If they are shopping him, then it's really stupid to tell everyone, "Hey we're willing to trade Cam Whitmore! Just bring us your best offer, yeah we're trading him alright."
This is why I think it was teams calling during the draft FOR Cam.....etc. And this is lazy reporting for attention. DD
Not really? Normally when there's a major disconnect between player and organization as there appears to be here, both parties move on. That's just business, that's life. Cam is not well-suited to the Rockets' current needs. He's too inconsistent in his play and has too much ambition for a small bench role. And vice-versa--our organization is a bad fit for Cam, because we're trying to build chemistry and make a deep playoff run and we can't expend valuable minutes on an unreliable young player experiencing significant growing pains. Both parties will be better off if he goes to another team in exchange for a reliable, steady bench player, or perhaps as part of a larger deal to upgrade a starting position. I wouldn't give him up for nothing, but as long as we're getting real value back above and beyond just some second round picks, it's time to move on.
I would be surprised to see the rockets trade Cam this offseason unless they're getting a starter level player or future assets back. Stone seems to have a relatively patient approach to young players. He'd much rather sell low on a player that didn't pan out than have a Halliburton type debacle.
Rockets need a SG who can take and make 3s ... and if needed drive into the lane, get contact and make a shot. JG4 got a ton of minutes, while playing absolutely no D during Ime's first season. There has to be more than an effort on D thing going on here.
It's not just the defense, it's decisionmaking on offense. Cam is incredibly predictable and when he touches the ball, any semblance of an orchestrated team offense falls apart. He is not, at least at this time, good enough at creating his own offense to play the way he does. And even if he gets better and more consistent as a 1-on-1 scorer, he will be easily trapped by the double team because he has poor court vision/basketball IQ. He's just not ready to play consistent rotation minutes on a contending team, on either end of the floor.
This should have been the end of the thread - unless he makes a hell of showing at summer league (which will he even play at summer league??) he will start the season as a Rocket
I can’t remember Shams missing in a very longtime. Many called him out when he said Jimmy Butler wanted out. What happened? Dude has very good sources.
There is a rumor a Prospect fell in the draft because he was bad in interviews and he was smoking during the draft workout. Cam Whitmore seems like that player.
I think they need Cam. They just traded Jalen and despite what most think about him, he was our leading scorer last yr and he played all 82 games. Now, you take away him, Brooks and there's talk of trading Cam and all you've added was a 37yr old player. SMH
I see your defense, I raise you a "Jalen Green" riposte...His big games make Cam look like a scrub, and look how that turned out.
Bilal Coulibaly of the Wizards can play defense and has a better IQ on Offense. I wish the Rockets can get him.
So your logic is that if we don't want to trade him we tell everybody we do. And you think that makes more sense than telling people we do want to trade him because you do? Flip your bizarro take, do we tell everybody he's absolutely not available and then expect people to plan to trade for him? Not everything is a conspiracy, sometimes just look at what's in front of you rather than jumping at shadows all the time, it's super weird.
Houston Rockets Trade Breakdown Change in Team Outlook: +0.3 ppg, -3.4 rpg, and +0.1 apg. Incoming Players Cameron Johnson 29 year old, 6-8, 210 lb G from North Carolina 18.8 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 3.4 apg in 31.6 minutes in 2024-2025 Outgoing Players Reed Sheppard 21 year old, 6-2, 185 lb G from Kentucky 4.4 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 1.4 apg in 12.6 minutes in 2024-2025 Jock Landale 29 year old, 6-11, 255 lb C from Saint Mary's 4.8 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 0.9 apg in 11.9 minutes in 2024-2025 Cam Whitmore 20 year old, 6-7, 230 lb F from Villanova 9.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.0 apg in 16.2 minutes in 2024-2025
If we were to trade Cam... I'd call Detriot and offer him for Ausar Thompson. I'll add one of those Suns first round picks too if needed.
Sometimes the FO is gonna do things we disagree with. It happens.[/QUOTE] Shams didn't say anything about any sources etc....he was asked if the Rockets were done trading and he SPECULATED that they might not be that they still had assets like Cam Whitmore that teams are interested in..... Nothing else. Stone wouldn't show his cards to anyone, remember when Jackson asked about Jalen Green's efficiency and Stone leapt to his defense.....Stone won't say anything publicly to anyone and the Rox are a tight lipped ship....this is all noise probably from teams calling about trading FOR Cam and being rejected because Stone asked for the moon. DD
Strictly from an asset management perspective, if the Rockets want to maximize Cam's trade value, converting him into a future protected first rounder during the summer makes a lot of sense to me. First of all, as you said, the team receiving Cam has to actually value him as a significant asset. I am extremely skeptical he has a huge market. We know a good portion of the league had medical concerns during the draft that caused him to slip, so he's a non-starter for a decent number of teams. It also says something when the team who took a chance on him, and has a reasonably well regarded front office and coach can't find minutes for him. It's one thing to try and trade with the Pelicans and assume that a young prospect like Dyson Daniels has been misevaluated/miscoached, it's another to doubt Udoka/Stone/Witus, especially after he's had two full years here. His contract is also a factor; any team acquiring him is going to need to sign him to an extension prior to the start of next season. If you hold onto him until December, you're essentially halving the amount of time the acquiring team has to evaluate him, and looking to integrate a very young player who thus far has not shown himself to be a fast processor into a brand new system and rotation. And I'm of the belief that players entering the final year of their rookie deal with no extension and RFA looming have severely depressed real trade value; cost certainty is a huge thing. The last piece here is that if you look at the Rockets current tradeable draft picks, they have a bit of a hole in mid-level, immediate impact assets. They have their '28 pick, which is likely to be of fairly low value if the team is a contender, and they have the 2027 and 2029 swaps with BKN/DAL, that they probably want to keep either to package for a superstar, or to have available in 2029-2030 when they will need to cut salary and drop below the second apron to prevent repeater penalties (assuming they will start paying the tax in 2026-2027 and avoid it this year). If you wanted to pick up someone like Dillon Brooks to round out your rotation at the trade deadline, you simply don't have a great match in draft picks to compete with other interested teams. You're either way underpaying or way overpaying. A protected first rounder that might reasonably be expected to land #18 - #24, even if you never expect that player to make your own rotation, is likely a better chip for most teams than Cam. Terrence Williams would be my historical comp for such a move; the Nets got off him fairly early for a future protected pick from a mediocre pre-Harden Rockets team. They eventually were able to use that protected pick to acquire Joe Johnson years later, turning a young prospect they didn't want to give time to into a fungible future asset.
