Cam Whitmore traded to Wizards for 2 2nd round picks

We can cut Nate with no repercussions? That makes me pretty happy, really dislike the way he plays.

 

They should have traded him last year when they realized his attitude in practice and on the sidelines wasn’t good. They probably could have received a first-round pick. Oh well — I trust our coaching staff. I’m very sure that if Cam was producing in practice, then Ime would have found minutes for him, just like he did with our double-big lineup. The truth is, he was likely making the same mistakes — and showing the same attitude — in practice that we saw during live games.

 

There's confidence and then there's overconfidence. Cam had the latter. He was a black hole on offense and refused to get better on defense. I think he will be successful as he matures on a tanking team, I'm just bitter at the return we got for him and why Stone even bothered drafting him, should've picked another player with similar skillsets to Tari.

Ime is in charge of the reigns for the foreseeable future so all players need to fall in line or get booted from the team.

It's a rare thing in today's league when the coach has more say than the players, it seems to only happen to well run teams though.

 

Will Whitmore even have playing time on the Wizards?

 

Addition by subtraction!


He gets his KPJ opportunity now. There won’t be any Cam Whitmore fans only out there, as he wasn’t a first round pick. He was a trash bin pickup reclamation project, that only cost them two 2nd round picks.

The dude was so frustrated with the rockets that even in garbage time, he made sure to maximize his shots. If the ball ended up in his hands he shot it. It was a running joke, will he even pass the ball and 90% of the time it seems he took the shot. Probably frustrating coach Ime to no end.

 

Worst player in Rockets history…..can’t believe he’s slotted as the main SG backup right now. If this doesn’t change this whole offseason goes from great to absolute disaster. Williams is awful…zero passing and outside shooting skills and thinks he’s Kobe Bryant, except he shoots more and misses everything but layups (and often misses those too when covered).

 

I hate these back and forth type of chats where people attack and it’s why I left for two years but I’ll humor you. Stone was not involved intimately in the basketball ops portion of the FO until right before the Tilman purchase. He got his position because he was the Fertita’s guide to navigating the purchase. He was purely legal counsel for about a decade. If you ignore that portion of the situation, The Rockets had largely been drafting late in the first round if they even had a pick. The chance of a top 5 pick hadn’t happened since the early 2000s. The last pick not in the later half of the lottery was the Rudy Gay trade in 2006 at pick 8. The front office and scouting was severely understaffed at the start of the Tilman era. I promise I don’t just throw **** at the wall and hope it sticks. The front office now is a well oiled machine and I promise they would do those first two drafts differently in both approach and outcome.

Witus saved everything by determining Sengun was a star in hiding and the team did everything to make that hard for Sengun to achieve. Never forget Bruno Fernando taking his minutes

 

It's probably especially hard to believe because it's not true.

 

Doubt it because coach kept running Nate Williams out there who literally never passed and wasn’t 1/4 the player Cam. It’s all about defense and attitude. At this rate we’re going to be in a lot of 82-78 final score games. Ime has what he wants which is a slow half court all defensive team with no offense except 37 year old Durant. We went from fun and electric to slow and methodic. We may win a couple more games, but the loss of Slam Whitmore for boring guys like Natheeen will not be as fun for the fans.

 

They had to get rid of him realistically, but the return to talent ratio really sucks. You knew it would go down this way, but it still stings. He could lead them in scoring this year and it wouldn't surprise me, it's the rest of his game that he needs to develop, and he can do it, but he hasn't really shown a willingness and that's why he's gone. I absolutely hate this trade, but it had to happen. No way it was going to work here under the circumstances.

 

Love the Yahoo Sports headline today:
“Rockets get fleeced by the Wizards in shocking trade”
Sad return for a 20 year old player with huge upside that everyone sees except Stone/Ime. Why not waive Williams and Not resign 39 year old Jeff Green (as we have a bunch of forwards)?

