it as an opportunity to show he can play a team game and work hard on defense then we might still have use for him later.
If Cam reverts to last year's form and makes a complete joke of G-League, then this might be a successful move by the Rockets to jumpstart him back into last year's form. However, if he doesn't shred G-League this time around, Cam has regressed. Summer league was the first indication. The main thing he has to fix is the 3-pt shot. Without it, he's not an NBA rotation player except maybe on a bottom-feeder.
That's a strange assumption. The Pistons, who have essentially been rebuilding for the same amount of time as the Rockets, are still a bottom feeder team. It should piss him off. His reaction to that is what will get him back here and back in the rotation. He has the talent.
Good, he needs it. He's still young enough to turn things around but he's completely missing the part of the game between the ears.
I can't find his high school records. His college shooting stats weren't very impressive. Last year, he hit lots of shots right out of the gate and people thought he was a great shooter with superstar potential. But the second half of the season pretty much dropped him back to the mean. I think his talent is getting to the rim and finish. If he works on his shooting and learn to read the court better, he can be a very good offensive player. If not, he is just a homeless man's Giannis.
Last season, he was 40% pre all-star, and 30% post all-star from 3. He did shoot much better in his last 8 games (35.6%), but there are clear signals of a bad shooter (67.8% free throw shooter last season, and 66.7% this season so far). Suffice to say however, that the Rockets do not have good experiences with players that shoot 3s well, but shoot free throws poorly. Not many of these types of players exist in the league, but the Rockets had two of them at one point (KPJ and Christian Wood), and the results with these two guys were not all that promising.
I forgot that he looked bad in the summer league, which is a horrific sign given it's summer league. Jabari Smith Jr looked like the 2nd coming when he played summer league entering his 2nd season.
I just don't know what the Rockets can do to break Whitmore of his AAU mindset. I'm not in the office, but the team has to have talked with him about his extreme tunnel vision. He doesn't seem to know how to incorporate himself into a team offense, so unless hes white hot hes usually a negative. I'm not sure letting him go crazy in the valley will help that. Maybe give him some kind of necessary pass/assist quota like a video game. He's such a physical specimen, and has an extremely high ceiling. But Udoka has made it clear we're about winning and not on the job training if you're hurting the team.
This will be good for Cam. He will get minutes this year. Injuries and slumps happen on every team. He will get his opportunity. This time in the G League will pay dividends.
Cam needs 10 or 15 games on the wing, where he's the #1 wing defender and offensive option to get himself going. For whatever reason, he didn't look locked in when he showed up to summer league. It might be the first time this game didn't come easy to him. The consistent playing time will do him good.
I can see Cam becoming a problem. He's one of the highest ceiling players I can remember in a while, but his game is ridiculously immature. He doesn't seem to have grown any from the guy he was a year ago. He can be a superstar if he ever puts it all together.
One concern of mine even going back to media day was his response to the question about how his first off-season was. While most of the guys on our team (and I’m sure in the league) talk about working on something (handles, shooting, getting stronger,etc.), Cam said lots of vacation, took some time off away from basketball, lots of family and friends… etc. I get it. These guys have a long season and he talked about how his body broke down a bit during the season. They definitely need some time off and some R&R. But, if even just for optics, you would’ve liked for him to have stated that he worked on __________. Seeing him so far this season (yes, small sample size), it seems like he just vacationed and relaxed. Gotta be hungry to improve your game, especially year 1 to 2. He’s got the physical gifts. I just hope the mental aspect doesn’t let him down, or I hope he can surround himself with people who can help him mature as a person. He’s extremely young, but his body language and attitude seem off, at times. Compare his body language with Reed’s for instance. Hopefully this G league pushes and motivates him, and doesn’t cause him to shut down.
The 3 and D is missing along with playing together instead of Rim and Dunk. As a SG/SF knowing how to play pick roll with a Center. Cam just botches the Pick and Roll everytime with Alperen causing a turnover, then a fast break points. Lack of Hustle on defense, can't switch in pick and rolls, Cam gets lost on defense. So much talent, but between Amen/Tari on defense compared to Cam. It is a huge difference. Even Jalen Green defense is way better this year, getting steals, playing better pick and roll defense, on offense Jalen Green is good in pick and roll with Alperen. His 3 point shot has improved due to balance from waist down, sitting and jumping to his shot.
