Being one dimensional on offense isn't a problem if you are consistent and efficient. Cam year 3: 24.4pts 55.8% TS. Booker year 3: 24.9pts 56.1%. Not saying he'll be as good as Book but he's going to be very very good. His perimeter defense has improved this season i wouldn't say Jalen is a better defender than him atm. About fit again i dunno Jalen and FVV is already a bad fit Cam FVV wouldn't be worse than that. I agree that Sengun would probably miss his chemistry with Jalen but i couldn't care less about Sengun-Jalen bromance on the court if we are getting a reliable 25ppg shooting guard. He takes too many shots because he believes that he can make them and i understand that. I'd be okay with Sengun's usage to drop if we had a guy like him.
I'm hoping Jalen can develop because the IDEA of what Jalen is supposed to be is a much better fit with the team than Cam (Thomas) I keep getting confused in this thread because we're jumping back and forth between talking about Cam Thomas and Cam Whitmore I may be wrong in saying this, but I truly believe that if our Cam can touch some of his potential, he's going going to be just as deadly of a scorer as Cam Thomas is right now.
I am holding my breath that DD is going to tell us he has changed his opinion for the first time in CF history.
I may be wrong ..... but wasn't the idea of Jalen being a 3 level scorer? A walking bucket? Jalen is starting to remind me of the wizard of oz characters .... The Tin Woodman - if only I had a heart, the Scarecrow - if only I had a brain, The Cowardly Lion - if only I had courage .... Jalen Green - If only I could shoot. If Jalen could simply make shots, we wouldn't have 10 threads complaining about him. As for Whitmore - He appears to have that mental edge, killer instinct that we were all led to believe Jalen had pre-draft that had people comparing him to Kobe, at least on the offensive end. Whitmore goes to the rack with bad intentions and has the size / strength / length to make good things happen there. People complaining about his shot selection but when you watch these RGV games, a lot of those shots are good ones, he's attacking the rim & taking open 3's in the flow of the offense. Yeah, there's a few headscratchers thrown in but overall, he's doing what you want to see him do as a 2 guard. He's shooting .495 / .417 / .821. with an Efg of .600 and TS% of .647. That's as close to 50/40/xx as you can get. The shooting should translate even if the volume doesn't, and the numbers suggest he's taking (and making) good shots. I would like to see him have that same mentality on the defensive end too.... taking on those defensive challenges.
Then I'm definitely hoping for a fairytale ending! But yes, I'm loving what I'm seeing from Cam Whitmore in the G-League so far, the difference between him and Cam Thomas is that for me, his ceiling is higher. While he's not as polished as the other Cam right now, he's just bigger. He's a physical freak and while he might not have the savvyness that we want yet, he's literally 19, and will be until the end of the season. I'm very very curious to see how he develops
Ok, I saw Cam Whitmore play against the Austin Spurs a few weeks ago. I was going to go the game this past weekend but was unable to make it. Here are my thoughts (I never got around to posting them before): 1) This is G league. Recognize this is a watered down league where stats tell you little. Putting up big stats means you might be an okay NBA player. Putting up bad stats probably means you're not an NBA player. 2) I first saw that Cam was making an effort to pass and not ballhog. It looked like he knew this was what they wanted to see and was implementing it. And he looked fine doing that. There were some flashy assists and some normal good passes. 3) He likes the walk up 3 point shot, kind of like FVV. And he makes a lot of them in G league. Remember, the defense in G league is suspect, but Cam seemed to have a quick release and a lot of confidence. Again, he made most of these shots. 4) I don't remember a lot of Cam driving. I think he was deliberately trying to pass more and not take it in as often as he could. Much of G league is isoball/heroball. 5) Samuels looked like a man among boys. When he wanted to get a rebound or go inside to score he was hard to stop. 6) Jarrett Culver looked pretty good, too. I recognized his name as a former Texas Tech player. He looked like he could help an NBA squad potentially. But we have no room for him. (And is he better than Nate Williams?) 7) The Spurs have a player that also is NBA level. Is it Barlow? You can tell the dividing line between "mediocre G leaguer" "goodG leaguer" and "great G leaguer" from watching for a few minutes. He was really hard to stop. 8) MINDBLOWN: Did you know the G league shoots one 2 point free throw instead of 2 one pointers? I didn't realize this until partway through the game. It makes free throws that much more important, you can't go miss one and make one. And it speeds up the game A LOT. A three point foul is ONE THREE POINT FREE THROW. It's very weird. I don't think they could ever bring this full-time to the league.