 

The worst part is people thinking this was a good idea to give KPJ a vertical threat.

 

Guess I don’t agree. With the loss of Jalen Green, Cam could have been a 25-30 minute backup at shooting guard. He would have put up 18-20 ppg in that role if not more. Instead we have elevated Natheen Williams (who royally sucks) to that role. He will average 6-8 points per game on 15-20 shots if he plays the way he did the last season. Nate used to be a favorite of mine when he first became a Rocket and then turned into an absolute gun in summer league and that worsened last season. He truly thinks he’s Kobe Bryant to a point of it being funny, but also very sad because he is extremely limited talent wise (defense and layups only strength).

 

Same headline says the deal was "lobsided" -- and why do you find it weird that two of the people who have most closely observed Cam for the last two years see something in him that you can't see just from watching a handful of games in which he's playing only a few minutes, if at all? What are you, some superscout?

 

Cam was never going to play 25-30 minutes under Ime Udoka. Never. Nate Williams probably won't get any rotation minutes either by the way.

The rotation will look something like this:

Backcourt
Fred VanVleet
Amen Thompson
Reed Sheppard
Aaron Holiday (part-time/in case of injury, unless Reed sucks hard to start the season again)

Forwards
Kevin Durant
Jabari Smith Jr
Tari Eason
Dorian Finney-Smith
Jae'Sean Tate (only if there are injuries)

Centers
Alperen Sengun
Steven Adams (probably not on B2Bs)
Clint Capela (situationally/when Adams has to sit)

Cam probably wouldn't even have cracked this rotation full-time if he had stayed. Nate Williams definitely won't unless we get hit by a ton of injuries (knock on wood).

 

It doesn’t take a superscout to see this 20 year old has loads of talent/upside. Certainly worth more than 2 meaningless second round picks. Those same two people you are referring too think that Jeenathan Williams is a better player and that should tell you everything you need to know as it took me only five minutes of watching him play last year to tell that he royally sucked. Enjoy him as the main backup SG this year and starter when/if injury occurs to Amen. Would rather have had an offensive punch off the bench like point per minute Slam Whitmore!!!

 

What an awful trade for the Rockets. They gave up a great young talent for practically nothing. They should have gotten at least a first rounder.

 

I'm seeing some posts on Cam's issues being due to Reed or something. Just want to set the record clear that Reed and Cam had absolutely nothing to do with each other's minutes last year. Reed was backing up FVV and was taking minutes from Aaron Holiday, not Cam. Cam was never coming in for FVV in any substitution pattern. Cam was getting minutes to begin the year as a backup wing, except he shot horribly and kept shooting to the point where everyone can see he needed to be benched. He also got consistent backup minutes for a good stretch of the season before leaving the rotation, all while Reed was getting yanked left and right by Ime before being permanently benched for Holiday.

I've always been high on Cam myself and always felt like the talent was clearly there, and he really just needed to mature. Too bad his development cant' coincide with the Rockets trying to win now.

 

Orem, thanks for a good reply! Are you happy with that guard rotation? Reed was not good last year and we are all assuming he can handle the main backup role. He improved a bit as the season progressed, but was awful on defense at the end of the year. He was getting posted up by taller players and didn’t do well….even Amen made him look bad at all star rookie game by posting him up. He’s a work in progress, but would rather not have to put so much pressure after rough rookie year to hold up our guard bench.

 

In all likelihood, Williams behaved in practice the way Ime expects a reserve to act. And from reports, Cam didn't.

This trade was more about team and culture than it was about talent. There's a reason someone as immensely talented offensively as Michael Beasley played for 7 different teams in 11 years (8 if you count Miami twice), barely started after age 22, and was out of the league by 30. I'm not saying Cam is as selfish as Beasley, but he's also nowhere near the offensive threat Beasley was.

Ime wants a team-first, winning culture here, and Stone/Fertitta have given him the green light to build one.