He played 14 matches, made only 3 assists, yes he plays like a finisher, not a creator, but 3 assists are very few, Udoka is a good coach but he has no mercy, Cam should improve himself in every field, if Alperen or Fred are not selfish, he shouldn't be doing it either.
I don't get this constant knit picking about his passing/assists. The Rockets struggle to score, period. It seems quite obvious to me that the directive when he's on the court is to shoot first. If (when) he is the starting SG on this team playing with the others regularly, I'm sure you'd see more passing.
It is insane how well setup this team is for the future between Sengun and Whitemore, considering how much they have botched their top 4 picks (Jalen. TBD on Amen. Happy with Jabari but nowhere close to a star.)
This is exactly his MO from college and I'm not surprised in the least. It's the one thing that really concerns me about him. If he were even a below-average passer/court vision guy I would have had him tied with the Thompson twins coming into the draft. He's not that... he's one of the least-willing passers I've seen come out of the draft. Shrug. I still like him a lot as a prospect. We'll see how things turn out. At least he's still very young.
MJ averaged 5.9 assists his rookie season. Kobe is a closer comparison, having averaged only 1.3--but that's still over 4x as many as Cam who is currently averaging 0.3. I stand by my statement--Whitmore is unusually, extraordinarily bad at involving his teammates. Doesn't mean he can't improve, but it is a consistent, sustained pattern of his young career. And it worries me.
Number 1 options are there to score the ball first as long as he is efficient at that, he will be fine. DD
At a bare minimum, you have to be able to pass out of the double team. Since you cited MJ, he was never able to win anything with the "I have to do it all" mindset. He didn't start winning rings until he intentionally stepped back and started involving his teammates. It was actually the same for Hakeem--he had to learn to trust his teammates and start passing a bit more before he had real success. Black holes don't work on offense, and they never have. You need to have a minimum level of competence for passing, no matter how gifted you are as a scorer. Cam is only 19, so there is plenty of time to evolve that capability. But make no mistake, it is a serious flaw in his game right now.
From what I heard - The coaches have told Cam "You have half a second to decide - shoot, drive, pass." Most of the shots he takes are within the flow of the offense .... often the plays are designed to get him that look and he takes them. Sure, there have been a few headscratchers but for a rookie, I'm not complaining about a dude shooting ~.400 from 3, .500 overall with a .590 efg - though he could do better than .667 from the FT line. Cam is literally shooting as well from 3 point land as Jalen Green is from the floor (.401) I know a lot of this game against the Celtics was garbage time - Is this the first time Cam (28) got more minutes than Jalen (20)? I'd like to see this become a trend
oh I agree, Hakeem tried to do it all too.....it just takes a while to learn to trust your teamates. DD
That's why he needs to play some minutes with starters to help curb that. Then in games like to tonight when he is the "alpha" on the floor he can revert some to his tendencies but hopefully incorporate some of what he is learning.
Cam isn’t selfish. He’s not on the floor to generate assists and be a playmaker. He’s on the floor to score. Hes doing his job and doing it at a high level. Higher than most of you ever expected at this stage of the season and career. Folks really need to stop crying about this passing assist obsession. That’s not his role. Dudes already a better scorer at all 3 levels than the soon to be 22 year old starting guard next to FVV. While cam is 19. Let that sink in
Absolutely. I hope this game is the straw that broke the camels back for Jalen as the starter, it showed Cam is better equipped physically and mentally to play with the big boys.