Start Cam, bring Amen in as backup and let Jalen ride the pine a few weeks and see what that does to his shooting efficiency. Can't hurt it.
Rockets said they were trying to trade up to get Cam when he slid, and had at one point considered him at 5. I say this because I think they believe in him and its apparent to me that Ime had quite a bit of input with regards to roster construction. Right now, there just simply isnt room in the rotation for Cam. But Cam is an Ime guy (so is Amen) and I think there will be a trade at some point th that opens up consistent playing time for Cam.
Cam today vs MEMPHIS HUSTLE 10-21 (28pts) 6 rebounds 3 assists 3 TO's https://gleague.nba.com/game/rgv-vs-mhu-2052300228?view=box-score
Yup! Also keep in mind Cam's getting 35-40 minutes in most of these games and playing on the fastest-paced team in the G-League. Cam had some crazy passes early in the season, but either he decided himself to tone those down or he's been told to tone them down. I'd say a few were never going to be successful in the NBA, but I was shocked he'd even try to make them. lol. He does fire off a behind-the-back one every so often. The walk-up 3 is predicated on him actually bringing the ball up the court which seems to change from game to game. There are games where he's bringing the ball up the court a lot and others not so much. Cam has been doing a lot of the bringing the ball up the court with Lecque out (although he's back in the lineup now). It varies, though, so I don't know if they're just using him as help while Lecque was out. Whether he's bringing the ball up the court or not, he's got the green light to jack up shots and he isn't shy about shooting the 3 whether it's a step-back, a walk-up, etc. When the competition got a bit stiffer with the Rockets, I saw him fumble balls and get stripped on drives. In the G-League I still see him drive, but only if he's got a good path to the rim. Before, he would just try to take it through defenses and jam on people. Even in the G-League, I've seen him get stripped of the ball or fumble it away on those drives. There are times when there's a lone defender in the paint, but outside or very close to the restricted line, he'll still try to jam it on them. Fun to watch, but I think he's gotten called for an offensive foul once or twice on these drives. He's still learning. Samuels, Culver, and possibly Hinton are their 3 best players. Culver's got some nice game, but I don't know if it will translate to the NBA until he can hit the 3, which he hasn't been. Samuels is having a good season - arguably the 2nd best on the team. He gets a lot of his points through hustle. But we've kind of seen what he can do in the NBA, and while he's a really good G-League player... yeah. Same as Culver, if he could hit the 3. Hinton reminds me of a Tari Eason-very-light. lol. He's all hustle which sometimes translates to good things and other times not. He's also missing a consistent jumper. Dominick Barlow came out of OTE and then went undrafted. He was a top-50 or top-100 player in the nation out of high school, but I don't think he was anything like a top-10 player. He's another one of those who does put up some good numbers down there while also getting a ton of minutes. I haven't watched him much there, though, but I know he seemed kind of light to be playing the 4 or 5 in the NBA - I don't know if if that's changed. That's actually been a thing in the G-League for a while - at least 2 or 3 years, I think. They do revert to the multiple free throws during the final 2 minutes, however. They test a lot of possible NBA rules changes down there to see how things may work out. The 14-second shot clock was tested there before it came to the NBA (it went from FIBA to the G-League, then I think the WNBA? before it came to the NBA).
Jalen. Hope you're paying attention! If Cam fixes his issues before you fix yours it might be a problem....
